The Novice, 2021.
Written and Directed by Lauren Hadaway.
Starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth, Dilone, Jonathan Cherry, Kate Drummond, Jeni Ross, Eve Kanyo, Nikki Duval, Chantelle Bishop, and Charlotte Ubben.
SYNOPSIS:
A queer college freshman joins her university’s rowing team and undertakes an obsessive physical and psychological journey to make it to the top varsity boat, no matter the cost.
An overachieving mindset presented through the lens of a psychological thriller yields propulsively intense results and a fiery, obsessive performance from Isabelle Fuhrman in writer and director Lauren Hadaway’s narrative feature debut, The Novice. Intriguingly, that compulsive need for accomplishment is applied to college rowing, a sport dependent on teamwork rather than individual achievements. One could argue that pushing their body to the limit and focusing on personal improvement, times, and growth doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things considering the most effective way to win races is to function in synchronicity as cohesive a unit as possible.
Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman, undeniably dedicated and breaking herself mentally and physically in the role) is no ordinary student-athlete. She becomes enamored with understanding the physics of rowing, training, and making individual times impressive enough to earn her spot on the varsity team. There’s also something much darker boiling inside The Novice as Alex takes her training regiment to the extreme (with the blood and scars on full display), often with sweaty close-ups emphasizing every stressing body maneuver set to a ritualistic voice inside her head, burning the workout plan into her mind (set to an increasingly distressing and harrowing score from Alex Weston that is one of the year’s best).
Take Edgar Allen Poe and mash it together with the tone of a Darren Aranofsky horror mind-fuck and replace Whiplash‘s drumming with rowing, and you get a perfect sense of what The Novice is. It’s a bleak story of seemingly impossible levels of drive and ambition, one that gradually shifts from drama into hallucinatory horror. Isabelle Furman is a repeated lightning bolt of momentum, ensuring The Novice reaches the finish line as a confident, rattling debut.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
