52 Films by Women Vol 6. 34. THE NOVICE (Director: Lauren Hadaway)
American writer-director Lauren Hadaway based her feature debut, The Novice on four years of rowing and, as she described in an interview with The Queer Review, ‘ten years of coming of age’. The film is intense, visceral and as compelling a tale of self-mortification that you can find outside Catholicism. Her protagonist, Presidential Scholar Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrmann), usually referred to by her surname, which in turn is pronounced ‘doll’ – but never dull – throws herself at tasks and puts the hours in as she attempts to become the best college rower, that is ‘student athlete’, ever. What she lacks in natural gifts she makes up for in grind. She doesn’t cheat or sabotage others. She inflicts pain on herself to get results and sometimes just inflicts pain on herself, period. The Novice is an uncomfortable watch because it turns being the best into an abstraction. Alex is not just obsessed with rowing practice and getting ahead. It defines her. It doesn’t make her happy. On...