Foxfire (1996)
4/10
Female empowerment?
14 May 2002
think "Foxfire" is trying to make a positive stand about young women defending their rights. The problem is...it goes about it all wrong.

The fresh, young cast is wonderful. Yes, Angelina Jolie shows what kind of talent she has. Jolie plays a character nicknamed Legs. Legs literally shows up out of nowhere and struts into a high school biology class. She pulls the pins out of a live (!!) frog that is about to be dissected and tosses the frog out a window to freedom. She then climbs out the window herself. Legs has this odd habit of showing up at the school even though she apparently has no connection to it.

Anyway, she befriends four girls at the school. She soon finds out that the scummy biology teacher has been sexually harassing and fondling some of his female students. They decide to get a bit of revenge and end up beating him up. The girls are then suspended for a few weeks. They find an abandoned home in pretty good shape and they decide to make it their hangout.

Some female bonding and hijinks take place. They give each other tattoos. They break into the school and carelessly start a fire. Implausibly, one of the girls is almost abducted by a bunch of guys from the school. Luckily, a couple of her friends had been hiding behind some bushes or something and one of them pulls a knife on the guys. Then they steal the main abductor's vehicle. They end up being arrested and charged with several serious felonies. Extremely weak plotting if you ask me.

Ultimately, the film tailspins out of control. As the movie progresses, the viewer loses more and more sympathy for the girls. It should be the other way around. You should care more about characters once you get to know them. These girls make such awful and selfish decisions that you end up feeling that they deserve whatever comes to them. Sadly, the fabulous cast can't save the fatal script they were given. 4/10
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