Tribeca 2021: Collegiate Athlete Possessed by Competitive Spirit in ‘THE NOVICE’

Ernest Hemingway famously opined, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” I’ve taken this sentiment to heart in my own life, allowing a competitive spirit with myself to drive my ambitions, both professionally and athletically, rather than trying to compare my skill with others. The Novice, the arresting debut feature from writer-director Lauren Hadaway, explores what happens when an obsession with besting yourself goes too far. As witnessed here, there is no nobility in obsession. 

Isabelle Fuhrman (The Orphan) is Alex Dall, a try-hard presidential scholar who doesn’t know her limits. Or refuses to learn them. As Dall attempts to strategize her way through the ideal collegiate experience, like by scheduling the drunken loss of her virginity at a frat party, she turns to the university’s rowing team as a way to prove her worth, as much to herself as to others. 

Competing against other freshman novices, Dall angles for one of the coveted spots on the varsity squad. Her commitment to early hours of training and the regular sacrifice of any off-the-water social life pushes her to the top spots of contention but doesn’t ingratiate her to her fellow teammates, many of who see her as weird, unapproachable, or, at worst, psychotic.  

Hadaway’s film begs questions about the collegiate athlete experience, exploring the line between pushing yourself to become the “best” version of yourself and becoming obsessive and taking things too far. Dall is scrappy, yes, but she’s also an obsessive try-hard and as she continues to push her crumbling body, taping up the infected wounds in her palms and covering areas where blood infections have clearly started to take root, her disapproving teammates see her as more of a self-obsessed liability than an inspirational go-getter.

Beautifully photographed by Todd Martin, who injects both the college social scene and the rowing sequences on the Charles River a kind of pressing claustrophobic sheen, a visual representation of the pressures of East Coast prestige, The Novice looks like the work of someone who’s been making films for a while, hardly a novice. An icy score from Alex Weston helps solidify the booming pressure Dall continues to rest on her own shoulders and as Hadaway peels back to reveal more layers to Dall’s destructive competitive spirit, we see how deeply wounded and self-harming she truly is.

Fuhrman is excellent in the role, playing a challenging character that evokes our pity if not our sympathy. Where other films might expose some underlying trauma that made Dall the competitive beast she is, The Novice sits instead in Dall’s underlying unrest. Maybe there is some deep-seated pain that drives her need to succeed, maybe it’s just the way that she’s wired. But this is not a tale of redemption and overcoming odds so much as a dark character-driven piece about coming to peace with yourself and Fuhrman expertly gives life to a largely unlikeable character.

In some ways, she reminded me of Mark Zuckerberg as played by Jesse Eisenberg, a pesky, irritating know-it-all who might be on the spectrum. And just as Zuckerberg became a tragic figure in his own story of ascension, inoculated against the judgement of others through his success, so too does Dall only focus on the finish line. She’s blinded to the non-scientific details of overall success, oblivious to the social and camaraderie aspects of any true championship team. 

How many times do you need to review your answers on a test to get a perfect score? How many jump squats does it take to become a champion? How many times do you have to make yourself puke from working out so hard to earn a place in the top boat? All of these are questions Dall asks herself while missing out on the most important question of all: at what point do you stop competing in the face of your own oblivion and instead tame the unrest within? 

CONCLUSION: A thrilling character study about an obsessive athlete and her self-destructive drive, Lauren Hadaway’s ‘The Novice’ explosively flips the sports drama on its head.

B+

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