{"id":3157,"date":"2016-04-24T11:44:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T15:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=3157"},"modified":"2024-08-23T18:00:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T22:00:36","slug":"girlhood-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=3157","title":{"rendered":"Girlhood-2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Girlhood-2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director C\u00e9line Sciamma<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Karidja Tour\u00e9, <\/span>Assa Sylla<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #398<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reviewed April 24, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Girlhood (2015) 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 Paris.<\/p>\n

She faces 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.<\/p>\n

Wisely, the film uses a female director, C\u00e9line Sciamma<\/span>, which lends some authenticity to the largely female issues discussed. For all its good intentions and some interesting nuances, the film suffers from a lack of grit and has a safe feel making it less compelling than it could have been.<\/p>\n

I felt I was watching a glossy film rather than any harsh reality.<\/p>\n

Still, worth the effort.<\/p>\n

Marieme is a tall, gorgeous teenager living 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Partying in hotels, they make the rounds. Marieme must ultimately decide if this is the life she wants.<\/p>\n

What I found most interesting about the film is its use of an all-black cast. Sciamma (who ironically is white) felt that the female black population in Paris is underrepresented.<\/p>\n

This is accurate and scores point 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.<\/p>\n

Friendship, loyalty, and bonding are explored.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The romance between Marieme and Ismael is another strong point. They share an undeniable attraction but are forced to spend time in secret. Marieme’s brother appears to run a gang of all boys and forbids anyone from being with his sister.<\/p>\n

The scenes shared between Marieme and Ismael are tender, sweet, and believable. They have a rooting factor.<\/p>\n

The positives are also the negatives to Girlhood. The film lacks real grit or dirt and the friendship and romantic elements are also played safely.<\/p>\n

Everything\u00a0is glossy and bright.<\/p>\n

For example, two fight scenes occur, one with Lady and a rival girl, and 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.<\/p>\n

The scenes could have been brutal, bloody, and fierce. Instead, they are short, lack blood or bruising, and feel safe. 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.<\/p>\n

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. She tried to help Marieme get a job working with her, so why so much turmoil due to her busy schedule?<\/p>\n

Also, the silly scene of the girls playing miniature golf added nothing to the plot and should have been dropped.<\/p>\n

Girlhood (2015) 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.<\/p>\n

An effort that mainly focuses on bonding, friendship, and life choices over the realistic brutality it could have dealt with.<\/p>\n

Independent Spirit Award Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best International Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Girlhood-2015 Director C\u00e9line Sciamma Starring Karidja Tour\u00e9, Assa Sylla Scott’s Review #398 Reviewed April 24, 2016 Grade: B Girlhood (2015) 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 Paris. She faces numerous conflicts and tough decisions on how … Continue reading Girlhood-2015<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,5337,5335,192,442,35,213,5336],"tags":[241,5340,5338,193,443,67,214,5339],"class_list":["post-3157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-movie-reviews","category-assa-sylla","category-celine-sciamma","category-dramas","category-french-films","category-foreignfilms","category-foreign-dramas","category-karidja-toure","tag-2015-movie-reviews","tag-assa-sylla","tag-celine-sciamma","tag-dramas-2","tag-french-films","tag-foreign-language-films","tag-foreign-dramas","tag-karidja-toure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3157"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20482,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions\/20482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}