Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.
Céline Sciamma's Girlhood is distinguished above all by its vibrant, empathetic performances — Karidja Touré is a magnetic screen presence — and by Crystel Fournier's richly saturated, intimate cinematography, most memorably in the iconic 'Diamonds' hotel-room scene. The plot follows a recognisable coming-of-age trajectory and doesn't fully resolve its tensions, leaving the ending feeling somewhat inconclusive. Novelty is solid but not exceptional: the film brings a fresh, specifically French-banlieue Black female gaze to familiar material without radically reinventing the genre.