Girlfight 2000

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Treat yourself to the jolt it delivers. Read more

Matt Wolf, Associated Press: For all the violence on view, Kusama's script insists on a real, wholly unsentimental tenderness. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: An intelligent, gutsy debut combo from Ms. Kusama and Ms. Rodriguez. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: [Rodriguez] 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. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: While it wonderfully confounds our narrative expectations as a coming-of-age story and a romantic drama, it works on another level as a great sporting experience. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A crowdpleaser that never sacrifices its brain to the sucker-punch tricks of so many Hollywood films. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A powerful and empathetic melodrama with feminist underpinnings. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: While Kusama champions masculinity in women, she offsets it with a range of gender identities and a keen sense of milieu. Read more

Louis B. Parks, Houston Chronicle: It's obvious Kusama knew what she wanted and was in control, because all the key roles and scenes are played with a uniform tone and conviction. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: This is a very winning debut film that features a powerful central performance. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Kusama scores big points in her first main event. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The script is pure Rocky but the style is Girlz n' the Hood, and the two don't ever mesh. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: [Rodriguez'] performance is an amateur triumph, but the same can't really be said for the film, which doesn't know what to do with Diana's unruliness except to channel it into a feminist fable of empowerment. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: For once, the advance buzz has been amply justified, thanks to an extraordinarily charismatic film debut by a non-professional named Michelle Rodriguez. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Crafted and emotionally satisfying. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Rodriguez, a newcomer, seems to have a natural affinity for the camera. Her Diana hungers, she cares, she is easily wounded and quick to defend herself, and all of those qualities are simply there every scene. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: There's just enough genuine grit and spirit in Girlfight to keep it from being knocked to the canvas by indie earnestness. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a fierce performance, not because Rodriguez is a seasoned actress -- she's not -- but because she brings such a magnificent, 'prove-it-to-me' snarl to the role. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: It gives its fine actors room to breathe and behave -- and in Michelle Rodriguez's case, glow. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Kusama's direction is imaginative, her attention to detail makes for credibility and clarity with regard to the dilemmas faced by her determined young heroine, and Rodriguez is quite astonishing in the lead role. Read more

Emanuel Levy, Variety: 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. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: A near-irresistible button-pusher that's agile enough to hold a mirror to its own aspirations. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: This is On the Waterfront by way of Flashdance but without the cheesy conceits. Read more