Girlhood-2015

Director-Celine Sciamma

Starring-Karidja Toure

Scott’s Review #398

Reviewed April 24, 2016

Grade: B

Girlhood is a coming-of-age foreign language, French drama that tells the story of a sixteen-year-old French girl, living in a poor area (the projects) just outside of Paris.

She is faced with numerous conflicts and tough decisions on how to live her life. School, gangs, and romance are the main issues she tackles, as well as troubled home life.

Wisely, the film uses a female director, Celine Sciamma, which lends some authenticity to the largely female issues discussed in the film. For all its good intentions and some interesting nuances, the film suffers from a lack of grit and has a safe feel to it making it less compelling than it could have been.

I felt that I was watching a glossy film rather than any sort of harsh reality.

Still, a worthy effort.

Marieme is a tall, gorgeous teenager living in the projects near Paris. She struggles academically and is rejected from attending high school, instead of being sent on a vocational track to be able to find a job.

Her mother works long hours as an office cleaner, and Marieme’s abusive brother is in charge of the household. Marieme also has two younger sisters. Upset to learn she will not be attending high school, she is approached by a gang of girls, led by Lady, who asks her to go to the city with them.

She agrees to join their gang when she realizes that her brother’s best friend, Ismael, whom she has a crush on, is friendly with the other girls. Marieme and the girls begin to while away the days by stealing, fighting, and terrorizing anyone in their path.

Partying in hotels, they make the rounds. Marieme must ultimately decide if this is the life she wants.

What I found most interesting about the film is its use of an all-black cast and certainly, this was intentional. Sciamma (who ironically is white) felt that the female black population in Paris is underrepresented in French film.

This is accurate and scores points with me. I love the camaraderie among the girls. They always have each other’s backs and when Marieme fights a rival girl to defend the recently beaten Lady, there is a sense of sisterhood that is appealing and is at the heart of the film.

Friendship, loyalty, and bonding are explored.

Also worth noting is that most of the cast are either unknown actors or non-actors picked off the streets to appear in the film. To this effect, the acting is surprisingly good for most novice or non-actors.

The romance between Marieme and Ismael is another strong point of the film- they share an undeniable attraction for each other but are forced to only spend time together in secret. Marieme’s brother appears to run a gang of all boys and forbids anyone from being with his sister. The scenes shared between Marieme and Ismael are tender, sweet, and believable. They have a rooting factor.

The aforementioned positives are also the negatives to Girlhood. The film lacks any real grit or dirt and the friendship and romantic elements are also played safely.

Everything is glossy and bright.

For example, two fight scenes occur, one with Lady and a rival girl, one with Marieme and the rival girl. A group of spectators gathers in a circle egging the girls on. They are in a hot, deserted parking lot.

The scenes could have been brutal, bloody, and fierce. Instead, they are very short, lack any blood or bruising, and are very safe feeling. When Marieme pulls out a knife, it is intended to cut the rival girl’s bra, not to stab her. This seems unrealistic and not how things would play out in an urban gang situation.

And on a nitpicky level, why was the mother absent from the family life? Sure she had a night job, but the film presented her as being all but out of the picture entirely. She tried to help Marieme get a job working with her, so why so much turmoil due to her busy schedule?

Also, the silly scene of the girls playing miniature golf added nothing to the plot and should have been dropped.

Girlhood is a nice, albeit sweet, coming-of-age, female gang story, that might have been more intense, but the decision was to make a soft film rather than a harsh one.

An interesting, fine effort that mainly focuses on bonding, friendship, and life choices over the realistic brutality that it could have dealt with.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best International Film