Film

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.

A 1993 Brooklyn coming-of-age film about Chantel, a sharp-witted Black high school student determined to escape poverty and reach medical school. It's achingly honest about teenage ambition, desire, and the gap between what you plan and what life hands you. Vital, alive, and unpatronising—a film that trusts its audience and its protagonist equally.

TMDb rating3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a sharp, unsentimental coming-of-age story about a teenager weighing ambition against the pull of her friends and neighbourhood, told with clear-eyed honesty.

Skip it if you need brisk plot or a tidy, crowd-pleasing structure, because this moves at a conversational pace and lingers on talk and atmosphere more than events.

What it asks of you: Expect a short, slow-building film of about ninety minutes that trades glossy polish for patience, asking you to sit with hard conversations and a lot of ordinary Brooklyn life.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Boyz n the Hood1991

Shares the same urgent realism about young Black lives in America, centering character and choice rather than spectacle. Menace beneath the surface, love underneath the menace.

But Heavier and more overtly tragic in tone. Some viewers find the didactic moments heavy-handed.

Boyz n the Hood poster

Do the Right Thing1989

Spike Lee's portrait of a Brooklyn neighbourhood on one hot day—vivid, funny, furious, and intimate. The same energy of paying attention to what people actually say to each other.

But Deliberately confrontational and less interested in plot resolution than in capturing a feeling and a moment.

Do the Right Thing poster

Nope2022

Recent, centered on young Black protagonists in control of their own story. Genre filmmaking that refuses to be secondary to character, just as this film does.

But Science fiction; tonally very different. Some find it distant or frustratingly paced.

Nope poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar1977

Both center on young women with intelligence and autonomy, and both refuse to let that autonomy shield them from danger or contradiction. They're about the cost of wanting more.

Diane Keaton plays a young woman with ambitions and sexual agency navigating late-70s New York. It asks the same question: what happens when your desires and your plans collide? Prescient and disturbing.

But Much darker, more explicitly sexual, and genuinely unsettling. A film about consequences that doesn't flinch. Can feel claustrophobic and grim.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar poster
More like this (8)

Moonlight2016

Intimate portrait of a young Black man navigating identity, desire, and survival. Tender and unsentimental at once; trusts silence and gesture as much as dialogue.

But Slower, more poetic, and more melancholic. Less angry, more introspective.

Moonlight poster

Crooklyn1994

Spike Lee's Brooklyn-set film about a young girl's life in a creative, struggling family. Warm, funny, and fully realized in its textures and rhythms.

But More whimsical and nostalgic. Focuses on childhood rather than the threshold of adulthood.

Crooklyn poster

Daughters of the Dust1991

Julie Dash's lyrical film about Black women across generations. Formally experimental but deeply rooted in character, memory, and place—a vision of Black womanhood you rarely see on screen.

But Deliberately non-linear and meditative. Some viewers find it visually gorgeous but narratively opaque.

Daughters of the Dust poster

Pariah2011

Dee Rees's Brooklyn film about a young Black lesbian discovering her identity. Sharp dialogue, tender observation, and real stakes—the same eye for how teenagers actually talk and think.

But Deals with coming out and family rejection; heavier subject matter. More introspective than confrontational.

Pariah poster

The Fits2016

A young Black girl navigates a competitive dance team in Cincinnati. Mysterious, visually striking, and obsessed with capturing the internal life of its protagonist.

But Very quiet and strange; plot is minimal. Some find it frustratingly oblique.

The Fits poster

Pose2018

Set in 1980s New York, it captures the vitality and style of Black and queer ballroom culture. Joyful, generous, and alive to the texture of how people actually live.

But A series rather than a film; very different tone and scale. Campy at moments, which doesn't suit everyone's mood.

Pose poster

Never Rarely Sometimes Always2020

Both are portraits of young women making impossible choices with limited resources. Both trust the viewer to feel the weight without being told.

Eliza Hittman's film about two young women and a quiet crisis. It has the same attentiveness to how young people speak and move, the same respect for their inner lives, and the same refusal to simplify.

But Deliberately restrained in style. Minimal plot; sustained focus on mood and observation. Some find it slow or unresolved.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always poster

Lean on Pete2018

Both films understand that ambition and goodness don't protect you. Both refuse sentiment while remaining deeply humane about their protagonists' struggles.

Andrew Haigh's film about a teenage boy drifting through the American West with a racehorse. Not about triumph but about survival, small kindnesses, and the gap between what you plan and what happens. Quietly devastating.

But Very bleak and plotless. Some viewers find it too understated; nothing is explained or resolved with ease.

Lean on Pete poster

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