Michelle Rodriguez came out swinging in Karyn Kusama’s powerhouse Girlfight
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Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: The new directorial debuts The Broken Hearts Gallery and Antebellum have us thinking back on some of our favorite first features.
Girlfight (2000)
Michelle Rodriguez leads with her eyes. The defiant gaze that announces her presence in Karyn Kusama’s debut film, Girlfight, secured her a tough-girl reputation that she’s parlayed into steady supporting work in action blockbusters ever since. Franchises like The Fast And The Furious, Resident Evil, and Avatar have benefited from Rodriguez’s ability to believably throw a punch. But no film since Girlfight has given her the same opportunity for depth or nuance. It proved she was a real actress, not just a badass.
Girlfight was Rodriguez’s first speaking role. She stars as high school senior Diana Guzman, who doesn’t fit in anywhere. Not at school, where she is repelled by the performed femininity of other girls, and not at home, where her father, Sandro (Paul Calderón), alternately ignores or mocks her. But Diana has a code, and that’s to stand up for the underestimated and unwanted; she defends her friend (Elisa Bocanegra) after another girl sleeps with the guy she likes, and her younger brother, Tiny (Ray Santiago), when their father denigrates his art-school aspirations. She’s always willing to put up her fists to prove her loyalty.
It’s when Diana steps foot into the boxing gym where Tiny trains with fighter-turned-coach Hector Soto (Jaime Tirelli) that she begins to realize her anger could be an asset. Shallow-focus shots establish her loneliness—while being lectured by her principal or belittled by her father—but in the gym, Kusama’s perspective widens. A boxing ring fashioned out of a sagging mattress. Walls with more paint chipped off than still clinging on. Motivational slogans scrawled in marker on battered pieces of cardboard. The place needs some love, but it has purpose. Maybe Diana could find that, too.
Girlfight, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, announced Kusama’s alliance with the “difficult” woman. It’s an interest that’s played out across her whole filmography, a line of genre pictures that have experienced a pattern of reception—often disappointing critically or commercially upon initial release, before being reclaimed as cult favorites years later—that makes plain the uphill battle perpetually faced by women making movies about women. It was Æon Flux that laid the tracks for Charlize Theron’s reinvention as an action star, Jennifer’s Body that features Megan Fox’s most sly and self-aware performance, and Destroyer that rendered Nicole Kidman unrecognizably gritty. The common denominator in all those films—plus Kusama’s creepy cult-horror indie The Invitation—is female characters that refuse to take no for an answer.
Girlfight is the director’s first and purest tribute to feminine rebelliousness. Following Diana as she throws herself into training, the film hits the expected beats of an underdog sports movie. But Kusama sets her addition to the genre apart by thoughtfully considering how a young woman would navigate such a male-dominated world. It’s an uphill battle colored by the casual sexism that pervades everyday life, from a rival coach exasperatedly saying, “Boys are different from girls. What’s so wrong with saying that out loud?” to a match attendee assuming that Diana’s name is a misprint in the program. In practically every scene, Kusama pushes against gendered biases.
Her greatest asset is Rodriguez’s grounded performance, which moves among a variety of emotions—anger, resentment, disappointment, joy, pride—without ever feeling overwrought. The set of her jaw when Hector guides her through improving her footwork. The girlish grin that breaks out on her face during her first kiss with fellow fighter Adrian (Santiago Douglas). The matter-of-factness with which she describes to Marisol what draws her to the sport: “It’s like you’re all you’ve got. You’re all alone in there.” And, most memorably, the glare that returns once Diana steps into the boxing ring for her final fight—the same expression as the one she wears at the start, hinting at myriad frustrations whirling around in Diana’s head. But by the end, the look has a different meaning, intensified by her preparation, determination, and ability to finally do something with all her anger. Girlfight made a promise to investigate and empathize with outside-of-the-box perspectives like Diana’s. Two decades and several films later, Kusama has kept it.
Availability: Girlfight is streaming on Amazon and DirectTV with a STARZ premium subscription. It can also be rented or purchased through Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube, Microsoft, Redbox, DirectTV, and VUDU.
23 Comments
Kusama also directed the excellent finale to Halt And Catch Fire.I loved Jennifer’s Body, liked The Invitation, and thought Destroyer was okay. Never seen this one – I’m skeptical of Rodriguez’s ability to carry a whole film, but maybe it’s unfair to judge her solely from the Fast/Furious movies .
