Toe to Toe, a new independent feature written and directed by Emily Abt, opens with contrasting images of Washington D.C. The camera weaves between upscale suburbs and the grittier neighborhoods of “chocolate city” before finally settling on a girl holding a lacrosse stick, with a gaze so intense that it makes you crawl back into your seat. This intensity comes to characterize Tosha, played subtly and beautifully by newcomer Sonequa Martin (read the Zora&Alice interview with Sonequa).
Tosha, a black girl at a Washington prep school, is a rarity not because of her race, but because she is from Anacostia, a rough neighborhood a few metro stops away from her posh school. She is the only black girl on her lacrosse team, a distinction she hopes will help her gain admission to Princeton. In Anacostia, Tosha defiantly carries her lacrosse stick, putting up with taunts from neighborhood kids who don’t understand why she plays a “retarded white people game.” On the lacrosse field, Tosha meets Jessie, who is everything that Tosha is not: rich, white, and carefree. The film centers on the relationship between the girls during a school year where they both wrestle with challenges of growing into womanhood.
Watch the trailer below:
In discussing the film, writer/director Emily Abt explained that she wanted to make a movie that “challenged the status quo” when it comes to race and teenage sexuality. Abt shows a subtle connection between her two main points: one is that we don’t live in a “postracial” utopia and the other that teenage sexuality is woefully misunderstood.
Most of the film takes place in a high school which, if judged solely on the look of its students, seems like a multicultural dream. They may be mostly rich, but they are white, black, Asian, Muslim, and more. Watching the young women on the lacrosse field conjures up ideals of girls who kick ass on the field, have great self-esteem, and are smart enough to get into top colleges to boot.
The reality, alas, is a lot messier. Title IX should have given us women warriors, but instead we have girls like Jessie whose tough and carefree exterior masks intense loneliness. Jessie is forever ignored by her do-gooder, jet-setting mother. At a loss for culture and guidance, she seeks solace in unbridled sexuality. Tosha is presented as controlled, hard working and goal-oriented. Yet, she too wears a mask. She is bearing the weight of her grandmother’s expectations that she will save the family. One thing is clear: regardless of how driven she is, or how much makeup she wears, or how much sex she has, a 17 year old girl is just a girl. And indeed, for both Tosha and Jessie, their struggles manifest in their relationships with their mothers: while Jessie is desperate for attention from her mother and “she-ro,” Tosha barely hides her anger and contempt for hers.
While Abt does not fully explore the racial and cultural dynamics of the school, it as an interesting microcosm of Washington D.C. itself: diverse and intensely self-segregated. As the students show, it isn’t that everyone is willfully bigoted, it’s just that sticking with what you know is the path of least resistance.
Toe to Toe is the type of film that can launch important conversations on girlhood and womanhood. If there is anywhere it falls short, it’s that the film tries too hard to redeem its characters. If anything, I would have preferred that some of the plot lines not wrap up so tidily. Teenage sexuality, mother-daughter relationships, and race are all issues fraught with difficulty. I wish young women across America could see the film and follow with the necessary, if sometimes awkward, conversations that we don’t have nearly enough as girls become women.
Toe to Toe opens today in Los Angeles. Director Emily Abt will do a Q&A following the 7:10pm screening on Friday March 12th. You can purchase your tickets here. It will open in DC’s Landmark’s E street theater starting April 2nd.
