It takes only a look to unsettle, even undo, a teenage girl. A look can be so many things at once: an ogling, a scrutiny, a provocation, a form of surveillance and control. In “Girlhood,” the roving eyes of older boys transform a throng of rowdy female athletes into a flock of disconcertingly meek mademoiselles, their heads sunk as low as they’ll go without dislocating any vertebrae. Those same girls can’t bear the aggressive stares of other girls, either. The hostile female gaze transfigures them into raving lunatics, suddenly seized by the urgent need to slam their knuckles into an enemy’s sneering, smirking face.
Fittingly enough, “Girlhood” itself began with a look. Writer-director Céline Sciamma (“Tomboy,” “Water Lilies”) found herself watching and wondering about the adolescent Afro-French girls who hang out in large groups at the mall and the subway stations around Paris. Unfortunately, the coming-of-age film that ensued rarely overcomes its well-intentioned, sociological regard; save for a few standout scenes of carefree elation and daring camaraderie, “Girlhood” is largely a grim and stilted study of oppression.
By age 16, Marieme’s (Karidja Touré) life already seems over. After effectively flunking out of high school, her options are dingy and scarce: cleaning hotel rooms alongside her mother, becoming a “shop slave,” or delivering drugs to rich white kids at parties. Other than a “normal” life, the thing Marieme wants most in the world is freedom from her domineering and violent older brother (Cyril Mendy).
A lifeline arrives in the form of Lady (Assa Sylla), Adiatou (Lindsay Karamoh) and Fily (Mariétou Touré), a trio of sleek-haired, fashion-forward, fellow drop-outs who pool their meager funds — probably the spoils of some petty crime — to escape the dreary housing projects where they all live to indulge in the minor luxuries of Gay Paree.
Like Baudelaire’s flâneur, the girls attain a kind of life force in looking and remarking and laughing, mostly about what other women are wearing. Their pleasure-seeking culminates in an euphoric night dancing to Rihanna’s “Diamonds” in tight-fitting, shoplifted dresses in a blue-tinted hotel room. Marieme gapes at her new friends before joining them, totally in love with all three of them, and with herself for being one of them.
“Girlhood” tenderly captures the vitality and utter importance of Marieme’s new friendships, while wisely suggesting that what saves her in the present will endanger her in the future. The film also perfectly depicts the fragility of new teenage relationships and how sudden bursts of intense bonding don’t always translate to sustained closeness. Lady withdraws from the group after she’s humiliated in a neighborhood fight, and Marieme’s efforts to re-conjure the magic of their first few weeks together contributes to the group’s increasing disintegration.
Sciamma reaches rare heights of nuance and honesty in exploring these rarely explored pockets of strained female friendship. Unfortunately, these scenes of quick friends even more quickly losing interest in each other also add up to a rather dramatically paunchy middle section that never quite regains the film’s earlier vim or vigor.
Like last year’s superb period romance “Belle,” “Girlhood” wears its thematic ambitions — to simultaneously tackle gender, race, and class — on its sleeve. Sciamma proffers her most insightful ideas about the misogynistic culture of the banlieues that Marieme is forced to navigate when she finally attempts a desperate gambit to pursue independence and self-reliance at all costs.
So great is Marieme’s risk-taking, and so ill-prepared is she to succeed, that the film’s final section, while not without hope, ends up reducing its protagonist into a textbook anecdote about how society keeps women/people of color/the poor down. That’s a far cry from the Marieme we first get to know and want to hold on to, the girl who sheds her inexperience but not her innocence while caressing a boy’s (Idrissa Diabaté) naked body in the dark, secure in the knowledge that, no matter what tomorrow may bring, the night belongs to her.
