‘Rule Breakers’ Review: An Inspirational Story Of Girl Power That Dreams Big, But Only Goes So Far
A pattern is forming with all the biopics and other movies based on true stories coming out lately. And guess what, we have another one from Angel Studios, distributor of Brave the Dark, that like Queen of the Ring, tells the tale of a woman who, along with a group of ambitious and precocious girls, try to change the world.
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Rule Breakers reenacts the life of Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri) and the struggles of the Afghan Dreamers, an all-girl group of students from Afghanistan who built robots and exhibited them in competitions around the globe – including in America – before the collapse of their homeland’s fragile government in 2021.
Mahboob and her uphill battle to learn about computers in a country where it is forbidden for girls to attend school past a certain age are the main focus. The Taliban and the locals aren’t supportive, but luckily, her father is, and his encouragement sets her on a path of promise, renown, and infamy in the eyes of tyrants who belong to a certain culture.
She goes to college, studies abroad, and returns home to change a backward system for the benefit of young girls whom she wants to give the same opportunities she obtained by a sheer miracle. That’s where the ensemble of “Dreamers” come in for the requisite journey of self-discovery countered by fierce and often bloodthirsty opposition.
Rule Breakers is directed by Bill Guttentag who is known for documentaries such as Nanking (2007), and dramas such as Knife Fight (2012) that have something to do with themes of war, politics, and human rights. He puts that background to use and imbues the film with documentary realism wherever he can whether that’s shaky handheld camera work, B-roll, or stray interviews.
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The events were previously covered in the MTV doc Afghan Dreamers streaming on Paramount Plus. That follows the real team and puts more of an emphasis on them than Mahboob. It’s also much bleaker in the way it depicts the terrorism and turmoil of their country. Guttentag’s dramatization doesn’t shy away from those things; he just doesn’t linger on them.
There is one major bombing that happens in the second half and a drive-by shooting at the beginning where Mahboob is run off a desert road. Her car takes fire but the resulting bullet holes are the most obvious done-in-post CGI this side of Captain America: Brave New World. Aside from those moments, Guttentag (who co-wrote the script with the real Mahboob) goes for the usual underdog, social-justice cliches.
From the beginning, we’re told that women aren’t free and the refrain all the Dreamers have in common is they want to be independent and go to college. They just need men to get off their backs and not just the Taliban. They have a few kind and protective big brother types watching over them on the road, and they complain a little when one tracks them down at a Mexican nightclub at two in the morning.
It’s familiar messaging though not without cause here. Considering the culture and society they are dealing with, the message (and I don’t strictly mean “The Message”) doesn’t sound so hollow even if it is tiresome to jaded Western ears. Can it be categorized as woke? To a point, but the landing is softer, I’d say.
I’d also say Rule Breakers is a little more polished than Queen of the Ring or Brave the Dark, overall. However, it won’t give Angel Studios any more attention than they already have. It simply continues their trend of ‘Oh, there’s another one. That’s nice! Anyway…’
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Rule Breakers
PROS
- Has some of the energy of a 90s Disney movie about a sport like 'The Mighty Ducks', and reminded me of those
CONS
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge is in this, and even though she only shows up in the final act, there's a palpable dip in quality when she's around
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