Rating: 
Summary: Fierce and Gripping
Review: What an amazing film this is. From the moment it begins it introduces you to Diana Guzman(Michelle Rodriguez) in the hallways of her high school. When you look into her eyes you can see the tiger brewing just behind them. We are shown the stark reality of Diana's life in the projects, her troubles in school, and the even stronger troubles at home with her belittling and abusive father. When she has to pick up her younger brother Tiny from boxing lessons she is thrust into a world she has never seen before, and is ultimately drawn to it. We watch her struggle with herself, against others who can't believe a girl can hold her own against a man in the ring, and moreover we watch her put down myths from small minds. When she falls in love with Hector(Jamie Tirelli) a fellow competitor in the ring, it begins to complicate her world in many respects. Karyn Kusama does a wonderful job of directing this film, she keeps it raw and real. You don't doubt or second guess anything in the film. Michelle Rodriguez gives an amazing performance, it's hard to believe this is her first film. I can't say enough about Girlfight, it is so well done on so many different levels it's just incredible.
Rating:
Summary: An Unbelievably Good Film
Review: Although it is chock-full of cliches and somewhat predictable, Girlfight is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Diana (Michelle Rodriguez) is one of the most likeable female characters ever seen on film - she's muscular, has a tough, funny personality, and at the same time is vulnerable. She's also quite a boxer. The romance scenes between her and Adrian, another boxer, make your stomach twist...it may be rare in real life that young men appreciate buff girls who are tough, cynical, and interesting, but that just helps one appreciate the movie more. It's hard to describe what makes this movie so good; it is refreshing in some ways and repetitious in others, but the actors are wonderful and the ending is great. If you are one of those movie snobs that needs a fresh, unconventional plot in every film you see, then you might not like this too much. But if you can look past the cliches, this will probably be one of the best movies you'll ever see.
Rating:
Summary: inspiring
Review: Michelle rodriguez is utterly convincing in this role. Great underdog movie!
Rating: 
Summary: FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE
Review: Written and directed by Karyn Kusama, a former assistant of John Sayles, GIRLFIGHT is a film for you if you're interested in independent american movies. Michelle - Diana - Rodriguez is boxing the screen in this role which seems have been written specially for her. While most of the male boxers of Hector's boxing school consider this sport as a way to make money in order to leave their poor neighborhood, Diana is boxing because she has too much aggressivity in her. The school authorities want her to see a psychiatrist but what's the use with a girl who doesn't want to be helped. So boxing will replace the doc at a lower cost and allow Diana to face her father for a cathartic final confrontation. Karyn Kusama is without any doubt very talented and knows how to make you feel the rage of the boxers during a fight. Michelle Rodriguez is outstanding, giving a stellar performance that our young starlets should study again and again in order to understand what is cinema really about. A movie highly recommended. A DVD zone Raging Bull.
Rating:
Summary: Dont box me in!
Review: American movies rarely focus on the underclass without (a) glamorising the violence inherent within the 'hood' (b hammer you over the head with its socially redeeming message or (c) milk the rare and the bizarre out of the situation to titilate the overstimulated middle class adolescent audience. To its credit this movie attempts none of these. Director Karyn Kusama and lead Michelle Rodriguez can take a lot of credit and pride for the obvious work and thought that has gone into the making of this movie.It deserves all the accolades it has been awarded. Its naturalistic shooting style and dialogue puts to shame hundreds of movies that have operated on a budget 5 times its scale.Money cant make up for lack of talent or integrity and this movie has that and more. Diana(Michelle Rodriguez)is a young woman with an attitude. Her constant fighting at school consistently gets her in trouble with the school authorities.Her home life isnt much better with a solo dad bitter with failure and a geek younger brother at odds with the tough urban environment. To toughen him up Dad pays for him to learn boxing at what has got to be the most realistic version of the seedy gym ever filmed.She is attracted by the pugilistic world she encounters and persuades the trainer to take her on and train her.The film revolves around the challenges she has to become a boxer and gain respect,the disapproving father and a burgeoning relationship with one of the other boxers. Its sucess comes from its simplicity. The director never overplays her hand and every scene has a ring of authenticity to it.She is served well by the lead actress who acts as if the part was written about her and for her.This almost lowkey documentary approach beautifully mirrors the no BS attitude of the character and the boxing subculture of the nickel and dime gym.Her brooding defiant glare says more about this character than 10 pages of dialogue and aptly is the image used to market the film. Girlfight makes an interesting counterpoint to the othe rave martial movie of the moment,Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon.Both films with a stunning young female protagonist,a film grad student could have a field day (and probably will) comparing the gender and power themes inherent in both films,one yin,one yang,one soft,one hard,one on an epic scale, the other made on the others catering budget. Both a triumph for their respective directors. Great films transcend gender,culture and ideologies.Thats because they reveal truths about the human spirit and soul at a level we all connect to. Girlfight connects with the left, the right, the jab and the uppercut. A winning combination.
