Philip French 

Fast Girls – review

This British drama about a group of female athletes in training soon runs itself into the ground, writes Philip French
  
  

fast girls lily james
Lenora Crichlow, Lashana Lynch, Lily James and Dominique Tipper in Fast Girls: no gold medals. Photograph: PR

This disappointing British sports movie observes a group of female runners preparing for a world athletic event in London. The social backgrounds are crudely etched, the races (edited to a synthesised rock score) unexciting, the results predictable. Will black working-class Shania from a sink estate tame her egotism to become a relay star? Will white middle-class Lisa get out from under the shadow of her overbearing Olympic gold medallist father and become a world-class sprinter in her own right? The film's brightest moment comes when the relay team angrily retaliate against four black male chauvinists who harass them in a bar. After removing their high heels, the enraged girls tear off barefoot, and the pursuing guys are properly humiliated, outdistanced by these Harriets of ire.

 

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