Winner of Best U.S. Narrative Feature Film at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, The Novice is a college drama that shows the dark side of striving for perfection. Picture the adrenaline-inducing anxiety of Whiplash combined with the relentless nature of Black Swan and you’ll find The Novice fits squarely in the middle of these hyper-intense character studies.
The Novice follows Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman – Best Actress winner at Tribeca Film Festival), a queer female collegiate rower whose struggle with being a perfectionist goes from being a positive attribute to a cry for help. Over the course of a few months, her dangerously obsessive pursuit to attain straight A’s and stand out on her school’s crew team affects her mental health, physical health, and relationships with peers and love interests alike. Alex doesn’t care who she offends on the way up, as long as she moves up.
The film is nontraditional in its editing style with quick cuts and fast-paced shooting, seemingly reminiscent of how I’d image Alex’s mind to be: racing constantly. Its eerie nature and gloomy aesthetic hums with desire, doubt, and secrets.
The Novice is Lauren Hadaway’s directorial debut, but the former competitive rower didn’t need years of filmmaking experience to successfully bring the rarely-seen portrayal of women’s crew to the big screen. What’s even more impressive are the dual storylines that are equally fraught with increasing psychosis. Not only is Alex developing gnarly open wounds on her palms from the incessant rowing, she is also stumbling through a relationship with her Physics teacher’s assistant, Dani (Dilone).
Set to a rich score by Alex Weston, The Novice is a cautionary tale about what happens when we push our human potential too far. For Alex, “quitting” is the most offensive word and “relaxing” should be viewed as a privilege. Sadly, there are people who subscribe to this way of thinking that, although maybe not as severely as Alex, could alleviate the self-appointed pressure to be perfect. Grit is a great thing when used appropriately, and as writer/director Lauren Hadaway shows us in stark detail, there is such a thing as taking it too far.
This review originally ran on June 24, 2021, during the Tribeca Film Festival.
Distributed by IFC Films, The Novice opens in theaters this Friday, 12/17.
