{"id":11382,"date":"2025-03-09T18:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T22:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11382"},"modified":"2025-03-22T19:17:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T23:17:42","slug":"rule-breakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/09\/rule-breakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rule Breakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rule Breakers<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Angel\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material and some violent content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bill Guttentag\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jason Brown, Bill Guttentag and Elaha Mahboob\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jeff Beal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Pardue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 7, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Nikohl Boosheri, Nina Hosseinzadeh, Amber Afzali, Sara Malal Rowe, Mariam Saraj, Noorin Gulamgaus, Ali Fazal, Nada El Belkasmi, Nasser Memarzia, Christian Contreras, Tatsu Carvalho, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The good news about Rule Breakers<\/strong>, the latest film from faith-based Angel Studios, is that it doesn\u2019t have its hand out. It doesn\u2019t have somebody asking you to scan a QR code to make donations while the end credits roll, the cinematic equivalent to a public television pledge drive. I know the producers mean well, but it comes off as shameless and pandering to me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now that I\u2019ve gotten that off my chest, let\u2019s talk about Rule Breakers<\/strong>. It\u2019s pretty good. It\u2019s a BOATS drama about a courageous individual defying societal rule to prove a point. In this case, it\u2019s about female empowerment in a patriarchal culture (i.e. Afghanistan) where women are routinely denied the same opportunities as men. Nowhere is that more true than it is in the area of education. Roya Mahboob (Boosheri, Circumstance) intends to change that one girl at a time. A staunch advocate for women\u2019s education, the self-taught computer expert decides to start a robotics team consisting of young girls. It\u2019s a risky move in a country under constant threat by the Taliban, but Roya believes in her cause. Sometimes the rules have to be broken in order to be fixed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Many girls take the qualifying test, but only four are chosen to be on the team. They are Taara (Hosseinzadeh), a skilled mechanic who helps her father build engines in his shop; Esin (Afzali), a devout sort under the thumb of her uncle who rules his family with an iron fist; Sabine (Saraj), a video game enthusiast who just wants to drive fast and Haadiya (Rowe), a food delivery driver who poses as a boy to help her family. They all have their reasons for saying no at first, but they predictably come around by the time the first team meeting takes place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After the whole gender thing, the biggest challenge faced by the Afghan Dreamers is not knowing a thing about robotics. They\u2019re starting from scratch. On top of that, they have just two weeks to prepare for their first big match in Albuquerque. That\u2019s not all. They run into more problems while trying to get the necessary permits to travel. A call from Roya to an American journalist takes care of all that BS.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Bill Guttentag (Knife Fight), Rule Breakers<\/strong> is as routine and predictable as inspirational BOATS come. We already know the outcome and not just because it\u2019s a true story. If it didn\u2019t have a happy ending, why would anybody bother making a movie about it? Nobody wants to pay good money to be bummed out. I don\u2019t mind the predictability factor at all. What I do mind is how the makers get there. There are some real storytelling deficiencies here. Guttentag jumps right from young Roya eavesdropping on a boys-only computer class in 1999 to her setting up a computer for a local businessman in exchange for screen time (forbidden to women by law) in 2012. How did she learn about computers? What obstacles did she have to overcome? What does her family think about it? It\u2019s never explained beyond a throwaway line about her father always saying yes to her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Guttentag makes an even bigger mistake in minimizing the threat the Taliban represents. I never felt a palpable sense of danger despite the bombing that claims the life of a supporting character. It seems like Rule Breakers<\/strong> goes out of its way to spare us the ugly parts of the story. It doesn\u2019t even make too big a deal out the negative reception they receive at home after winning their first medal. It\u2019s reduced to a threatening letter, nasty tweets and Esin\u2019s uncle dragging her out of the victory party. A few scenes later, it\u2019s all forgotten and the team starts gearing up for the next competition.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Boosheri, Iranian by heritage, does excellent work as Roya who was subsequently named as one of New York Times magazine\u2019s 100 most influential people in the world. She plays Roya as a pillar of strength who wants to set a positive example for young Afghan girls. Sadly, the screenplay doesn\u2019t always do her character justice. It shortchanges her with a superfluous subplot about a job offer that will require her to relocate to America. It\u2019s mentioned only to be dropped and forgotten until the titles right before the credits. The same goes for her relationship with Samir (Fazal, Victoria & Abdul), the Afghan-American businessman who provides most of the team\u2019s funding. What\u2019s their deal? None of this is the actress\u2019 fault. Boosheri does solid work as do the actresses playing her girls. Hosseinzadeh, in particular, is terrific as Taara who delivers a tearful inspirational speech after a major setback.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Typical of the genre, Rule Breakers<\/strong> has scenes designed to make audiences cheer for the resourcefulness and resilience of the team. When they\u2019re told there aren\u2019t enough seats for all of them on the plane to Kabul, one of them asks other passengers to give up their seats in the name of national pride. It works, of course. It\u2019s a good scene even if it isn\u2019t original.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s not a perfect film by any means, but Rule Breakers<\/strong> is watchable without being groundbreaking. It doesn\u2019t redefine the BOATS genre, but it doesn\u2019t insult it either. It means well which is a huge point in its favor. I must admit I bought into it much of the time. What can I say? I\u2019m a sucker for tales where somebody sticks it to the establishment.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rule Breakers (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Angel\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material and some violent content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bill Guttentag\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jason Brown, Bill Guttentag and Elaha Mahboob\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jeff Beal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Pardue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 7, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Nikohl Boosheri, Nina Hosseinzadeh, Amber Afzali, Sara Malal Rowe, Mariam Saraj, Noorin Gulamgaus, Ali Fazal, Nada […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Rule-Breakers-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11382"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11394,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11382\/revisions\/11394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}