You probably haven’t heard about Girls Against Boys, an under the radar vengeance flick directed by Austin Chick and staring Danielle Panabaker and Nicole LaLiberte as two young women out to even the score against some very bad men. The film had a very limited release and is out on DVD/Blu-Ray/VOD today.
Do not miss it. Stop reading, go and order this asap and watch it. Or check out the trailer below and then read a glowing review.
Your call.
Girls Against Boys is one of the most hypnotic films I’ve seen in a long time, due in large part to the stylish direction of Austin Chick. He does these great slow motion shots that capture the complexity that lays behind the eyes of Shae (Panabaker), our lead character and the emotional centrepiece the film. In the span of 24 hours, college student Shae is put through the ringer both mentally and physically by a series of men. During that time, she meets a new friend, Lu (LaLiberte), who first offers a shoulder to cry on, and then follows it up with a gun to shoot with.
The ambient score for Girls Against Boys recalls 90’s electronica; it’s dreamy and disorienting, which also can describe Panabaker’s character of Shae. Though LaLiberte is fantastic herself as the sadistic Lu, this film belongs to Danielle Panabaker, who I thought delivers a seriously outstanding performance. She can constantly turn on a dime, from shy girl to a hardened and hard woman; from scorned to a smiling. She does this all throughout the film, sometimes in the span of second, and it’s often all in her eyes. Panabaker delivers great, great work and her performance was what really kept me involved throughout the entire movie.
Vengeance films are noted for their violent paybacks, and that’s what I expected to see watching Girls Against Boys. However, while there are some gruesome, cringe-inducing scenes, the violence is often off-screen or reliant on sound, which makes them that more effective,
Though far from perfect (there are some plot holes that can’t help but make you shake your head at times), at the end of the day, Girls Against Boys is about the performances from it’s two leading ladies, both of whom deliver the goods and then some. Don’t let this film fall off your radar.
Girls Against Boys is out on now on Blu-ray/DVD/VOD from Anchor Bay.
Sounds like fun! Barbi goes Pulp Fiction. I need to watch this.