If the sheer intensity of The Novice’s storytelling can at times feel like it’s trying too hard to be in-your-face—rather than authentically disturbed—the ambition of Laura Hadaway’s direction is still quite the spectacle to behold. Where some of the film’s relationships don’t come off as complex as they should be, Hadaway and her team more than makes up for with frantic editing, shallow camera focus, panicked strings as a musical score, and heavy breathing mixed deep into the sound design. There’s just something violent about how the movie is put together, as Alex (played by Isabelle Fuhrman) tears herself apart for seemingly no other reason than to prove to herself that she can do it.
"A hard hitting look inside the body and mind of a compulsive perfectionist."
— Elizabeth Wiart
"The film's tense score, from composer Alex Weston, adds to the sense that "The Novice" is more a horror film than anything else, with a series of intriguing, vintage song choices alternately cutting and upping that tension."
— Kate Erbland
A college freshman joins her university's rowing team and undertakes an obsessive physical and psychological journey to make it to the top varsity boat, no matter the cost.
A college freshman becomes obsessed with achieving the top position in her university's rowing team, at the expense of her relationships and her mental and physical health.
If small independent films stood more of a chance at each annual awards circuit, Fuhrman should have been a major part of the Best Actress conversation in the year The Novice had its wide release. What she does gives here is nothing short of a powerhouse performance—one that's as physical as it is mental, as her Alex seems hellbent on stripping herself of any sense of self-preservation or empathy so that nothing else remains except the drive to keep pushing forward. And Fuhrman doesn't make her "hard work" seem aspirational. She's simply forcing herself to become the human equivalent of an open, exposed nerve, and it's enthralling to watch.
If J.K. Simmons from Whiplash tried to coach Alex from The Novice, she would tear him limb from limb.
