In showing a woman in training and preparing for a fight, Kusama defamiliarises boxing as a subject, and makes us see afresh its drama of brutality and vulnerability.

| May 29, 2024

Karyn Kusama’s film is a prescient and compelling consideration of gender identity and sports.

| May 22, 2024

Its richness comes from clear, straightforward storytelling and from a production that looks, feels and sounds amazingly natural.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 25, 2021

In the able and confident hands of director and writer Karyn Kusama, Girlfight becomes an unranked contender for most satisfying independent movie of the year.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2021

The director and star both have unaffected styles that mesh perfectly for a movie that's uplifting and moving in a traditional Hollywood way, while also seeming as raw and unfiltered as cinéma vérité.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2021

What makes Girtfight such a chore to watch is that it isn't content to wallow in its own shamelessness.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2021

You get caught up in the story of an underdog whose fight represents the triumph of an outsider. And the movie's ragged technique only makes that struggle seem that much more authentic and pure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 24, 2021

It's well-written and features a solid performance from Michelle Rodriguez in the leading role, but it's so unrelentingly morose that it becomes hard to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 24, 2021

The world of Girlfight feels real, and so does Rodriguez's Diana. You're with her every step of the way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2021

If you don't think of Marlon Brando's smoldering power at some point during Girlfight, Karyn Kusama's splendid debut film about a young female boxer, you've probably never seen Brando perform.

| Mar 24, 2021

Considering the unique possibilities of the sport and the star, Girlfight winds up in a disappointingly familiar place.

| Mar 24, 2021

Diana's fighting isn't about delivering knockout blows; it's about staying alert and winning on points. It's a means of self-control and of acquiring the self-knowledge on which self-control depends.

| Mar 24, 2021

[Girlfight is] grounded in a precise, unemphatic naturalism.

| Apr 10, 2018

It gives its fine actors room to breathe and behave -- and in Michelle Rodriguez's case, glow.

| Aug 1, 2008

For once, the advance buzz has been amply justified, thanks to an extraordinarily charismatic film debut by a non-professional named Michelle Rodriguez.

| Apr 27, 2007

For all the violence on view, Kusama's script insists on a real, wholly unsentimental tenderness.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 26, 2007

Kusama's direction is imaginative, her attention to detail makes for credibility and clarity with regard to the dilemmas faced by her determined young heroine, and Rodriguez is quite astonishing in the lead role.

| Feb 9, 2006

It's obvious Kusama knew what she wanted and was in control, because all the key roles and scenes are played with a uniform tone and conviction.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 21, 2005

While it wonderfully confounds our narrative expectations as a coming-of-age story and a romantic drama, it works on another level as a great sporting experience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 18, 2002

The script is pure Rocky but the style is Girlz n' the Hood, and the two don't ever mesh.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 19, 2002