Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

best movie i've ever seen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Co-written by Noel Clarke Fast Girls is a female lead sport films that follows all the clichés and conventions associated with the genre. Starring Lenora Crichlow as tough girl Shania Andrews, a runner from a tough area of London who gets a chance for glory on the international athletics circuit and her middle-class rival Lisa Temple (Lily James) who share a mutual dislike for each other. Even worst for the two is have to run together in the British relay team at the international championships and have to overcome their differences to succeed.Running (pun unintended) at a brisk 90 minutes Fast Girls leaves no stone unturned in the myriad of clichés it encounters on its journey, Shania getting corrupted before a big meet and underperforming because of it, misunderstandings between the team, a lead character quitting before having to come back and a disastrous performances before success at the final. It is truly paint-by-numbers screen writing, a Mad Libs versions of the script where people can just feel the gaps. You will just sit through the film bored because it is so predictable.It is the first film to be directed by Regan Hall and his direction is very bland. There is no invention to the film, the sports scenes are just shot in slo-mo to try and add excitement and it he clean he was working on a very low budget. He does not show much potential at this moment in time.The best aspect of the film is the acting, getting talent like Crichlow and the glorious Lily James to lead the film. Crichlow was been a competent performer on TV and she provides the goods. James had the most interesting character, being made out to be a villain yet given some depth because she is living in the shadow of her father, a champion athlete who forces her to become a runner, uses his position to ensure she gets preferential treatment, disliked by her teammates and feels she has to win to please her daddy. She could have been the main character of the film and it would have been more interesting to have it from a middle-class perspective.Fast Girls was made cash in for the 2012 London Olympics and it shows, being a cheap production that wants to tell the most unoriginal film possible. It was a film that earned plenty of 3 star reviews in the UK but it deserves to fall into obscurity.

Did you realise that the 2011 Athletics World Championships were held in London? No, neither did I. The record books will actually tell you that they took place in Daegu, South Korea, but this film will tell you something different. The reason is that the film was slated for release in June 2012 to cash in on the forthcoming London Olympics, and the original script had the characters competing for a place on the British team for those Games. Unfortunately, the producers had failed to realise that the International Olympic Committee take a dim view of anyone other than an Official Sponsor cashing in on their Sacred Games, and that the commercial use of phrases such as "London Olympics" and "London 2012" was restricted by law, a law enforceable by some quite ferocious criminal sanctions. Hence the invention of the fictitious "London 2011" World Championships. Lisa Temple is white, blonde, rich and beautiful. Shania Andrews is black (or, to be more accurate, of mixed race), brunette, working-class and also beautiful. (The name "Shania", incidentally, is pronounced Shan-EYE-ah. It does not rhyme with "Tania"). Apart from their beauty, the two young women have three things in common. They are fast (in the sense of "speedy" rather than that of "promiscuous", despite that rather obvious pun in the title). They are competing for a place on the British 4×100 metres relay team. And what is more they hate each other very much. Cue a film which incorporates just about every sporting-drama cliché known to man or woman. There are the antagonistic duo whose initial mutual dislike turns first to mutual respect and then to friendship as they learn to work together as part of a team. There is the rich girl who at first seems like a snobby bitch and the poor girl who at first seems to have a massive chip on her shoulder but who both eventually turn out to be thoroughly Good Eggs. There is the pushy, domineering parent (in this case Lisa's father David, himself a former famous athlete). There is the inspirational coach in the shape of Shania's mentor Brian (an amateur, but far more inspirational than any professional could be). There is the sudden, unexpected stroke of bad luck when an experienced older competitor's last chance at glory is dashed by injury, (but thereby giving a chance to an up-and-coming youngster). There is the sudden, unexpected stroke of good luck; when Great Britain finish just one place away from qualification in the semi- finals I just knew what was coming next. And of course it came; the French were disqualified for an infringement. (The French athletes, unlike the British, are all white. I wonder how many decades it must be since a real French sprint relay team did not include a single black member). There is a possible love-rivalry between Shania and Lisa. There is the inevitable heartwarming triumph at the end. Change the sport and the sex of the characters, and this could be a story from a "Roy of the Rovers" comic.Despite the immense success of "Chariots of Fire" in the early eighties, films about track-and-field athletics have been few and far between. About the only other one I can think of was the American "Personal Best" which told a rather similar story to "Fast Girls", except that the burgeoning relationship between Lisa and Shania stops at the "just good friends" stage and does not become a full-blown lesbian affair as happens with the rival athletes in the other film. Yet this cinematic dearth does not just affect athletics. There are virtually no films about cricket or Rugby Union, and surprisingly few about such popular sports as golf, tennis or even football. I think that part of the reason is that it is difficult to recreate the drama of a live sporting event on the cinema screen and part that it is difficult to write a convincing sporting drama without relying on the sort of clichés set out above. The script did occasionally hint at some more interesting issues, such as the obviously complex relationship between Lisa and her Dad, or Shania's equally complex family background. It is even hinted that one of their colleagues in the relay squad is a "fast girl" in the other sense of the adjective and has been sleeping with potential sponsors despite being married. The film, however, seemed to shy away from exploring these issues in any depth. Lenora Crichlow and Lily James would appear, on the evidence of this movie, to be two gifted young actresses. (This was the first time I had seen Lily; I had previously known Lenora from her role in the television series "Sugar Rush"). Actresses, however, are only as good as their material, and I hope to see these two in better and more original films than this one. 5/10

with a very loose Luke-warm screenplay, boring scenario and plot, tasteless dialog and marginal elementary acting of all actors and/or actresses, this movie in general, sucks although still barely watchable. this movie gave me an impression as if watching an African country's athletes fighting their future in track and field careers instead of the British young athletes. sorry, i did have such confusing impression as if i was watching a nowadays' south African track and field movie since the whites were the minority. these female sprinters were a new kind of sports species, they drank, drunk, party all night, white against the black, black against the white, rich against the poor, parents either divorced or separated or one of them disappeared, or both disappeared.....what a sad but over-the-top modern day rich countries' social infra structural tragedy. winning is everything, no matter what. need a sponsor, or many sponsors, otherwise, no gears, no training coach, no future. what a commercialized world.

Black working class East London girl Shania qualifies for the British 200 metre squad and is put forward for the women's 4 x 100m relay team. However, also on the team is posh white Lisa whose dad is a wealthy former athlete who has influence within the athletic establishment. And Lisa takes an instant dislike to Shania...Fast Girls is essentially Rocky with British girls in running shoes against a backdrop of soap opera bitchiness. But, for all that, it's not bad. The characters are all reasonably well drawn and nicely played, the soap opera antics are well within the realms of believability, the film is nicely photographed and, of course, the races genuinely get hold of you and nearly have you out of your seat cheering the girls on. I'm not a sports fan, and why should I care about fictitious races? But I did.I could have done without the music on the soundtrack, but I recognise that this is an attraction for a good part of the target audience and, for me, it was only a minor distraction.I enjoyed this film much more than I expected to.