• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Film
  • DVD
  • Editorial
  • About ScreenFish

ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • News
  • OtherFish
  • Podcast
  • Give
You are here: Home / Film / First One In – Grown Up Mean Girls

First One In – Grown Up Mean Girls

September 8, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

In press notes for First One In, writer/director Gina Obrien talks about the “millions of women who gather to hit balls at each other” on tennis courts each day. They may not be very good. But they share this bond. First One In bats that concept around with just about as much power as those mediocre players.

Madi Cooke (Kat Foster) has had her life ruined. She has been branded an eco-terrorist for killing a cute, near-extinct animal while on a Survivor-like reality show. People protest outside her home. She loses her job because of the publicity. She can’t even get an Uber if she’s recognized. After a new hairdo, she applies to work as a real estate agent for Bobbi Mason (Georgia King). Georgia is obsessed with tennis. She only hires Barbie-doll looking agents who play tennis and help her win the club team championship every year.

Madi begins brushing up her game (she hasn’t played since high school) at a local tennis clinic with a group of rather frumpy and definitely non-competitive women. When their coach enters them into the tournament, Madi is torn between her new job and her new friends. Eventually the teams will face off, with not just a trophy at stake, but Madi’s future.

The film seeks to show that women can forge bonds and how that can help them overcome their barriers. But I have issues with the portrayal of women in this film. Bobbi and her team are vain, vapid, superficial, and just plain mean. Think of a group of middle school mean girls who are now grown up. Madi is stuck in being a victim through most of the film. Her cohort at the tennis center all seem to be aimless and incapable of really accomplishing anything. The only character who seems to be grounded and confident, Madi’s high school friend Ollie (Alana O’Brien) becomes a catalyst for Madi’s new found strength, but she is always too much in the background of the story to develop her effect on Madi.

The story becomes a battle between meanness and victimhood. The final resolution doesn’t really grow out of the growth and strength of the characters. It has more to do with Bobbi’s ultimate failure of being able to boss and intimidate others. Any growth Madi manages in the story is a biproduct of her success, not the other way around.

First One In is available on Amazon Prime Video

Share it!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: comedy, tennis

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

THE SF NEWS

Get a special look, just for you.

sf podcast

Hot Off the Press

  • 7.17 Culture and Carnage in GODZILLA VS. KONG
  • Held: Stuck in a Marriage You Can’t Get Out Of
  • My True Fairytale – With Superpowers?
  • The Last Right – Acts of Grace
  • O Canada! Telefilm Canada launches new site devoted to Canadian film
Find tickets and showtimes on Fandango.

where faith and film are intertwined

film and television carry stories which remind us of the stories God has woven since the beginning of time. come with us on a journey to see where faith and film are intertwined.

Footer

ScreenFish Articles

7.17 Culture and Carnage in GODZILLA VS. KONG

Held: Stuck in a Marriage You Can’t Get Out Of

  • About ScreenFish
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 · ScreenFish.net · Built by Aaron Lee

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.