Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Josalynn Smith
Starring: Briana Middleton, Stella Everett, Seth Gilliam, Cody Kostro, Eisa Davis,
Guinevere Turner, Ella Jay Basco
In 1964 Jean-Luc Godard paraphrased DW Griffith and declared that all
you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. In the 1970s, American
exploitation filmmakers figured out that you could make an even better
movie with two girls and a gun. Exploiting both the rising wave of
feminism and the newly relaxed rules around nudity of the era, drive-in
theatres were filled with movies in which two young women embark on a
road trip that sees them blowing away all manner of male villains. Such
movies usually featured an odd couple dynamic, with an uptight young
middle-class woman being influenced by a free-wheeling young working
class woman of the sort that might be disparagingly described as "white
trash."
Ridley Scott would later give us the glossy '90s version of this type
of movie with Thelma & Louise, and now, expanding her earlier short of the same name,
writer/director Josalynn Smith (co-writing with Alicia Louzoun-Heisler) presents a very Gen-Z take on the female fugitives thriller.
The uptight young middle class woman in this case is Paula (Briana Middleton). Recently graduated from film school, Paula has grand plans to head
to Los Angeles and make it in Hollywood. For now she's stuck in the
stifling environs of suburban St. Louis, where she lives with her
evangelical mother and an ambiguously abusive stepfather. A trip to a
thrift store sees Paula reconnect with Sloane (Stella Everett),
once the most popular girl in their high school, now drifting from one
dead end to another.
Had Ride or Die been made in the '70s heyday of this distinct narrative, the
lesbianism would either be implied or presented as soft porn for a male
audience. Here it's front and centre, and while the movie features two
very attractive young women in various states of undress, it's the
romance rather than the sex that is at the centre of Smith's film. Paula
and Sloane's initial reunion is filmed in tight close-ups as the camera
highlights Sloane's confidence and Paula's nervousness, but also the
undeniable heat between these two young women.
Instantly swayed by Sloane's beauty and charisma, Paula agrees to hit
the road for Hollywood. In classic fashion the impetuous lovers hit
various bumps along the road. Following an incident that ends in
bloodshed, Sloane convinces Paula not to let it derail their plan, but
being exposed to Sloane's cold indifference plants seeds of doubt in
Paula's mind. It also sees Sloane pocket a pistol, and with Chekhov's
maxim in our minds we suspect it will be fired at some point. The
lingering question is that of who the bullet might be aimed at.
Ride or Die is as sexy and thrilling as its '70s forebears, but it's
distinguished by a queerness that isn't used as cheap titillation. In
the dangerously crazy Sloane we have a Gen-Z lesbian cousin of Beatrice
Dalle's Betty. We know it's all going to end in tears, that Sloane's
beaming smile and sunny outlook masks a deep pain, that this road trip
will inevitably end in tragedy (as suggested by the flash forward that
opens the film). Paula knows it too, but she just can't quit this girl,
who is likely the first person she's ever met who makes her feel like
the woman she was meant to be. Importantly, we believe that both of
these women are in love, even if it's of the naive youthful variety. We
know Paula and Sloane aren't destined to grow old together, but they
give each other what they need in this moment, and right now they can't
see further than the next gas station.
The racial dynamic isn't simple colourblind casting. The movie is
brutally honest about how differently the African-American Paula and the
blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sloane are treated. The former is subjected to
countless subtle micro-aggressions, like how a diner waitress assumes
Sloane is the one paying for their meal, or how a tow truck driver
shakes hands with Sloane while ignoring Paula. Less subtle is how a
motel clerk tells Paula they have no rooms available, only to give
Sloane a room moments later. But the biggest threat to Paula comes from
Sloane herself, and at a certain point she begins to wake up to the
reality that keeping company with an unstable white girl probably isn't
a good idea for a young black woman.
Middleton quietly commands the screen in her first lead role, Paula's
confused and contradictory feelings constantly dancing across her
wide-eyed, lovestruck face. In her debut role, Everett arrives as a
fully formed movie star, a whirlwind of charisma sucking up everything
in its path. Both actresses leave us in no doubt as to why Paula and
Sloane are so consumed by one another, making the inevitably tragic
denouement all the more heartbreaking.
