‘The Novice’: Isabelle Fuhrman Tortures the Team, and Herself, in Lauren Hadaway’s Subversive Sports Drama

Tony Sokol

It’s only rowing, for Christ’s sake. The misery Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) puts herself through to be the best at what she’s worst at makes for a mesmerizing performance which is often painful to watch.  Dall is a walking contradiction and a lesson in obsessive compulsion. She entertains no easy road. She majors in physics, not in spite of it being her worst subject, but because of it. She is the first student to hit class or the water and the last one out of the pool. 

Lauren Hadaway’s directorial debut, “The Novice,” is a deep sports film, like “Breaking Away” or “Hoop Dreams,” and there are scenes where Dall looks more battered than Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler,” but it is more an exploration of college life. Pushing for excellence or pulling for scholarships, looking for experience or burying a past, it all gets graded, the competition is fierce, and the water is full of crabs. The arc carries a similar vibe to “Gilmore girls,” and Jamie Brill (Amy Forsyth) is the athletic equivalent of Paris Geller (Liza Weil) on that show. Alex and Jamie are competitors, teammates, inspirations, pace cars and bitter rivals. They each have needs, but where one is based on the desperation of funding, the other’s is on pure desperation.

Hadaway’s genius is in picking the dark horse. Alex has a full-ride scholarship, and a name which goes along with it on social media. She is as psychologically ill-equipped to be a team member as she is physically when she signs up for rowing. But while she can work on her strength, endurance, timing, “legs, body, arms, arms, body, legs,” it is at the expense of her psyche, and everyone else around her. A less astute, more mainstream director would have focused on Jamie, who really has something to lose, and has been training to be a team member all her life.

None of this makes Alex any less sympathetic or charismatic. Nor does it take away from her, nor the film’s, sense of humor. She drives her TA Dani (Dilone) to distraction by checking answers on tests until the fully scheduled exam time has run out, even if the other students turned in papers hours before. Alex can’t even bribe Dani with a night out because the TA doesn’t date students. But the moment that class concludes, she tells Alex, “I’m not your teacher anymore.” And things become just like every college relationship since the beginning of time, arguing social inequality over games of pool, getting the obligatory drunken one-night-stand out of the way, or debating the space program. “You’re a physics major and you’re shitting on the Moon landing?,” Dani asks, and it may not sound like a punchline, but it defines the subtle and realistic humor of academics on the loose. They’re not girls gone wild, except, of course, for Alex, who really is up for anything. Twice, if she thinks she might get better at it. But however long it takes to be the best. She’s the worst.

The film is a drama, and it’s a devious one, where triumph is a virtue, not a conquest, and the expectations are undermined, but “The Novice” has many witty lines, and even physical comedy, realistic and in-the-moment of the sports training. Rowing has funny names, and the varsity team does not like gigglers. Coach Pete (Jonathan Cherry) shuts down that one joke, but shares an extremely quick but memorable sight gag with Alex while teaching the equipment. 

“The Novice” keeps it dark, it adds grit to the film stock, and a pained realism to the endurance of the sport. The rowers go out in any weather but lightning, and the actors look like they’re performing action rather than performances during some of the  segments filmed in storm conditions. The rowing sequences, while usually shot from a distance, appear to be grueling affairs, but we don’t get a sense of win or lose, just exhaustion and resilience. The soundtrack is lively, from the doo-wop sides in the poolroom to Brenda Lee almost everywhere else. Alex appears to make her final decision based on the song we hear playing. It makes so much emotional and sonic sense. The score, by Alex Weston, brings enough tension for a slasher film. 

Alex is a layered and somehow ambiguous force. She sometimes appears delirious, other times deflated, but always hypo-manic. No longer than two minutes of screen time is ever allowed before someone tells her to calm down, chill out, or fuck off. She is not shy. She sits right down and doodles equations while snipping at heels. New to the university rowing team, Alex guides us through the process, world and pecking order of the sport. Alex practices rowing until her hands deform. She slashes herself in the shower while no one is looking, she makes enemies of all her teammates and coaches, regardless of who gives her the keys to the boathouse, and she doesn’t bring the winning race to the docks. She is a sports film antihero.

“The Novice” rows against the tide, plays against expectations, and delivers a sports film as subversive as Halle Berry’s “Bruised” is rebellious. You really don’t know who to root for in “The Novice,” because the obvious choice is the strongest trainer and the weakest link. Don’t bet on a happy ending, the odds are against it, and rowing is a dangerous sport. 

“The Novice” releases Dec. 17 on VOD and in select theaters.