DogFilmCritic Girlfigh a coming-of-age story about boxing and love, its also Karyn Kusama's directorial debut, telling the story of how a girl finds herself in the world of boxing.One does not see many movies about women's boxing so often actually there very few. Diana lives with her brother and single dad, Sandro, in a housing project in Red Hook. Each week Sandro pays a local trainer to put some meat and muscle on his son, but when Diana decides she, too, wants to be a boxer, he refuses. With dogged determination, Diana begins a grueling training regimen, the discipline, cunning, and humility required to be a contender are the cold shower Diana needs to focus her ambitions. But when she falls in love with a promising amateur, her priorities are forced into burning focus...it looks like a good plot, but here is when the movie looses me for a movie about a female boxing there's not much of that, she spends the majority of the movie fighting men,there is a sole fight against another female witch is done pretty well it capture exactly what should look like when two people are boxing,but after that she only goes against men.surprisingly in this world which Kusama tries to give a real perspective of what is boxing in the shoes of a woman,decides to create a inter gender tournament because its so hard to find opponent's in a city like New York, were Diana and her love interest face one another,mixed boxing which is not sanctioned by any legitimate governing body, and are almost always intended to be a display in erotic exhibitionism.If the intention was to see how a woman can beat a man by sheer determination It never goes well in combat, because the man is in a no win situation on one hand he beats a woman which our society sees it as the outcome of the contest in the other hand he looses to the women he is seen as a weakling, besides we only see Diana train a few months and have ONE amateur sanction bout in the hole movie against the only female fighter in the movie and her love interest as been fighting for alonger period so in terms of skill and experience its more likely he would whip the floor with her.Do all female boxers have to best men to prove their equal? or they can show as great athlete's by besting themselves.The ending is very unrealistic for the simple fact that this type of tournament would exist and be sanctioned by the state of New York, had this movie been set in a state were only football is the only sport would make a more interesting scenario were the lack of support and opponents is more visible but NY is the cradle of the golden gloves.

frich71-1 great first role for Michelle. She's perfect for the role. And I would love to see MRod kick the shite out of Hilary Swank's Arse.that is all, just a great great fun entertaining movie of a tough girl trying to balance being tough and being feminine.And MRod is super feminine, super hot, and I love it when she gets Kick Butt roles.too bad she's gets in so much trouble.Maybe the time in jail will sober her up in more ways than one.Lost is horrible and too bad she let her agent talk her into that trash.is my 10 line min. up yet?Cool.

Mattias Petersson While the story of a troubled kid turning to boxing for self-respect and anger management is hardly a new thing, the story is given a fresh twist here when the protagonist is a girl instead of a boy.Diana has trouble at school. She just can't stay away from fighting. At home her father is constantly putting her down. Her brother trains boxing at a gym and one day when she picks him up she decides she also wants to train.It would be easy to call this movie a "Rocky with girls" i guess. But that is not at all what this is about. The story actually benefits very much from the main character being a girl rather than a boy. That way you can deal with more problems at once. First the problem of her not being accepted because she's not a girlie-girl, and then when she comes to the boxing gym because she's a girl at all. It's also a story about how a purpose can change someones life. How positive things can make you grow. I don't want this to sound pretentious, because the movie doesn't feel pretentious at all, but what i'm saying is true.Also Michelle Rodriguez is very good in the lead. It's a shame really that she has become stuck in the "tough girl" typecasting now, because that's really not what her part in "Girlfight" is all about. Sure she's a female boxer, but rather it's the more sensitive moments that really makes her shine.So maybe this is basically your average underdog story with a twist, but it's lifted way above the crowd by Rodriguez' performance. I rate this 7/10.

qljsystems I remember seeing the title several years back and dismissed it as feminist nonsense, but am glad to confess that my initial assessment was mistaken. Rodriguez puts in a solid performance as a tom-boy with anger problems. The movie uses numerous clichés that mark boxing movies - dysfunctional family, dingy gym, grizzled boxing coach and old-timers, kids trying to pull themselves out of the gutter through a potential career in boxing. But they are used well to provide a good thematic structure.I can't state with any conviction whether the Rodriguez character would've won the final ring-fight with her boyfriend as she did, simply because of the weight and level of training differences, but even so every fight scene (especially the one with her fighting another female contender) was solid and believable, not full of the the melodrama witnessed in the Rocky series.Being a kickboxer myself, I found this movie inspiring and an honest glimpse into a little of the boxing world. It is peopled with gritty, yet honest characters and shows snatches of insight into the reality of boxing - namely, power and dexterity are nothing without the endurance and stamina to match. The shadow-boxing was genuine and heartfelt. Anybody with a contact-sport background identifies with the scenes where she spars with opponents struggling with their own inner demons.The romantic subplot is slightly unrealistic. Even so, the final fight, where they both grapple each other shows a curious mixture of toughness and tenderness. Perhaps a little far-fetched, but it was an interesting juxtaposition.A likable movie, probably marred at the time by all the hyped feminist-trappings rather than allowing the movie to stand on its own merits.