agmtw logo
search
Bama Rush (2023)

Bama Rush (2023)

A viral phenomenon gets some thoughtful, if uneven, documentary treatment.

6.8

Movie

United States of America
English
Documentary, Drama
2023
RACHEL FLEIT
100 min

TLDR

A compelling watch, even if the words “TikTok sensation #BamaRush” are all Greek to you.

What it's about

This documentary follows four young women as they prepare to “rush” (i.e. try out for) sororities at the University of Alabama.

The take

If you’ve ever been puzzled by “Greek life”, this documentary will go some way to demystifying that somewhat baffling phenomenon of American college culture. Bama Rush follows four hopefuls as they “rush” the University of Alabama’s sororities, a TikTok-viral weeklong recruitment process so cutthroat some candidates spend months preparing for it. The documentary digs deep into why these young women put so much time, energy, and money into joining what the film hints is a largely unforgiving and reductive element of campus life. What it finds is pretty affecting: they’re really just looking for acceptance and belonging.

Threaded throughout are director Rachel Fleit’s reflections on her own history with those motivations, having grown up with alopecia. Though it does illustrate that rushing isn’t so dissimilar from other quests for acceptance, this parallel is sometimes clunkily drawn — and can seem somewhat self-indulgent in places, given the documentary’s comparatively surface-level exploration of more systemic issues. A late development shifts Bama Rush into an even deeper self-reflexive mode, as the film itself becomes a contentious issue in the process it’s documenting. Despite its flaws, turns like this — and its participants’ extraordinary candor — help make Bama Rush an often illuminating look into an opaque world. 

What stands out

Shortcomings aside, Bama Rush does give its key participants the room to express themselves in ways that Greek life doesn’t seem to allow for. The young women fill that space with unsparing honesty as they reflect on their own winding journeys — which touch on adoption, eating disorders, and sexual assault — and the healing they hope to find in sorority membership. You might come to Bama Rush looking for a scandalous exposé of Greek life, but the profound insight these young women bring to the film turns it into something much more compelling.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

A star-studded and riveting legal drama with a blockbuster feel.

8.1

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

His Three Daughters (2024)

Three sisters deal with life and death in this moving family portrait

8.9

System Crasher (2019)

A tale of trauma and one of the most talked about movies on Netflix in 2020.

9.0

Forgotten Love (2023)

The stunning third take of the classic Polish pre-war melodrama

7.7

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

Wind River (2017)

Sicario's screenwriter directs this story of murder in an Indigenous reserve

9.4

Incendies (2011)

Part melodrama, part war thriller, Incendies is gorgeous and heartbreaking from the first scene

9.9

Rebel Ridge (2024)

A suspenseful, veristic crime story about abusive police with action film tropes to prevent you from dissociating

8.5

A Silent Voice (2016)

A coming-of-age movie that circles around friendship and the atonement of a boy

8.7

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.