We Were Dangerous

2024 / Dir. Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu / 83 minutes

Though frequent bouts of rebellious laughter and the unifying camaraderie shared by teenage girls serve to dull the intensity of the heavy subject matter, We Were Dangerous suffers by not allowing itself to embrace the thematic topics it merely hints at. Colonialism and conversion therapy are dark shadows that loom overhead as we witness so-called “delinquent” girls taken to an isolated island to be reprogrammed as “dignified” and “decent” young Christian women, but the effectiveness of those prevailing themes is lessened as a result of subtle implication over actualization. We Were Dangerous triumphs as a rallying cry for young women coming together to push back against adversity and the forces that attempt to diminish them, and the performances are powerful enough to compensate for the well-intentioned yet under-development exploration of outdated ideals.