Awesome film. A coming-of-age film that contains a very realistic depiction of urban life and growing up in a big city. In it, 3 straight teenage girls (Patti, Angela and Emma) lose their friend Nikki, who mysteriously kills herself. Eager to find out why she did that, they manage to retrieve a journal from her home, and they soon find out that their friend committed suicide because she had been raped while she was doing an internship at a magazine company. Then the 3 girls start talking to each other about the things that have recently been going on in their lives. They soon find out that they too have been/are being forced into sex by the men they've been with (or are being with). They start writing some "Subvert the patriarchy!" graffiti on their school's bathroom doors, and start making plans to take revenge on all the men that have treated/are treating them like s***.
A wonderful scene is when they all wreck the car of the guy who'd raped Emma. She'd been raped at the back of his car so this was all so powerfully symbolic to take revenge that way. I couldn't stop laughing when the three girls trash the car. :D Patti's boyfriend is very violent towards her, and they also had some awesome plans to deal with him too, which ultimately will lead to them making plans against the rapist who was at least partly responsible for Nikki's death. Great film. There aren't many films like this in which poor working-class women unite together (across race divisions) and try hard to deal with a misogynistic, racist patriarchal society. The way they start feeling the harsh symptoms of it is telling.
I loved the Audre Lorde quote ("The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.") near the end, suggesting that the three teenage girls have been researching into feminism, quoting from a black lesbian feminist of the Second Wave. The 1990's female rap music enhances the film. I think there might have been more female rap artists in the 90's, before all the sexist hip hop took over.
The only downside is that the film was a tad bit slow at one point, and some scenes could have been replaced with others, better ones.
A wonderful scene is when they all wreck the car of the guy who'd raped Emma. She'd been raped at the back of his car so this was all so powerfully symbolic to take revenge that way. I couldn't stop laughing when the three girls trash the car. :D Patti's boyfriend is very violent towards her, and they also had some awesome plans to deal with him too, which ultimately will lead to them making plans against the rapist who was at least partly responsible for Nikki's death. Great film. There aren't many films like this in which poor working-class women unite together (across race divisions) and try hard to deal with a misogynistic, racist patriarchal society. The way they start feeling the harsh symptoms of it is telling.
I loved the Audre Lorde quote ("The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.") near the end, suggesting that the three teenage girls have been researching into feminism, quoting from a black lesbian feminist of the Second Wave. The 1990's female rap music enhances the film. I think there might have been more female rap artists in the 90's, before all the sexist hip hop took over.
The only downside is that the film was a tad bit slow at one point, and some scenes could have been replaced with others, better ones.