Tribeca 2021: LFG Review

This will be one of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.

Anyone who has ever kept up with the news at any point over the last few years have probably heard of the efforts of the members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team towards equal pay and equal treatment compared to the far inferior men’s team starting with a class-action lawsuit they filed several months prior to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup against the U.S. Soccer Federation, reigniting a movement that has been around long before their time and continues to work to this day. LFG (or Let’s F****** Go) is a documentary that chronicles these efforts while offering unprecedented access to the team across the roller coaster journey from that 2019 World Cup through the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic to today where their fight continues. As told by Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Sam Mewis and others in their own words, the film was an empowering tale about a group of normal women setting a new precedent and inspiring the next generation of young women.

Essentially filing a lawsuit against their employers while still working for them was a fine line to walk. Regardless, they simply had to prove themselves even harder to those who exploited them while still treating them as something less than. What easily could have been a distraction was not as the team continued to succeed which only fueled public sentiment in the U.S. and around the world towards the equal pay narrative. Those moments were truly powerful to watch. In the end, that growing support can only go so far against an institution that has held them back for so long. One can’t help but feel the players’ frustration about an institution’s unwillingness to adapt to the times and instead staying with the greed and misogyny that had gotten them to that point.

Though the fight may not be over, if there’s anything to be taken away from LFG, it should be that while the work done by these women is cause for hope for the future where one day, women can receive equal pay for equal work in all fields, not just in sports.

still courtesy of HBO Max

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.