Girlfight

Diana Guzman is eighteen and at school in Brooklyn. She is angry, gets into fights, and is close to being expelled. Her father sends her younger brother to a boxing gym; he does not want to go, and Diana wants to stay the moment she walks in. The trainer refuses at first. Then they start work. Karyn Kusama writes and directs, in her first feature. Michelle Rodriguez plays Diana, in her first film. Rodriguez got the part in an open casting call, chosen from hundreds, and trained in boxing for months. The result is a physical credibility rare in films of this kind. What sets it apart is refusing to make boxing a story of redemption. Diana does not become a better person through it; the anger does not go away, and the film does not present that as a problem. The obstacle she faces is not talent but the right to be in the ring as a woman. John Sayles is among the producers; it is one of the independent productions he backed. It shared the grand jury prize at Sundance and won the directing award. Kusama went on to make Jennifer's Body and Destroyer, and this first film is where that line begins. Who it is for: viewers who like sports drama and American independent cinema. Who it is not for: the romance does not sit well in the film and the bouts are limited. If you came for boxing action there is not much.