What happens when an 18-year-old girl who always fights finds a pair of boxing gloves? "Girl Fight" happens. In the center of New York, there is no order. People are fighting to survive in an unpleasant place. The movie focuses on Michelle Rodriguez’s character, Diana Guzman.
With the greatest fury, sound and power, Diana explodes with anger at every moment. She has never been the pretty girl or the most popular, so she turns to violence to release her rage. One day when she picks up her brother from the neighborhood gym and becomes interested in boxing. With a bit of luck she finds Hector (Jaime Tirelli), a trainer who is hard as hell on her. She trains day and night to become just as good as the boys. She ends up being better.
While Diana strives to remain the best, she falls in love with Adrian, one the best boxers in the gym. However she doesn’t know that he already has a girlfriend. They hook up anyway and disregard the other girl. Then Diana tries with great gusto to hide her affair with Adrian and her secret love for boxing from her father.
As the film goes on, she realizes that she loves boxing and that it gives her purpose, so she continues to train and love her man. The tides turn when the two star-crossed lovers have to fight for the city championship. Each moment is intense, as the story is well-developed and the script and storyline are meaningful. The filmmaking reminds me of a mixture of Martin Scorsese’s documentary-style films and Spike Lee’s urban storytelling. From the vintage look, it’s as if the movie were shot on 16mm film.
The film’s writer-director Karyn Kusama is a break out filmmaker from New York University. Kusama does a great job directing the actors to portray realistic scenes. Unlike Kusama’s more recent films like “Æon Flux” (2005), “Girl Fight” is a masterpiece.
Just because a film doesn’t make $1 million in one weekend doesn’t mean its filmmaking and storytelling isn’t good quality. I highly recommend renting this independent film from Netflix.
