RULE BREAKERS REVIEW

“A terrific inspirational film for young girls, showing them they truly can do anything.”

Angel Studios continues to impress by offering a wide array of different types of inspirational true stories, and not necessarily just faith-based films either.

Rule Breakers, written and directed by two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Bill Guttentag (for the doc shorts, Twin Towers and You Don’t Have to Die), pivots again from what some might expect with a true story set mostly in Afghanistan. It’s essentially a biopic about Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri), who taught computers to young girls after fighting for years to get access to computers that were mostly reserved for the country’s males. The real story begins when Roya sets out to form a team to build robots and compete in international tournaments, choosing four of the most knowledgeable teen girls in her class when it comes to science and math. This proves to be an even tougher prospect since few of the girls’ fathers want their daughters involved with this project. After all, this is Afghanistan in 2019 and religious sexism is at its height, although there are few flashbacks to Roya as a younger girl, dealing with an even more sexist regime.

This is a fairly straight-ahead biopic, letting the story unfold mostly chronologically after those few flashbacks, but the story at its heart is so wonderfully motivating that one can easily forgive any of its issues. Ms. Boosheri does a fine job holding things together, giving so much life to this character for a performance that’s on par with Cristiana Dell'Anna in last year’s Cabrini. In many ways, this is probably my second favorite film from Angel Studios after that one.

The film does eventually shift away from Roya and more to her four wards on their journey to master their chosen field in robotics. The team is constantly running into hurdles, such as getting visas (amidst Trump’s travel bans for countries like Afghanistan), and having less time to build and practice with their robots before heading to Washington DC for their first competition. There’s a certain point where some of the hurdles seem to be there just to up the dramatic quotient, and some of those developments work better than others.

Guttentag has spent much of his career working in the field of documentary, with Nanking being a particularly strong effort that mixed standard doc techniques with letters read by known actors. Rule Breakers has elements of documentary, but it’s also a movie that allows a number of less-experienced actresses to really shine. There are a few scattered male characters, such as Ali Fazal’s Shamir, an American tech exec who is impressed by Roya’s achievement, and there’s also a man going along with the girls on their journeys, though we learn very little about him.

Possibly the strangest appearance comes from Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the MC at one of the robotic tournaments, not that she’s bad or anything, but it seems like a strange choice, since by the time she appears, we’ve inured ourselves to the fresher actors.

A fairly straight-ahead and not particularly flashy recounting of the true story at its core, Rule Breakers is still a terrific inspirational and joyous film for younger girls, showing them they truly can do anything.

Rating: 7.5/10

Rule Breakers opens nationwide on Friday, March 7.