✖ Toe to Toe is about two girls, Jessie and Tasha, who live two separate worlds. Jessie is a rich white girl and Tasha is a poor black girl. Tasha is a scholarship student trying to make her way to Princeton and Jessie is a free spirit whose life is heading for a fall. Both girls are on the Lacrosse team and become competitors. Click here to see the trailer to Toe to Toe.
✖ Personal Issues: What struck my responsive chords the most was Jessie’s behaviors. Because Jessie’s mother is absent all of the time, Jessie gets addicted to sex, drugs, and alcohol. I felt almost uncomfortable during some of the sex scenes because Jessie lives off of attention and affection from anyone who will give it to her. The director has the actress, Louisa Krause in a lot of sexual scenes and I responded to these actions because it is sad that some people rebel or release their feelings like Jessie does when striving for attention. This movie reminds me of another Film Fest movie Thirteen. Click here for the trailer. I think I responded and felt uncomfortable towards Jessie’s actions because it was believable. In today’s society kids act just as Jessie does, even when they aren’t striving for attention. I also responded to Tasha who is trying to be different than most blacks in her neighborhood and her family to make the best for herself. Because I am going into education, my inner teacher came out and wanted to take Tasha under my wing to help her dreams come true. I think other viewers may have felt the same way I did because the sex scenes were graphic and could make anyone uncomfortable, but also because the movie was believable that people can respond to the characters because they seemed real.
✖ Technique: I think the music fit the movie because of the characters. There was hip-hop music, contemporary, and Islam music to relate to the characters. I liked a specific camera shot of Tasha when she was lying in the grass after being attacked. The camera was looking down on Tasha and I felt this was very effective. The dialogue between the characters seemed to fit them because it was age appropriate. The teen actors spoke as if they were teens and not adults, and I thought this was also effective. I didn’t really notice any special effects because this was more of a dramatic movie that takes place at a school. During a party scene the characters seemed to move slower for effect (which could account as a special effect). I wasn’t too crazy about all of the scene changes. During the beginning I felt the movie jumped around a little too much. Sometimes the dialogue seemed delayed, or awkward for the characters to say. Although the language was age appropriate, sometimes the wording was awkward.
✖ Acting: The main roles were Jessie played by Louisa Krause and Tasha played by Sonequa Martin. I thought Louisa was a great actress bringing her character’s emotions into the film. As a viewer I really felt her passion and what she was going through. Sonequa was also a good actress. She was a believable character. I believe the two actresses worked well together and had great chemistry. The other characters were believable and none of the acting seemed poor or not believable. The actors were typecast because actors identified with their role. Not once did I feel like the actors were under acting. During the difficult scenes, the actors really took to their role and brought it to life. Sonequa did a great job during her attack and Louisa did a good job being a wild teen.
✖ Plot: Toe-to-Toe is a coming of age movie dealing with acceptance. Jessie who is a rich white girl has a reputation that follows her. Tasha is a poor black girl trying to make her way to Princeton to be the first in her family. Both girls are on the lacrosse team and become competitive. Jessie tries to get the guy that Tasha likes with her bad reputation and that leads to the trouble of the movie. Jessie’s mother is always away so Jessie is always out having sex at parties and doing drugs. After Tasha catches Jessie with the boy she likes, a tiff between the two girls occurs on the lacrosse field. Although the two girls come from different backgrounds, they come together to help each other out in the end. I felt the plot itself wasn’t original, but the way director Emily Abt wrote the movie was original. There are a lot of movies with a rich teen who is left alone from his or her parents and a poor black teen trying to succeed. Emily Abt wrote this film with originality with the two girls coming together help each other out in the end. Abt balances the negatives of teen themes of sex, drugs, and alcohol with working hard to get into a good school.
✖ Themes: The main ideas of the film are dealing with acceptance and affection. This film shows the struggles most teens in today’s society deal with such as drugs, alcohol, and sex. This film also shows the theme of the struggle to get into a good college. This movie is not a love story, but it does leave thought-provoking statements about relationships with friends. You have to choose the right friends and not always fall back on a bad reputation. It also shows relationships between parents and school personnel. I think a hidden message in Toe-to-Toe could be that a reputation doesn’t have to follow you and you can break the habit. Jessie was known for her sexual demeanor at four previous schools and while she allowed people to believe she had changed, she relied on her reputation to feel acceptance. In the end, Jessie realizes she needs to break the habit. The messages are integrated within the plot.
✖ Genre: I don’t know what type of genre this would fall under. It is a drama with many themes built into the movie. This film, like I previously stated, relates to Thirteen. This movie is in its own genre dealing with pressing issues of coming of age.
✖ Representation: This movie mainly focuses on social class, teens, and working parents. Rather than having the lower class in a bad light, Emily Abt shows that someone of a lower class can be successful and get into a good school like Princeton. She shows the rich not being happy. She shows that money can’t buy happiness because Jessie is a rich girl who is missing something in her life. This movie shows mothers working seem to avoid or distance themselves from their children. Jessie’s mother was never around and she had to have a housekeeper. Tasha’s mother worked late hours and Tasha’s grandmother was around her life. This movie portrays the typical teen struggles and how teens deal with certain struggles. I think Emily represented these elements the way she did to show that anyone can succeed, teens struggle with pressing issues, and that parents who aren’t in their child’s life is going to miss out. Emily wanted to show these issues to the public in her film.
✖ Ideology: Sexuality in general was questioned in this film. There was a lot of sexuality and how some teens just do it without thinking. During the end of the film, homosexuality was also brought up, but it was not shown in a positive or negative light. Sexuality could scare some parents in this movie to see how some teens are so free with it. Jessie’s character and her not caring about how many people she has slept with accomplished it. Towards the end of the film, readers’ beliefs may be the same or change. Although Jessie portrays sex as okay throughout the film, by the end she realizes that it’s not okay to sleep with everyone.
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