A bit of a lightweight.
Comment
08/01/08
Girlfight (2000)
88 %
Reviews Counted: 90 Fresh: 79 Rotten:11 Average Rating: 7.3/10
Consensus:
Michelle Rodriguez gives a compelling performance, despite lack of a boxing background; Karyn Kusama packs a punch with this directorial debut.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Synopsis: In GIRLFIGHT, Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez) is a tough high school girl with a violent streak. Between problems at school, a father who belittles her, and a lonely social life, she searches for some way to find respect, love, and challenge. Diana finds all those things in the boxing ring at... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Jamie Tirelli, Paul Calderon, Santiago Douglas
Reviews
Top Critic
Kusama's direction is imaginative, her attention to detail makes for credibility and clarity with regard to the dilemmas faced by her determined young heroine, and Rodriguez is quite astonishing in the lead role.
02/09/06
Top Critic
Top Critic
Much credit has to go to Rodriguez, Kusama's surly but charismatic lead.
01/01/00
Top Critic
It gives its fine actors room to breathe and behave -- and in Michelle Rodriguez's case, glow.
08/01/08
Top Critic
For once, the advance buzz has been amply justified, thanks to an extraordinarily charismatic film debut by a non-professional named Michelle Rodriguez.
04/27/07
For all the violence on view, Kusama's script insists on a real, wholly unsentimental tenderness.
03/26/07
It's a refreshingly straightforward and honest attempt, flying in the face of the rest of the product out there, which is either manipulating and dumb or tricky and arty.
05/26/06
It's obvious Kusama knew what she wanted and was in control, because all the key roles and scenes are played with a uniform tone and conviction.
07/21/05
It's sensitive, it avoids sentimentalism, and it wins our cheers by giving us believable characters that we care about.
12/06/04
A moving performance by newcomer Michelle Rodriguez showcases this moody Sundance showstopper about a Brooklyn teen who battles an age-old gender barrier.
05/14/03
The strength of this Romeo and gym-rat story is Rodriguez's performance. She is a vivid powder keg of repressed and resurrected dreams and desires.
10/10/02
Like a smart boxer, Girlfight knows when to be light on its feet and when to hit hard.
08/15/02
While it wonderfully confounds our narrative expectations as a coming-of-age story and a romantic drama, it works on another level as a great sporting experience.
06/18/02
The script is pure Rocky but the style is Girlz n' the Hood, and the two don't ever mesh.
03/19/02
First-time writer-director Karyn Kusama makes it seem believable (the big question is, how come someone with this much talent isn't getting more opportunities in Hollywood?).
10/19/01
An impressive debut, an enthralling story about an urban teen finding her place in life. And that place happens to be a boxing ring.
06/14/01
Rodriguez, taking punches as well as she dishes them out, is a champion whom women and men alike can cheer.
06/11/01
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