"I told myself that was a perfect moment. And I'd never forget it."
It's with such a feathery touch that Céline Sciamma takes us down the path of how quickly girlhood slips away, probably under any circumstances, but especially growing up in the projects on the outskirts of Paris. There are some incredibly natural performances here, especially the one from Karidja Touré, who plays the 16-year-old at the heart of this film. We see moments in her life that are playful and pure childhood, but eventually we also come to understand her situation, dealing with an abusive brother and being called upon to help her mother clean hotel rooms, her schoolwork suffering in the process. The moment she's told she can't proceed on to high school like everyone else because of her grades and because she's already repeated a level, it's like we start watching her gradually fall through the cracks.
The young woman meets a trio of friends who offer great camaraderie (the scenes of them singing and dancing to Rihanna and J. Dash are wonderful), but we also see her violently confronting rival gangs of girls, trying to handle her burgeoning sexuality in a neighborhood quick to label her, and eventually being groomed by a drug dealer. The inherent sadness in this story and all of the interpersonal relationships are handled with such a deft touch by Sciamma, which makes the film build in power over its second half. There is such humanism here, though the film never becomes cloying or loses its integrity. A near miss for an even higher rating.
