Last Woman Standing (2013)

Absolutely brilliant

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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

I came to this film not knowing much about boxing. What I know basically comes from Rocky films and Tyson and Ali documentaries. I think people who already know more about Mary and Ariane or boxing will probably have a more favourable reaction to it.For me this documentary's flaws mostly have to do with me wanting more information, because the picture itself is absorbing for the full time. There should just be more, which is kind of a nice flaw to have, because it means it's interesting, and time keeps moving so there's going to be more which can be filmed.So, I still have my ignorance about boxing, and women's boxing in particular. I was hoping to learn about it, since the film is about a rivalry to get a coveted spot in the first Olympic women's boxing competition. Beyond the history of the female version of the sport, its scoring system, how boxers fight in the ring, what the effect of having a particular set of weight classes is, and the road-map to the Olympics, I'm also still interested in what would draw these two particular women to it.But one thing I did enjoy learning is that there's a refreshing level of good sportsmanship from everyone involved, in the ring, and out. When you compare these top athletes with what we sometimes see in the world of men's boxing, it's admirable and unexpected. There is a respect that you might more readily associate with Asian martial arts (at least as portrayed in cinema).The film is best at illustrating the harshness of a system that permitted only one female boxer to represent Canada at the 2012 Olympics, when potentially two could fight at that level. Canada can have two entrants into other events, so why not women's boxing? The absurdity seems most highlighted early when a decision is made to fund only Mary, even though she was apparently not yet the person guaranteed to represent Canada. I'm left thinking that it would be nice if Olympic-level sport was just about excellence, rather than flags and quotas. I wanted the filmmakers to delve more into the development of the friendship between the two rival boxers. That background seems to go by so quickly, and suddenly they are opponents, so I don't feel as a viewer that I care perhaps as much as I'm meant to. I didn't really feel the tension in having to defeat a friend in the ring, but I know it's a key part of the story because that rivalry was the fuel for the Olympic competition. Although it's a documentary, I think there's some room to use more techniques from dramatic features here to make us feel it.And I also wish they had delved more into the coaches' stories. These men are surely interesting people, and I'm sure they are well-known in the sport, but as a viewer, I don't know them, and I want to. At the Olympics itself, I wonder whether scoring was an issue. Earlier in the film, Ariane had challenged some scoring when she lost, and I wonder if Mary considered that option at the Olympics, because I do recall the London men's event was notoriously marred by poor refereeing and judging. (If even I heard of it, it must have been bad.)Fortunately, we know from the film's ending that the story itself is not ended, and that one or both of these boxers will fight in 2016 in Rio. I hope that the filmmakers will continue with this story to create a sequel.