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Float Like a Butterfly

2018

Carmel Winters

Hazel Doupe, Dara Devaney, Johnny Collins, Hilda Fay ...

5.4

105

Drama In a gender-reversal of classic film Billy Elliot, 15-year-old Frances has to fight for the right to fight back. Raised in roadside camps in rural Ireland, Frances wants to champion her people inside the boxing ring and out, like her idol Muhammad Ali. But society is determined to break her spirit and destroy her way of life. And her father, once her greatest ally, is too defeated himself to imagine any better for his daughter. But ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Todd McCarthy The Hollywood Reporter	"There is punch to the writer-director’s storytelling (...) Determination instill the film with a strong pulse that keeps it bobbing and weaving."	POS
Canada	Barry Hertz The Globe and Mail	"A disastrous melange of trauma and broken dreams that is handled about as subtly as a mean uppercut (…) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"	NEG
	Kaleem Aftab Cineuropa	"[Winters] has strung together a fabulous, organic mix of traditional Irish song, boxing and female emancipation."	POS
United Kingdom	Wendy Ide Screendaily	"The tricky, complex dynamic between father and daughter is satisfyingly mined, with terrific performances from both but Doupe especially."	POS
Ireland	Donald Clarke Irish Times	"This is an impressively passionate recreation of a now-distant era. Above all it is a triumph for Doupe, who scraps and bawls and triumphs like a star from the golden age."	POS
Ireland	Stacy Grouden entertainment.ie	"As a character drama, 'Float Like a Butterfly' is confidently its own kind of film, a moving and powerful story with a strong central performance from newcomer Hazel Doupe (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
Ireland	Paul Whitington Irish Independent	"A grim but lyrical film (...) [It] features an incredible central performance from Hazel Doupe (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Ireland	Paddy Kehoe RTÉ	"There are the bones of a decent film here but the script is clichéd (...) It failed to strike a chord with this reviewer (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG

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