GamesRadar+ Verdict
It’s great to see a gritty girl-gang story that’s not a fingerwagging cautionary tale, or a grrrlpower fantasy. Sciamma finishes her coming-of-age trilogy on a high note.
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She’s the leader of the pack...
French arthouse darling Céline Sciamma really hits the mark with this tender, spirited story of a stifled teen rebelling in a tough girl gang on a Parisian sink estate. As in the atmospheric Waterlilies and touching Tomboy, Sciamma captures the energy, stern loyalties and harsh rivalries of young girls with a sharp and sympathetic eye.
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Sciamma shapes her story with an artful style that’s light on dialogue and long on atmosphere. Employing drawn-out, immersive scenes and stylised visuals, she sums up the sheer exhilaration of teenage kicks in a stunning sequence where the girls party giddily to Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’.
Street fights and family fisticuffs have in-your-face intensity as does Touré’s expressive playing, seguing seamlessly from dutiful daughter to queen bitch, from trembling first love to freedom-seeking gender-bender.
Too bad, then, that the film’s careful immersion and setting is marred late on by bumpy plotting, lurching unexpectedly from dance-offs to drug-dealing, as Marieme challenges Assa Sylla’s charismatic ringleader, Lady, for the top spot. When a film has this kind of emotional intensity, there’s no need for melodrama.
