 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Riot Girls • Year: 2019 • Country: Canada • Director: Jovanka Vuckovic • Main cast: Madison Iseman, Paloma Kwiatkowski, Jenny Raven • Runtime: 81 minutes • Production company: Clique Pictures, Head Gear Films, Metrol Technology • TRAILER
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By the looks, Riot Girls (2019) was one of those movies I couldn’t miss when screened at the Sitges Film Festival. After reading about it for being present at other festivals like Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada, Outfest Film Festival in the USA and Fantasy Filmfest in Berlin, Germany, the plot of the movie attracted me. 1990s music, lots of punk attitude, female empowerment, some gore scenes, and riots, lots of riots. Be honest, you would also get attracted by a film with these ingredients, wouldn’t you?
Now it comes the worst part. Riot Girls (2019) is a silly movie, with a silly script, filled with silly cliches, and leaking interest every new minute of the running time passing. The big emotions at the fast-paced start of the movie, where they lamely explain the origins of the infectious disease spawn, all wrapped up with L7 playing loud, all that excitement gets deluded very fast, as soon as the movie starts to take place. The set-up, some kind of Mad Max post-apocalypse meets Hot Topic, all those teenagers with their clean clothes, perfect make-up and organized social structures, it all just had no sense. The conversations, characters descriptions, and initial happenings of the film just didn’t have any sense. And that was just the beginning.
I can believe the filmmakers wanted to plead to this late 20th-century nostalgia that is already backfiring us and do some of Turbo Kid (2015) flick with highschool gangs. The alternative and punk kids against the poshy football team members and cheerleaders. The dream of every adolescent growing up trying to find their place in this world, especially in North America and more especially in the 1990s. And it all surrounded by a punk rock soundtrack that recalls films like Repo Man (1984), Glory Daze (1995) and SLC Punk! (1998). But sorry, that is not enough.
Riot Girls (2019) is a silly movie, yes, I already mentioned that. And the soundtrack is the best it has, that is also said. So what is left? Not much, nothing that we haven’t seen many other times. The plot and events are just hollow. The actors try to be as competent as possible, but there is nothing they can do. And the pace of the movie is quite intense, not giving a rest to the action, but it all is just irrelevant. The script written by Katherine Collins is too bad, and the direction of Jovanka Vuckovic leaves no space to originality. Man, the final fight is so dumb! I just can’t get it out of my head. So, you know this situation when a movie is not working at all but then you still have hopes that the climax can at least bring some of your attention back? Well, they also fail with that here.
It really is a pity. It is not the case of ruining a movie because of personal high hopes, trust me. Riot Girls (2019) just doesn’t work at all. Maybe if I was 15 years old and I only had seen one or two horror movies in my life I could find it decent enough. But it’s not the case. And I can’t shake off the feeling of Riot Girls (2019) being a big missed opportunity. The filmmaker’s fault.
RATE: 4/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6049106
