Girlhood

Director Céline Sciamma's third film explores the gang genre from a female perspective and is a stunning counterweight to the innumerable crime films about guys and their masculine angst. Newcomer Karidja Touré plays Marieme, an initially shy high-school student growing up in one of the high-rise tower blocks made so notorious in 1995's La Haine, a film to which Sciamma owes much. Kicked out of school for poor grades, Marieme falls in with a trio of tough girls, led by hard-as-nail-gel Lady (Assa Sylla), and soon discovers not only does crime pay, it's a right laugh, too. Indeed, few films can match the girl-power positivity and sheer brio as the scene where they get wasted and lipsynch to Rihanna's Diamonds. The second half of the movie, in which Marieme learns some hard life lessons, is bumpier but suffused with honesty, and Touré's performance is a tower of power that augurs well for her future career.