It’s honestly a great film. And Rodriguez carries it perfectly. I was really surprised that she never really made to leading role status.
She got pigeonholed fairly quickly and never really got that worthy leading project on a more mainstream scale than “Girlfight” that showed all the things she can bring to a role.
It’s a shame. I mean, I love seeing her show up in anything. But it would be great to see her star in something again.
Girlfight plays entirely to Rodriguez’s strengths.
“Tough broad who don’t take no shit frum nobuddy” playing “Tough broad who don’t take no shit frum nobuddy”?
Sprinkle in a little simmering rage, some quiet introspection, and a dash of almost feline physicality. It’s a simple recipe, but it works.
Doesn’t sound that simple, but maybe you’re a more subtle chef than I am.
Rodriguez was rightfully launched into F&F blockbuster fame from this movie alone. Before those movies and pretty much the rest of her resume asked her to play the simple notes she can play in her sleep, she showed actual full-on versatility here. It was just a sensational breakthrough for me as America Ferrera in “Real Women Have Curves” a few year later.
Geez…I read your comment and paused because I thought there had to be a bigger gap between Girlfight and the F&F series but no, not really.That said, she had some early trouble with DUIs and the like. There was a Cartoon Network anime series that I like that she provided the voice for, and in behind the scenes interviews she seemed drunk around the same time. Anyway, there were public enough events that I can imagine it affecting her career.
Yeah, I think that came during her time on LOST?
Michelle Rodriguez is perfect for this movie, which in retrospect seems obvious because of her “tough chick role” career, but the best moments in this movie are the moments of the world outside the ring punching at her that build up what she lets out in the ring with her own fists. I think people who only know her from the Fast & Furious movies will be surprised by her full range. It’s like if you only knew Stallone from Rambo & Cobra, then went back & watched Rocky.
That’s a good analogy. Even though I’ve seen the first “Rocky” (and its sequels, and most of Sly’s resume) a million times, I’m always blown away by THAT performance every time. I’m so used to his less-taxing action outputs and his lesser movies over the years that it’s always a shock to the system to see him put in a performance that Roger Ebert compared to 1950s Marlon Brando.
The first Rocky very much deserves its reputation as a classic, but I have to admit that my favorite Stallone movie is Oscar. I laugh all the way through that movie every time. It’s just so gleefully absurd.
I haven’t seen it in quite literally a coon’s age, but it used to frequently run on Saturday or Sunday afternoons when I was a kid. It was edited for TV, and I don’t recall ever seeing the theatrical version but I really liked it.More recently, I saw Cop Land which is another one of the Stallone flicks that kind of went under the radar because it isn’t an action film. It’s definitely a worthwhile watch. Great cast, and given the subject matter (police officers who hold themselves above the law and close ranks to protect their own members) it’s pretty timely.
Oh yeah, Cop Land is so good and definitely timely. I don’t know if I have it in me to watch that again right now.
RBF Hall of Famer
I’ve given up trying to figure out if Michelle Rodriguez can act or if Girlfight just tricked me. It’s great, she’s great in it, I love Karyn Kusama.
She can act. It’s just that her roles rarely require her to do anything than stay in her best lane. It’s like Adam Sandler, most of his work ask the bare minimum of him but in the right hands with the right material, he’s a very versatile, convincing worker. They just rarely get the chance or chase the opportunity to do so.
I remember someone ‘fan-casted’ Michelle Rodriguez as Chell for a hypothetical Portal movie. It was never anything official, but I still think she’d be perfect if such a project ever came to fruition.
Goodness knows it would be a massive step up from her other video-game-movie attempts.
Good old Risingson loved to go to local movie festivals, and I remember one year in the Seminci (Valladolid cinema festival, in Spain) where I watched a lot, quite a lot of stuff, including a Gwyneth Paltrow indie about karaokes, the Bjork/Von Trier cryfest and some other weirdo things. And I remember waking up early in the morning to watch Girlfight around 9 or 10AM. I liked it, I thought it was a good gritty Karate Kid, but what I remember the most is my friends from back then, having breakfast with churros, watching a film, then having a beer with some tapas, watching another, and finally giving time to ourselves to talk wildly and loud about anything. I miss that and I miss them.
Michelle Rodriguez is bad and you should feel bad.