| Girlfight |
| Rating: * * * * * Director: Karyn Kusama Running time: 111 minutes Language: English Now playing at Marunouchi Picadilly in Yurakucho and other theaters |
The only regret of seeing "Girlfight" is that it wasn't made two years earlier. Then it could have been released along with "Fight Club," and think of the effect the pair would have made.
"Fight Club" was a movie aimed directly at the male fighting instinct. All the guys I knew came out of the theater with an irrepressible urge to hit someone, anyone but preferably the Unbearable Boss on the 29th floor or something. One of them actually signed up for karate lessons. "Girlfight" targets an even broader audience: men, women, those pissed off, those in love, those out of love . . it doesn't matter. You're still going to come out of the theater with an irrepressible urge to hit someone. It's fun to imagine the two pictures being released side by side and the sudden rapid increase in the number of bloody noses, dents in phone poles, people going at each other with taped knuckles as bystanders yell and cheer.
This is what "Girlfight" tells us: Violence, in terms of Tarantino-esque guys in designer suits going through ammunition like M&Ms, is, like, so totally passe. The new violence decrees "no weapons." Just a scantily clad body (ribbed tank tops, please), glistening forearms and scarred fists.