Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Fierce’ on Netflix, Where A Polish Teen Finds Fame On a TV Singing Competition

Fierce (Netflix) concerns a Polish teen’s attempt to confront her absentee rock star father through an unlikely prism: becoming a contestant on the competitive singing show on which he’s a judge so she can face him down and win it, just for spite. Fierce has its moments, but there might be more grist for drama on an actual, real world singing program.

FIERCE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Music Race is the biggest thing going on Polish television. The Idol-style competitive reality show features as poobah of its judges’ table Olo (Maciej Zakoscielny), a smarmy rocker who’s still coasting on his radio hits from two decades ago. He’s jaded and bored, and gets his kicks from unleashing a reverse dunk tank of water on the heads of competitors he deems unfit for the show’s next round. Olo’s livid when Music Race‘s producer orchestrates a round of auditions to be held in Rozalin, the hometown he left behind, because a quiet, provincial life isn’t the only thing he walked out on when fame came calling. Marta Ostowiscz, 18, lives with her mother and grandmother in Rozalin, and she sees the local auditions as a chance to give her deadbeat dad what for. In fully-flanneled Grunge Teen chic, she sneaks into the audition, cuts in line, and gets to the mic. “Jerk! Pig! Clown!” she rants at Olo. “You’re the washout!” And she throws a glass of water in his face. “Are you getting this?” The producer gleefully asks his control room. Because he’s just uncovered ratings gold.

As it turns out, Marta, or “Ostra,” can really sing. (Fierce features Katarzyna Sawczuk as Marta, who first made her bones on IRL singing competitions like Mam Talent! and The Voice of Poland before transitioning into acting.) And while her wise hippie grandmother encourages her to compete on Music Race because she’s talented, Marta has a different take. “I’ll stay and win, just to spite him!” She does win, and viewers are smitten. Marta’s an overnight sensation and blowing up all over social media, even as Olo feels his celebrity slipping into oblivion.

As the trappings of sudden fame begin to overtake Marta’s sensibilities, Olo can’t decide if he wants to sabotage her winning streak or try to reconcile with her and her mother. Music Race‘s producer, meanwhile, has one last ratings gambit up his sleeve. “Singing — he seems to spit the word out — “is not gonna get us ratings!” says the boss of a show about competitive singing. He knows what the people really want.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? In The Idol (Palestine, 2016; streaming on Vudu), a teen with all the talent in the world travels to Egypt to compete on Arab Idol. Like Fierce, Teen Spirit (2018; Hulu) similarly observes the landscape between the humdrum life and stardom, and features a great Elle Fanning performance as the everyday teenager taking her shot on a competitive singing show. For song singin’ alongside bright, bawdy ensemble cast laughs, the first Pitch Perfect (2012; Vudu) never fails to deliver.

Performance Worth Watching: Maria Pakulnis, as Marta’s supportive, cheeky Grandmother, observes the goings-on with Olo and Music Race with a wink in her eye and a drink in her hand. She drives a VW microbus with curtains in the back; there’s a well-thumbed stack of records next to her turntable. When Olo comes by the house in Rozalin to grovel for forgiveness, she has one comment: “You look old.”

Memorable Dialogue: Ewa (Julia Kaminska) is another judge on Music Race, and Olo’s squeeze. Her pop star days are gone, and a catty social media presence is all she has left. But as Marta’s star rapidly rises, Ewa sees her chance at staying in the limelight slipping away. “She is the talk of the town and only getting good press!” She rages to Olo, exasperated at Marta’s fawning media attention. “She hasn’t even come up with a one hashtag!”

Sex and Skin: Marta’s official arrival as a trending topic is accompanied by a hilarioulsy over-the-top tabloid photo shoot replete with latex S&M gear.

Our Call: Competitive reality programs and their ability to transform nobodies into somebodies overnight (at least for a little while) are nothing new in our contemporary age. These programs exist in every single country and media market on the planet for a reason, so it stands to reason that films will be made with them as the centerpiece. Fierce has some fun portraying how these shows” storylines and competitors can consume polite society. Its dynamic, graphical visualization of the social media animal — bursts of ebullience when Marta is great; dismissal and nasiness when it all goes south — works well in Fierce, almost functioning as a character in itself. And it has a strong lead in Katarzyna Sawczuk, who plays well as both a surly teen and a talented singer. (Her Music Race take on “Chandelier” by Sia is sweeping and enormous.) Still, once Fierce has set up its central conceit — Marta hates Olo, Olo hates his life, social media feeds the fame monster– its momentum flags. Olo mopes around in his high-rise Warsaw apartment, having suddenly grown a conscience after ignoring the reality of Marta and her mom for almost 20 years. Marta is proud to stand up to Olo’s onstage ridicule, but turns so quickly toward notoriety, photo shoots, and forgetting about her friends back home, that we understand the rubber band will inevitably snap back to reality. With the time spent in between spinning in neutral, we are only left to wait for that moment of obvious resolution.

Fierce mines the emotional material where family and fame intersect. But it doesn’t dig deep enough to reveal anything that a few segments on an actual, real life singing show might explore with equal or greater heft.

Our Take: SKIP IT. Fierce is indeed that when its lead teen has fun tearing into her estranged father, and she impresses in a few of the performance sequences. But the film ultimately can’t fulfill its dual tracks of family drama and fame critique.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch Fierce on Netflix