Girlhood (2015)

Very interesting movie that proposes a "soft" perspective on the downfall of Karidja Touré in the spiral of delinquency and social exclusion. I think it touched most of the elements that trigger such an attitude and certainly the main one being the quest for having a better life in combination to the indifference of parents overcompensated by an excessively violent brother trying to play the role of a father and a mother.The rejection of school and the lack of solution for children in situation of family and educational failure is also well presented.I'm not so sure why it was made easy for her to enter a group of girls but the fact that they become her second family with their specific codes (which is no codes) is actually well illustrated. I think the perspective of the director was to propose a softer version of what reality truly is, however, it does not take away from the brutality of certain scenes which does bring the spectator to react and question the choices of Karidja Touré.I did expect her situation to degrade very profoundly but the film stayed on the its staying soft while showing the reality of things.Certain characters did seem a little bit caricatural at times to my feeling and was often quite an understatement to the brutality that really exists within "gangs" in general (though I'm fully aware that this clique of girls were not really a gang -; hence the absence of the true codes that drive these kinds of criminal organizations). Some of the girls did get a little "photoshopping" especially Karidja Touré.The quality of the image is quite good and the movie stays really dynamic. The reinforcement of the absence of any parental authority is well done. Indeed, the mother is extremely absent in the majority of the scenes and even if she would be, she has very little to say to her oldest daughter and daughters in general.The story holds until the end and the development of the Touré character is well conducted.

*******This review may contain spoilers*******Beautifully shot with powerful performances. I've read critics relating this movie to Boyhood, and yet to other coming of age movies. First, there is nothing like Boyhood in cinema history, and the movies do not share a similar storytelling path or shooting techniques. Second, this movie's focus is not solely the maturing of a female adolescent. Third,the English language release title may have lead people to compare both movies. However, this film's original name is "Bande de Filles" which does not stands for Girlhood. It stands for Band of Girls. The "directrice" Céline Sciamma, known for Tomboy (2011), continues her sensitive depicting of one's reality. Again, with a primary focus in the gender subject, she reaches for the main character's difficulties in a highly inhospitable environment and the dreams and wishes of any young woman. The family hardships and the obligations towards the younger siblings, the constant constraint from her brother's violent language, the absence of a present mother and the everyday chauvinism contrast with the loving relationship developed with her friends. That is what this movie is about. The Band of Girls, who although are violent, do have sensibility, do have dreams, and suffer for not being able to fully achieve them.The great achievement of this movie is to depict all of this in a very sensitive, realistic, and touching way, what would not be possible without the remarkable performances, specially by Karidja Touré.

My favourite film of 2014 being Boyhood, I was naturally curious to see 2014's Girlhood. Actually, Girlhood- which comes from France- isn't meant to be the feminine equivalent of Boyhood. It doesn't have the same scope and clearly wasn't filmed over 12 years. It deals with a teenage girl who, failing to graduate to high school, drops out of vocational school to join a gang. It's not as rough as you would expect for the first half of the film- what we have is an extended view of girls who like clothes, jewelry, singing Diamonds and even miniature golf. It's in the second half when we see a more serious fight (our protagonist, "Vic," uses a knife to remove another girl's bra) and then sex, and insults about being a slut. Instead of the gang being portrayed as a truly destructive force, it's actually more of a sisterhood whose members discourage Vic from descending deeper into criminality.We certainly see Vic's motivations for joining the gang- she has little future, and is told it's too late for her. Not encouraging. Her home life is rough, too. I can't say I was blown away by Girlhood, but it's a believable drama with a sympathetic protagonist.

It's easy to dismiss so much of this film as a gimmick on first-look. I mean, Girlhood... it just seems like such an obvious set-up for one of the most acclaimed films of this century. The good thing is that this film really isn't trying to follow the same structure as Boyhood. Whereas that film really embraced itself in realism, one can say that this one is trying to play with more conventional structures in terms of a 'coming of age" drama. One can say that the main character goes through more changes here, in ways that are more measurable. Perhaps in that way this film may not be as realistic, but perhaps in other ways it's more able to find something captivating in its quiet moments.