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91While Rodriguez punches through the indie clutter to announce herself as a superb new movie talent, so Kusama scores big points in her first main event.
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90Confirms its place as one of the best first films in recent memory, and one of this year's very best films.
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88It's always about more than boxing.
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88Refreshing and surprising, the way independent movies are supposed to be.
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88A terrific little uppercut of a boxing movie and close to a perfect one.
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88The effect is as potent as a straight right to the solar plexus.
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83Rodriguez, who never acted before auditioning for the director, is utterly convincing, fluid and determined and jaded and wild like any teen-ager, but with a bracing spirit and a shocking store of ferocity.
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80A strong, stinging film, alive with conflicts that defy glib resolutions.
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80A near-irresistible button-pusher that's agile enough to hold a mirror to its own aspirations: The Sundance prize-winning filmmaker and her prize discovery, Michelle Rodriguez, merge in the image of a self-invented amateur boxer.
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80Held together by strong writing, insightful direction, and a stunning turn by newcomer Rodriguez, who is not only a gorgeous young woman but a fiercely charismatic screen presence.
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80A powerful and empathetic melodrama with feminist underpinnings.
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80The movie belongs to Ms. Rodriguez. With her slightly crooked nose and her glum, sensual mouth, she looks a little like Marlon Brando in his smoldering prime, and she has some of his slow, intense physicality. She doesn't so much transcend gender as redefine it.
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80Belongs to that most promiscuous of genres -- the go-for-it sports melodrama -- but transcends it and then some.
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80Gives its fine actors room to breathe and behave--and in Michelle Rodriguez's case, glow.
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80Blends in a most satisfying manner the conventions of several genres, resulting in a coherent picture that is at once a poignant inner-city drama, a rousing sports movie, an emotional family yarn and, above all, a sweet romance.
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80Luminously understated.
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75Gets everything right.
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75Uplifting and moving in a traditional Hollywood way, while also seeming as raw and unfiltered as cinema vérité.
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75Rodriguez is riveting, with a drop-dead cynical charm.
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75The movie belongs to Rodriguez: A gorgeous woman with a powerful body and the face of an Aztec princess, she's also a natural talent who instinctively understands the importance of economy in good acting.
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75There's a sense of genuineness throughout Girlfight.
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75A coming-of-age tale that truly floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.
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75A genre-twisting surprise.
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70Kusama's impressive feature debut is an affecting coming-of-age drama whose story is familiar without being hackneyed.
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70A scrappy independent film that packs the same emotional punch as "Rocky."
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70A persuasively feminine coming-of-age story.
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67A rousing, girl-positive, indie success story whose dynamic rhythms deliver a connecting punch.
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63Girlfight, for its skill and theme, will please many. It's a shame it's no knockout.
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60Kusama understands her subject intimately, and it shows.
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50Rodriguez's acting almost scores a knockout even though the movie's directing and dialogue are fairly routine.
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50A little more flair and polish could have made Girlfight a terrific movie instead of just the decent one it is.
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50Kusama leads with feminist empowerment, but her sucker punch is a sappy romance.
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48A modest project with an agreeably modest point of view, but it cries out for a sharp, believable naturalism Kusama simply doesn't supply.
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20We're in for a long, unpleasant, reactionary ride.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 0 out of 8
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NadineF.10I love Michelle Rodriguez. I would give anything to be like her!!