NYAFF 2026: ‘Gamer Girls’ Review
Misogyny in video games and the uphill battle for women to prove they are just as good, if not better, at games than men is material that has surprisingly not been explored with the same bluntness as Sophie Yang and Veronica Bassetto’s directorial debut, Gamer Girls. As its title suggests, the film follows a group of women trying to make it in the world of gaming, but they face immense roadblocks along the way, from societal views of gaming to how the gaming community views women. Turning Hong Kong into a virtual landscape to depict its in-universe esports gaming, Gamer Girls has an endearing quality stemming from a lot of passion and an understanding of gaming culture, and a low-budget production that doesn’t slow the film down in its attempts at ambitious visuals. Unfortunately, everything supporting its commentary on gaming culture and DIY production fails to come together.
The glaring problem is that the film has plenty of characters but focuses on the least interesting: Summer (Angela Yuen Lai-Lam), who seeks her father's approval for her decision to pursue gaming as a profession while also attempting to reclaim the glory of her esports days with the team Dollhouse. Currently working a monotonous nine-to-five day job, she attempts to join another team with men and finds herself immediately ostracized by the typical misogyny surrounding female streamers and gamers. Frustrated by the interaction, she forms a new team with other gamer girls in her life and begins the ascent back to esports stardom. In the process, the team serves as proof that women are capable not just of besting men in video games but of doing so with style.
Summer is less a character and more of a punching bag, even for the other women in her life. She somehow makes the wrong decision half the time, and there doesn’t seem to be any realization of what went wrong. Resolutions to problems tend to come hastily, and the screenplay, written by Yang and Bassetto, struggles to find meaningful developments for its characters. In fact, it doesn’t even really have much of an arc for its characters outside of the narrative. For all its pointed commentary on the gaming community’s gatekeeping, especially in esports, the film barely features any friction outside of some in-fighting between the team. A detailed understanding of how esports teams flourish and find traction in a crowded market is on display throughout, but the story tied to it is flimsy at best.
Visually depicting video games in movies has always been a tricky hill to climb, but Gamer Girls does do an enviable job of realizing its fake MOBA (Mobile Online Battle Arena) game, Dystopian Glory, in the context of a live-action film. Characters embody their avatars in a virtual landscape that mirrors Hong Kong but is painted over with CG neon lights. The result is quite impressive given the film’s low budget, but it also gives it a tackiness that doesn’t elevate it beyond its already struggling screenplay. Scenes within the video game tend to go on too long for what conflict there’s supposed to be, so it feels like watching an esports match but without a view of both sides. Instead, it’s watching the bickering unfold on-screen until, finally, the match is over and the result is both unsurprising and kind of frustrating.
Gamer Girls simply lacks stakes. Every plot twist is a last-minute monkey wrench that is either remedied quickly or left hanging with no real resolution. It’s also not quite a hangout movie because everyone seems to be having a horrible time most of the film. It also doesn’t delve into its social commentary beyond brief, blunt interactions that serve more as a reminder of the hostility towards women in the gaming community than as intrinsic to the plot itself. There’s a scrappiness from the production that lends itself well to endearing the characters to the audience, but it’s undercut by an unfortunately underwritten screenplay. Where it ends is a disappointing conclusion to something that has its heart in the right place and something meaningful to say, but comes out the other end unsatisfying in every way.
The 25th New York Asian Film Festival takes place between July 10th and 26th. Gamer Girls celebrates its North American premiere on July 21st as NYAFF’s Hong Kong Panorama program. The full list of films selected for the festival can be found here.
