The Novice is a psychological sports drama film by Lauren Hadaway. It debuted at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival before a theatrical run in the United States later that year.
Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman), a freshman college student with a physics major, becomes obsessed with success on the rowing team. In spite of her plummeting physics grades, Alex pushes herself to succeed at rowing, no matter the cost, annoying her fellow rowers and their instructors while increasingly also worrying her girlfriend. It's soon revealed that Alex is deeply troubled, with her goal consuming her as she's utterly determined to beat the opposing teams and also break a rowing record.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Bi: Alex is definitely attracted to women, but her "attraction" to men is what's ambiguous. She does sleep with a man at the beginning of the film, because she's tipsy and at a party, and it's very clear that she doesn't enjoy it even while it's happening. From her attitude towards the party as a whole along with her background, it seems she's just trying to have the typical college freshman experience while she has the chance. Any attraction to men is never hinted at or discussed after this.
- Bathtub Scene: Alex is shown in the tub multiple times. This is not played for Fanservice at all given it shows her struggling against stress and with scars from cutting herself on her torso.
- Big Eater: Jamie, who Alex quickly finds kinship with, is always shown eating multiple trays' worth of food when they're in the cafeteria, owing to her background as a Passionate Sports Girl.
- Boyish Short Hair: Dani has short, very curly hair as one part of her Butch Lesbian looks.
- Butch Lesbian: Dani wears tanktops with pants most of the time, has Boyish Short Hair and sees Alex, another woman. She's the most masculine of any woman in the film.
- Deliberate Under-Performance: During the scrimmage to pit Alex against Jamie, the members of Alex's boat deliberately under-perform to ensure that Jamie wins. Alex is beyond pissed at this.
- Determinator: Alex is absolutely set on succeeding in rowing, and surpassing everyone else, no matter what stress it causes her or even injury.
- Establishing Character Moment: When we first meet Alex, she's spending a copious amount of time going over every single question on her physics exam again and again and again, which, from the way her professor reacts, is regular behavior from her and exemplifies the obsessive perfectionism that defines her throughout the film. The professor and Dani both get pissed at her for taking so much time away from them by doing this.
- Fan Disservice: Alex is shown topless from the back and side but this is more disturbing than anything else as it shows her either cutting herself, showcases scars from her previous Self-Harm or she's in the midst of obvious intense stress. She's also got very obvious infections from injuries (both rowing injuries and self-harm) that she hasn't bothered to treat.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Alex is this to the rest of the rowing team she's on, and given her perfectionist attitude coupled with an obsessive urge to win at all cost, it's not hard to see why. Only Jamie seems to tolerate her, and then once Jamie finds out that Alex doesn't need the scholarship at all, none of them even bother being at all cordial to her.
- Lesbian Jock: Alex is totally committed to rowing. She hooks up with a guy in the film early on, then dates Dani, a Butch Lesbian, for longer.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Alex complains of how poorly the man she'd had sex with performed, as he went quite fast and didn't even manage to keep the condom on, with her having to fish this out from inside of her. It's made clear this marks him as an unacceptable lover in her eyes.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Implied when Alex and Dani meet again after they first slept together. Alex notes Dani said she won't date her students. Dani replies Alex isn't a student of hers any more, opens the door to the bathroom and goes in. She leaves it open for Alex, who goes in after her.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Alex, a bisexual woman, has fairly average looks and dates Butch Lesbian Dani.
- Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: Alex, who is an academic scholar, is majoring in physics simply because it's the subject she struggles with the most. It's not that she loves it per se, but more that she has an obsessive need to torture herself into becoming perfect.
- One Head Taller: Alex's girlfriend Dani towers over her, which is especially noticeably when they're standing together. The pair are played by Isabelle Fuhrman (5'3) and Dilone (5'11) respectively.
- Passionate Sports Girl:
- Jamie, Alex's fellow freshman rower, has been an athlete for her whole life, and is dead-set on getting the athletic scholarship so she can continue to attend college.
- In addition, Alex gets extremely into rowing, to the point that it's self-destructive. She's dead set on being the best, no matter what. It's so much her girlfriend breaks off their relationship since she can't stand to see Alex harm herself doing this.
- The Perfectionist: Alex is a perfectionist to obsessive levels in nearly every area of her life, and deliberately chooses to participate in things she's not good at in order to improve and perfect her abilities.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Alex has sex with a man in the film early on. Then she and Dani, who's a Butch Lesbian, flirt, later sleep together and begin dating, revealing she's into women too.
- Self-Harm: Alex cuts herself repeatedly on her torso, apparently to handle stress. She does this explicitly during the film, and has many old scars as well.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Alex fantasizes of Dani rowing as she's wearing a wet tanktop without any bra under it, which shows her nipples, as Dani's going down on her.
- Statuesque Stunner: Dani is played by Dilone, who stands at a staggering 5'11". She looks even taller compared to Alex, who's played by a 5'3" Isabelle Fuhrman, while she's quite pretty (Dilone works as a model).
- Tank-Top Tomboy: Dani has a Tomboyish Name, is a Butch Lesbian, and she wears tanktops usually.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Alex and Dani, her TA, flirt before having sex later. Dani won't actually date her when she's teaching Alex however, only doing so after she's not in her class.
- Tomboyish Name:
- Dani, a Butch Lesbian, has this.
- Both Alex and Jamie have tomboyish names as well, befitting their jock status.
- Twofer Token Minority: Dani, a Butch Lesbian who is of unclear ethnicity with olive skin and dark brown curly hair (played by a Dominican-American actress). She's the only person of color in the film. Alex, the protagonist, is the only other LGBT+ character.