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

Full Review | May 22, 2024

Michelle Rodriguez, cutting a dazzling figure in her first acting role, plays Diana Guzman, a raw product of a broken family in the Brooklyn projects. Despair and anger find articulation in her sharpshooting fists.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 25, 2021

As they say about boxing, it's the subtle blows that get to you most.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 25, 2021

Girlfight gets everything right: Its gritty bleak setting of a largely Hispanic Brooklyn neighborhood; the peeling walls and grimy atmosphere of the boxing gym... her bond with her sweet-natured brother and her combative relationship with her [father].

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

Kusama's talent as a filmmaker is obvious. Girlfight doesn't score a knockout, but it has moxy and some performances that guarantee that seeing it won't be a waste of time.

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

Girlfight brings freshness and enthusiasm to a routine we've seen several times over.

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

This is one of those movies that affects you physically as you're walking out of the theatre. Musicals make you feel like you can tap-dance. Girlfight makes you feel like you clean somebody's clock.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 25, 2021

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

Full Review | 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.

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

This longshot film has Rocky-like implications going for it on either side of the camera. Safe to say, now, that Kusama is taking lunch with every heavy in Hollywood, and that Rodriguez could well be the next break-out star in the biz.

Full Review | 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.

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

Kusama's portrait of an angry voung woman hits home largely because of the power of its unknown star, Michelle Rodriguez.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 25, 2021

[Michelle Rodríguez] brings gravity and energy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021

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

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

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

I liked this movie, and I think you will too.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021

Iit is comforting to see a movie that spotlights the purer aspects of amateur boxing, features some fresh acting talent, is slickly written and lovingly directed.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 24, 2021

Newcomer Michelle Rodriguez commands notice as a pugnacious pugilist in Girlfight.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021