The 'Bama Rush' documentary is a viral TikTok hashtag come to life — but a lot darker
In August of 2021, young women began posting on TikTok about their preparations for rush week at the University of Alabama. The hashtag #BamaRush soon went viral. And why not? The videos were just about everything — funny, absurd, heartfelt, shallow, deep and compulsively watchable. They became an international phenomenon.
Documentary filmmaker Rachel Fleit (“Introducing, Selma Blair”) showed up on campus in 2022 to capture the drama of recruitment, the actual name of the four-part process.
The result, “Bama Rush,” is complex, ambitious and a little bit all over the place.
Ostensibly the film follows four young women as they spend months getting ready to rush. But it also becomes a film about making the film — rumors swirled so much about the “secret” movie that the New York Times wrote about it — then morphs into a film about Fleit and what directing it meant to her. And that doesn’t include the discursion into “The Machine,” a secret society that’s a kind of all-star team of Greek life members that seemingly controls EVERYTHING at the University of Alabama.
The key to the film is the key to life: never trust first impressions. There is character evolution at work throughout the movie. In other words, the ones you root for are likely to change over time.
When is 'Bama Rush' coming out?
“Bama Rush,” streaming on Max on May 23, works best as a personality study of the women involved, who are open about almost everything — perhaps not surprising as they have basically grown up on camera (if a camera that’s on their phone). Still, it’s remarkable the access they give Fleit.
Until they don’t, in one case.
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Shelby, who is from Illinois, drops out of filming, scared that sororities won’t consider her if word get out that she's participating in what they consider a sure hit piece.
It’s not, in fact, a hit piece. But it is, among so many other things, an examination of the power Greek life wields, particularly on campuses of Southern universities, and even more so on this campus, a fact that makes sororities especially appealing to students who are eager to find acceptance and a sense of family — and in varying ways all of the subjects in the film crave it.
'You're a person, but you're a Sigma Kappa first'
The preparation is incredible, at times preposterous. Some women hire “rush consultants.” One changes her look completely — and her relationships. Every look is carefully documented on TikTok. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” so Socrates said. These are lives examined in the extreme — but what kind of life is it?
This kind: “Something that is ingrained in us early on is that yeah, you’re a person, but you’re a Sigma Kappa first,” Rian, a member of the sorority, says. “Yeah, you’re a woman, but you’re a Sigma Kappa woman first.”
Before that, of course, they're simply young women looking for a place to fit in.
Isabelle, from Rancho Cucamonga, California, is refreshingly up front about her motivation: “Let’s be honest,” she says, “I probably would not be going to the University of Alabama if it did not blow up on TikTok.”
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Makalya, from Alabama, is a sophomore who didn’t rush the previous year but decides to this time. Holliday, also a sophomore from Alabama, rushed last year but got dropped after wearing the wrong sorority sticker to the wrong house. She’s back for more.
When we meet Holliday, she’s apologizing to friends for what was apparently a wild night, not entirely sure what she might have done. She also tells Fleit, “I actually want to be president.”
'Bama Rush' is a lot. And, maybe, too much
Fleit doesn’t belittle the women or their choices; mostly, she lets their words and actions speak for themselves. In fact, midway through she turns the camera on herself. “It hit me,” she says. “I feel like I rushed, too.”
Fleit has alopecia, which causes loss of hair. For years she wore a wig, hiding her bald head. “I was trying to get into the sorority of all the girls in the world who had hair,” she says, “and it seemed impossible to get in.”
This gives Fleit a deeper connection to the women rushing and their motivations, but it’s a curious choice to include in the film. Not that it isn’t moving. It’s just another element to juggle along with the rest. And there are plenty already.
It's a lot to keep up with, at times too much, but "Bama Rush" is still incredibly compelling. It won't make you feel any better about the #BamaRush phenomenon, but it may help you to understand it.
'Bama Rush' 4 stars
Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★
Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★
Director: Rachel Fleit.
Cast: Rachel Fleit.
Rating: Not rated.
How to watch: Streaming on Max May 23. (Max is the new Warner Bros. Discovery's new platform, a merger of HBO Max and Discovery+.)
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Bama Rush:' Sorority ritual gone viral gets the documentary treatment
