Fierce: A great story and a lot of fun

Movie Review: Fierce (2020) on Netflix 

Take a ride on the wild entertainment side with Fierce, a movie from Poland airing on Netflix that you can listen to in its native Polish or access excellent English dubbing. We chose the English dubbing, which features some great acting voices. Music mixes well with original lyrics. This makes for great entertainment.

Fierce is also the name of the main character, a high school teen whose mother is the jilted girlfriend of the main host of Music Race, Poland's popular singing talent TV show. Turns out Olo is also Fierce's secret father, who left them when she was a baby, leaving the two destitute. The mother, daughter, and their single grandmother watch Olo's show talking him down and when it's announced the show is doing a remote episode from their town, Fierce hatches a plot to confront Olo, first to show him up for being a louse, then to compete for the show's big prize and show him up on national TV. But she can't even sing!

O.K., some of the side characters are kind of cheesy, making them self-centered and shallow, as celebrities are often depicted. But the main characters actually have some depth and the plotline works pretty well with them. So ignore the side characters and focus on Fierce, her mother, and Olo. Also Fierce's boyfriend, who tries desperately to support her.

Then watch this movie for fun. It isn't serious cultural commentary. More, it's a look at competition shows in other cultures and how fierce that competition can get and affect people unexpectedly who aren't prepared for it. 

This film was somewhat of a revelation for my wife and me. She is second-generation Polish and visited there in 1975 and was amazed at how much it has changed physically. The main setting beyond Fierce's small hometown is Warsaw, which my wife experienced during her visit and it's been transformed dramatically since then. Yet during a birthday scene they sang a traditional Polish birthday song my wife's parents and grandparents had brought with them to America after World War II, word for word and by tune unchanged. So there was a dichotomy there!

We enjoy watching films from other countries, other cultures. It's helpful if you understand the cultures but not necessary. In this case, we knew quite a bit about Poland and its culture, but there were still surprises, and whatever you may or may not know about it, with the elements of this competition you will recognize from watching talent competitions in your own country or elsewhere, much of this should be familiar to you. You should be able to choose captions and audio to aid in understanding of the dialog, depending on where you're reading this review. 

To recap, this girl and her mother's story crosses borders and cultures. Father leaves them, chance gives them an opportunity to address the issue, opportunity also gives them a chance to become something greater than they ever dreamed. It's a great story. I'd rate Fierce A for A Lot of Fun.