All-girl "gangs" may offer female teenagers a safe space to experiment with the trappings of womanhood - a step-up from childhood, but a transitional stage nonetheless. This social dynamic is explored in 'Girlhood', but against the backdrop of an impoverished, ethnic minority community in Paris, where every choice made has wider repercussions for life. Unfortunately, the film feels disjointed, in part because it doesn't seem to know whether it wants to celebrate this "girlhood", or look on aghast; of course real life isn't black and white, but the film seems to alternate between portraying these two extremes, instead of managing to paint a subtler shade. Beyond the fact that life's hard and people (and especially men) are hard as well, I didn't take too much away from this film.

I was deeply moved by one scene in this film - the "Diamonds" dance scene between the bande de filles - that I felt really made this movie, an acceptable offering, something special. I was nearly in tears. Here you have these girls from an impoverished area, left to their own devices and self-defense in a rough and tumble world that has zero positive expectations for them. All they have is each other to make them feel of value. Stealing tight dresses from the mall and dancing together to a song that would have them feel beautiful in a society that has them feeling anything but. Really poignant what the director created there. I felt more could have been done with the film. The second half failed the first, in my opinion. But the characters were multi-faceted, the acting and dialogue were realistic. I hope to see more films like this.

My favourite film of 2014 being Boyhood, I was naturally curious to see 2014's Girlhood. Actually, Girlhood- which comes from France- isn't meant to be the feminine equivalent of Boyhood. It doesn't have the same scope and clearly wasn't filmed over 12 years. It deals with a teenage girl who, failing to graduate to high school, drops out of vocational school to join a gang. It's not as rough as you would expect for the first half of the film- what we have is an extended view of girls who like clothes, jewelry, singing Diamonds and even miniature golf. It's in the second half when we see a more serious fight (our protagonist, "Vic," uses a knife to remove another girl's bra) and then sex, and insults about being a slut. Instead of the gang being portrayed as a truly destructive force, it's actually more of a sisterhood whose members discourage Vic from descending deeper into criminality.We certainly see Vic's motivations for joining the gang- she has little future, and is told it's too late for her. Not encouraging. Her home life is rough, too. I can't say I was blown away by Girlhood, but it's a believable drama with a sympathetic protagonist.

This film throws the reader into the world of Marieme, a later-teen girl who's parting from her family and finding a new, rambunctious, fun and shoplifting gaggle of friends. She stands her ground. She gives way. She laughs and cries (but rarely the later) and the film is intelligently made.Every bit of dialogue in the film is believable, and every scene is natural. This is kind of the baseline for every film I would like to see, where that's concerned. And there is so much that makes the characters real, that I cannot begin to unravel the reasons for you; for every time you want Marieme to succeed, live and love, there's an unknown twist that's utterly believable. Prepare for life, before watching this. And still, it's anything but boring, and life in a poor suburb of Paris unfurls to us all. This is a Gift.I love Céline Sciamma, the director, and this is just another step in a great way for a true film. Go see, and love it.