A massively accomplished (if laboriously constructed) boxing flick with an intiguing gender twist, Girlfight is a gritty feminist fairytale rendered an absolute knockout by newcomer Michelle Rodriguez’ raw, smouldering central performance.

Rodriguez plays Diana Guzman, a Latina high-school senior and consummate troublemaker, prone to picking fights at school with anyone who looks at her sideways. The source of her seething rage is an unhealthy domestic situation: her father (Calderon) only registers her existence when assigning her cooking duties, and is generally such a c*** that Diana’s mother has long since committed suicide to escape his tyranny. Meanwhile, her brother Tiny(Santiago) is a sensitive soul with ambitions of going to art college: the old man is obviously disinclined to encourage his artistic streak, and instead sends him to boxing lessons. Whereupon Diana meets Tiny’s trainer (Tirelli) and approaches him for training (with money stolen from the dad) – he’s initially scornful, but she soon shows far more promise than her brother.

Going by the synopsis, there might seem little to differentiate Girlfight from Rocky, or indeed any other boxing flick one cares to mention – ‘tough kid from wrong side of town finds redemption through being able to beat fuck out of kid in similarly dire straits’. And apart from the fact that the protagonist’s a girl, there is little real deviation from the standard genre production. But it has the kind of beautifully pared-down script that’s rare indeed: each scene magnificently depicts the shifting character dynamics with minimum fuss and maximum impact, without ever resorting to short-hand stereotyping or cliched dialogue.

The meteoric rise of Girlfight’s heroine and its attendant melodrama is very effectively countered by the gritty and often putrid settings (the gym doesn’t seem to have seen cleaning fluids in several decades) – but it’s the performances which really make Girlfight unmissable viewing. Debut director Kusama held open casting calls in order to find a female equivalent of Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, and she seems to have struck gold: Rodriguez’ screen presence is positively volcanic, and comparisons with the younger versions of Brando and deNiro aren’t by any means excessive.

A remarkable, fearless debut for both director and star, neither of whom you would want to meet down a dark alleyway on this evidence. See it.