Rating:
Summary: This Sundance winner delivers the goods
Review: Michelle Rodriguez gives a fixed, hooded glare in the opening scene of Girlfight that seems to encompass all the strange ambiguities of the role with a single look. She gives such a potent performance throughout that you can't help thinking about her very androgyny as part of the subject matter itself. Which leads to the question that I think a lot of critics have missed with this film: exactly what sort of threat is she making? Karyn Kusama, who won the highest accolades at Sundance, has handed us this character that alternately threatens our male dominated society as well as the women who challenge it, and Rodriguez runs with it like only a person who's very close to the role herself really could. She's said that after taking the boxing lessons in preparation for this role, there came a time when it got too easy to challenge people on the streets, to give them a reason to swing at her. Oddly, this seems to have played more in the beginning of the film than it did later. Right from the start, the sullen and angry teenager Diana Guzman starts whomping indiscriminately on people who have offended her. In her fourth fight this semester, she lays the smack down on a classmate who cracks a little too wise with one of her friends. Living with an abusive father who "looks right through" her after her mother died, she has the kind of manhood that can be threatened easily and her dad occasionally indulges in a little baiting to hear her growl "don't be frontin' like I'm some kind of girly-girl!" But the fact that her brother is sent to boxing classes and she's essentially forbidden to go to them herself tells us that dad really does see her (and all women) as fundamentally different, regardless of their individualities. Her brother Tiny (Ray Santiago) fully realizes the futility of boxing to a self proclaimed geek, and winds up giving her his money so she can surreptitiously begin training with his reluctant coach in the dingy little gym we see in every boxing movie. The rings is tied together with rags, everything, including the old trainers, is made of faded brown leather and Diana starts to find her new life in it's dark interior. The gym also has little hand-scrawled signs on cardboard posted all over the place with inspirational slogans like "Heroes aren't born, they're made" and "Winners never quit, quitters never win." While in a lesser movie these would be reduced to kitsch, here they serve almost as title cards begging the question 'How much of these old adages is really true?' This story is by no means a new one and of course you can't help but think of almost every other boxing movie out there where the underdog, through dedication and hard work, rises to the heights. But then that central story takes a detour. As she trains and then begins sparring with the other male boxers, Diana meets a promising up and comer Adrian (Santiago Douglas in a very nice bit of acting) and tentatively makes a few romantic overtures to him. Rodriguez does one hell of a job in juggling all the factors that her role is now demanding: being unyieldingly tough, likable by the audience, and convincing when her character's almost able to relax in front of Adrian. As her first role, it's simply astonishing. The final fight scene that inevitably builds, when Diana will have to square off against the man she loves, becomes the most challenging moment in the film intellectually as well as emotionally. Whether she wins or not, he'll be disgraced and no one really cares about the boxing match by then. In a country where we work so hard to give every opportunity to women that men have, when does it stop being justice and start being ridicule? Given that there are fundamental differences between men and women, very real and tangible ones, what exactly is equality? Who decides those boundaries and is it noble or self serving to step over them? Is victory in one battle of the sexes worth the cost of the entire war? When you find you can't stop asking yourself these questions after seeing Girlfight, go out and see it again. At least new questions might drown out the old.
Rating:
Summary: wow...
Review: I saw this movie in my english class at a community college and I was amazed with Michelle Rodriguez's performance. She is a really great actress. She played her character as a woman boxer really well. She showed great potiental in this movie. This movie made me a big fan of hers now.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie!
Review: This movie is definitely a must-see! It's about time a movie came out with real, solid content, without the "buttered-up" story-lines the movie industry puts out now a days. Gives way to the idea of "never giving up"... no cheese involved.
Rating:
Summary: GirlFight
Review: I think the movie girlfight was an awesome movie.Diania is getting her life on the right track she is also using boxing to control her anger. And When she starts getting good at boxing she mets Adrian. who she is in love with. Then at a party Diana sees Adrian with another girl which hurts. Then she needs to fight the guy she loves in the ring to see if the fight ruins their relationship see GIRLFIGHT.
Rating:
Summary: Michelle Rodriguez' best
Review: Girlfight is a very interesting and compelling film. Michelle Rodriguez is perfect in her role. She truly inspired me.
By Justine Ryan
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