Sweet Girl

Sweet Girl is a Netflix distributed action thriller starring Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced. Set it Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Ray Cooper, played by Momoa, is a husband plagued by the death of his wife. He pledges to bring justice to the people responsible while doing everything in his power to protect his daughter, the only family he has left.

In his directorial debut, Brian Andrew Mendoza, did a great job, the plot was interesting and had an impressive and unpredictable twist. The cinematography was also good with the back and forth of time. The only critique I'd give is that sometimes certain scenes in the script were too convenient; it would have been better if certain goals were harder to get to.

Jason Momoa brought his A-Game to his role as the lead actor, producer, and informal casting agent. He chose Isabela and I noticed one of his friends, Michael Raymond-James, who I've seen in True Blood, Once Upon A Time, the Momoa led Road to Paloma and Frontier. There were also plenty of Easter eggs throughout that showed Momoa’s influence from the knives, to the pink cell phone case and some of the character names.

From an acting perspective this was the best I've seen Momoa, minus an exaggerated crying scene that could have used some work. I hadn't seen Isabela in any other movies, but I was impressed with her range and the fact that she did her own stunts. Even though he and Isabela Merced have had a couple of awkward press conferences together, they didn't show any of that in the film. They had very strong bond and there was a decent amount of character development for them. I also liked the diversity in casting, but I would have liked to have seen a deeper dive in some of the supporting characters' backstories. I was also impressed with the crisp and realistic fight choreography.

In the end, Sweet Girl was a surprisingly well done movie, with an engaging plot and a great twist at the end. This is definitely worth checking out.