Synopsis
A 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.
The Novice
2021 Directed by Lauren Hadaway
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Alternative Title
La aspirante
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The scariest part is I know people like this. The maximalist filmmaking is really impressive, though sometimes overbearing, and Isabelle Fuhrman is excellent.
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THE NOVICE is a ferociously directed psychological sports drama by Lauren Hadaway that pummeled me with its onslaught of immersive editing, sound & visuals. Isabelle Fuhrman gives an obsessively driven performance that aggressively pushes into awe inspiring & disturbing territory
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An overall solid debut and a really compelling lead performance by Isabelle Fuhrman, but the film is often over-directed to the point where the tension feels purely visual rather than an organic element of the story and characters. Part of that is also due to a script that I think actually makes the world around our main character almost too...normal? I get that we're seeing the psychological breakdown of one character and we need some sense of contrast, but when her coaches and friends are all very reasonable and level headed and outwardly concerned about her, that unintentionally takes some of the tension out of the room. Obviously it's a different film, but part of the reason Whiplash worked so…
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As someone who personally used the rowing machine once at the gym, I definitely related to all of this
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Absolute knockout.
As a Whiplash stan, I was always going to dig this, but it impressed me beyond those surface comparisons. There's something profoundly American about that destructive path to victory that I really connected to. The level of care and attention to detail is extraordinary. Isabelle Fuhrman will be tough to beat for the year's best performance.
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A stunning movie!! I am literally STUNNED!
Think Black Swan with the editing of the last 15 minutes of Requiem For A Dream and the music and cinematography of The Social Network. Spearheaded by a tour-de-force, give it all you’ve got, warts and all, phenomenal performance by Isabelle Fuhrmann, this movie is one of the very best of the year.
A young woman joins her college rowing team and little by little she sets out to the the best, but at what cost? The cost of her sanity, her health, her entire being. It asks the question when do you stop competing with others and start competing with yourself? When do you cross that line? There’s a few A-HA moments…
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I have never really understood the obsession of various people to achieve perfection. I do understand the concept and the importance of putting care and effort into what we are passionate about, but the idea of literally putting one's life or the life of another at risk for something so insignificant is incomprehensible to me. Sometimes I think films like this tend to prove me right, for they are kind of cautionary tales of what may happen if you choose to take that road.
To be perfectly honest, I was not really looking forward to seeing this film, but when I saw that Zack Snyder was involved in the production I became more intrigued. I also started hearing about Isabelle's…
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“REMEMBER YOUR COMPETITION”
Describing The Novice as intense feels like a disservice. Like a downplaying of the true scope of rabid frenzy that Lauren Hadaway’s debut works itself into.Isabelle Fuhrman’s performance is one with a level of prowess I don’t think we’ve seen from her since her role in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan. The rage, the hunger, the psychological demise of her character, Alex Dall, plays out lightning fast, more a straight shot down rather than a downward spiral.
A more than competent addition to the “self destruction in the name of craft” subgenre that resides in the greater scale thriller sphere. I never wanted it to end, and yet, I couldn’t help but let out a deep exhale of relief when it did.
Tribeca Film Festival Watch #16
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"You've got to decide if this is the hill you're going to die on" -Coxswain,
- 2021 Ranked: boxd.it/aL2Ys
For real for real this happened to my friend Mike once.
Isabelle Fuhrman is everything in this intense and interesting thriller about a young woman trying to achieve her best no matter the costs. The obsession presented in the film is so relatable, even if you've never done crew, and the tension is palpable. I loved the beautiful cinematography but mostly I was just invested in Alex Dall's goals and mental health.
Great start to Tribeca for me.
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