75 Eye-Popping Portraits From TheWrap's Sundance Studio (Exclusive Photos)
"The D Train" star James Marsden, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Z for Zachariah" star Chris Pine, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Z for Zachariah" star Margot Robbie, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"52: The Search for the Loneliest Whale in the World" producer Adrian Grenier, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"James White" star Christopher Abbott, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"James White" star Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"James White" and "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" star Cynthia Nixon, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Nasty Baby" stars Alia Shawkat (l) and Kristen Wiig (r) with director Sebastian Silva, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"James White" director Josh Mond, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Misery Loves Comedy" star Lisa Kudrow, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The End of the Tour" star Mamie Gummer, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Misery Loves Comedy" star Kevin Smith, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Misery Loves Comedy" stars Kevin Smith and Kevin Pollack, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Nasty Baby" star Alia Shawkat, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Stockholm, Pennsylvania" star Jason Isaacs, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Stockholm, Pennsylvania" stars Jason Isaacs, David Warshofsky, Cynthia Nixon, Saoirse Ronan (back row, l-r)and Hana Hayse, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Stockholm, Pennsylvania" star Saoirse Ronan, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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YouTube star Flula, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The D Train" star Jeffrey Tambor, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The D Train" star Kathryn Hahn, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The D Train" star Jack Black photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The End of the Tour" star Jason Segel and director James Ponsoldt, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The End of the Tour" star Jason Segel, director James Ponsoldt (back row, l-r), Mickey Sumner and Mamie Gummer (front row, l-r), photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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YouTube star Olga Kay, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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YouTube star Olga Kay, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Resurrection of Jake the Snake Roberts" stars Scott Hall, Jake "The Snake" Roberts (back row, l-r), "Diamond" Dallas Page and director Steve Yu (front row, l-r), photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Viking" directors Sam and Ben Callis, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Animals" creators Mike Luciano and Phil Matarese, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"99 Homes" star Michael Shannon, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Z for Zachariah" star Chiwetel Ejiofor, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Z for Zachariah" star Margot Robbie, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Z for Zachariah" star Margot Robbie, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Z for Zachariah" star Chris Pine, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Bronze" star Melissa Rauch, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Bronze" star Haley Lu Richardson, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Bronze" star Gary Cole, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Slow West" stars Caren Pistorious and Kodi Smit-McPhee with director John Maclean (l-r), photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Sleeping With Other People" star Alison Brie and director Leslye Headland (l-r), photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Knock Knock" stars Lorenza Izzo and Keanu Reeves with director Eli Roth (l-r), photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Knock Knock" stars Lorenza Izzo and Keanu Reeves with director Eli Roth (l-r), photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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Ewan McGregor and Tye Sheridan, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Glassland" star Toni Collette, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Experimenter" stars Winona Ryder and Peter Sarsgaard, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Experimenter" stars Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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Producer Christine Vachon, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Overnight" star Jason Schwartzman, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"A Walk in the Woods" star Robert Redford, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Dope" star Blake Anderson, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Dope" star Kiersey Clemons, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Dope" stars Kiersey Clemons and Shameik Moore, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Dope" star Chanel Iman, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Advantageous" director Jennifer Phang and producer/actor Ken Jeong, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Last Days in the Desert" star Ewan McGregor, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Last Days in the Desert" actor Tye Sheridan, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Diary of a Teenage Girl" actor Alexander Skarsgard, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Diary of a Teenage Girl" star Bel Powley, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck" director Brett Morgan, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Digging for Fire" actor Jake Johnson and director Joe Swanberg, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"People, Places, Things" star Jemaine Clement, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"People, Places, Things" director James C. Strouse, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Mississippi Grind" star Ben Mendelsohn, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Selma" director Ava DuVernay, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"The Hunting Ground" director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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"Cronies" executive producer Spike Lee and director Michael Larnell, photographed by Patrick Fraser at TheWrap's Kia photobooth during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 23, 2015.
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Chris Pine, Keanu Reeves, Kristin Wiig, Lisa Kudrow, Margot Robbie, Alexander Skarsgard, Jeffrey Tambor and Jack Black among stars shot by photographer Patrick Fraser