Director: Céline Sciamma
MPAA Rating: NR
Last year we saw Richard Linklater’s magnum opus Boyhood, a wonderful coming-of-age story that chronicles 12 years in the life of an angst-ridden, white, suburban Texan. Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood is also a coming-of-age story but instead focuses on a black teen girl living in the urban projects of France. Although these films are two very different slices of life, they both share a unique and impeccably crafted filmic vision of what it’s like growing up today and the tribulations that go along with it.
Writer-director Sciamma is no stranger to the coming-of-age drama, having previously directed Tomboy and Water Lilies, and it seems that her knack for bringing strong lead characters to the screen continues with this film, which focuses on Marieme (Karidja Touré) a sixteen-year-old trying to make something of her life and elevate herself beyond the cluster of low-income high-rise buildings that is her home.
After discovering that she does not qualify to enter high school and will be instead be placed in a vocational school, Marieme meets three other girls who share in her anarchistic view of the world. Although they seem like a bad influence, she quickly forms a bond with the girls, giving her life some much-needed levity. Her mother works nights as a janitor, so Marieme needs to take care of her two younger sisters all while trying not to upset her abusive older brother.
The film plays out in what feels like chapters, although they aren’t distinctly labeled, marking the end of each section with an extended sequence of blackness before diving head-long into the next piece of the story. Marieme’s life is indeed a sad one, but her deep bond with her friends and her strong persona keep the viewer from drowning in melancholy.
And it’s not just Marieme who plays a strong female character in this film; in fact nearly all the women prove themselves to be smart and assertive, trying not to allow themselves to be diminished in a society that clearly favors a dominant male presence.
The incredible performance by Karidja Touré, a first-time actress, helps reinforce this strength. Her character is mostly quiet and reserved but knows when she needs to step up and speak her mind or intervene when help is needed. Touré so deftly handles this range of emotion that it feels like we’re watching a documentary rather than a narrative film. The culmination of this emotion comes in the form of a stirring performance of Diamonds in the Sky by Rhianna, with the four girls lip syncing their hearts out. This scene will be the one most talked about, but it certainly isn’t the only one that packs a punch; there’s a multitude of great-looking visuals in this film.
Everything in Girlhood is set to a fantastic score by Jean-Baptiste de Laubier, who previously worked with Sciamma on Tomboy and Skrillex on the Spring Breakers soundtrack. It’s not as bombastic as that film, but it definitely has a Cliff Martinez vibe.
It’s unfortunate that Girlhood was released so close to Boyhood, as it has certainly been overshadowed, and in many ways it’s a superior film.
