You've probably seen that iconic poster. A young Black girl with massive gold door-knocker earrings, a defiant stare, and the New York City subway map bleeding into the background. It’s gritty. It’s loud. Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. isn’t just some dusty 90s relic you find in the bargain bin of film history. It is a time capsule of Brooklyn before the glass towers moved in, and honestly, it’s one of the most raw depictions of teenage ambition ever caught on 16mm film.
Leslie Harris, the writer and director, didn’t have a massive studio budget. She didn't have a safety net. She had about $100,000 and a hell of a lot of nerve. In 1992, the cinematic landscape for Black stories was mostly dominated by "hood films" like Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society. Those were great, sure, but they were very male-centric. Harris saw a void. She wanted to talk about the girls. Specifically, Chantel Mitchell.
Chantel is a firecracker. Played by Ariyan A. Johnson with an energy that feels like she’s constantly vibrating at a higher frequency than everyone else, she’s a high school junior who’s too smart for her surroundings and knows it. She wants to be a doctor. She wants to leave Brooklyn. She wants to be more than just "another girl." But life, as it usually does when you’re seventeen and overconfident, starts throwing bricks.
The Raw Reality of Chantel Mitchell
People often mistake this movie for a simple "after-school special" about teen pregnancy. That’s a massive oversimplification. It’s actually a character study about the ego of youth. Chantel is brilliant, but she’s also incredibly arrogant. She snaps at her teachers. She looks down on her friends. She thinks she’s cracked the code of life because she gets good grades and has a sharp tongue.
The "I.R.T." in the title refers to the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the original name for several lines of the New York City Subway. The subway is the heartbeat of the film. It represents movement—or the lack of it. Chantel spends her life on those trains, traveling between her cramped apartment and her dreams of Manhattan's elite medical world.
When Chantel meets Tyrone, a guy with a Jeep (the ultimate status symbol in 90s hip-hop culture), her trajectory shifts. This is where the movie gets uncomfortable. It doesn't sugarcoat the transition from a "smart girl with a plan" to a "girl in a crisis." The denial she goes through regarding her pregnancy is agonizing to watch because Johnson plays it with such fierce, delusional conviction. You want to shake her, but you also understand why she’s hiding. For Chantel, admitting she’s pregnant isn't just a health issue; it’s the death of the identity she built for herself.
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Breaking the Fourth Wall and the Studio System
One of the coolest things about Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. is how it talks directly to you. Chantel breaks the fourth wall constantly. Long before Fleabag or even High Fidelity made it a "thing," Leslie Harris used this technique to give a young Black girl agency over her own narrative.
Chantel looks at the lens and tells you exactly what she’s thinking. It forces the audience to stop being a passive observer. You become her confidante. This was a radical choice in 1992. It turned the film from a standard drama into a subjective experience.
Funding this was a nightmare. Harris famously spent years trying to get the money together, eventually winning a grant from the American Film Institute and getting some help from Brooklyn's own Spike Lee. When it finally premiered at Sundance in 1993, it won a Special Jury Prize. Miramax picked it up—back when Miramax was the king of indie cinema—and suddenly, this tiny film from the streets of Brooklyn was being talked about in the same breath as the big boys.
A Soundtrack That Defined an Era
You can't talk about this movie without the music. It’s baked into the DNA. It captures that specific transition from the New Jack Swing era into the grittier boom-bap sound of the early 90s.
- The Pharcyde shows up.
- Cee-Lo Green (before he was "Cee-Lo") is on the soundtrack with his group, Goodie Mob.
- Nikki D brings that essential Queens energy.
The music isn't just background noise; it’s the atmosphere. It tells you that Chantel belongs to this world, even if she’s trying to escape it. The sound design is messy, loud, and urban. It feels like New York.
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Why We Still Talk About It in 2026
We live in an era of "prestige" TV and highly polished cinematography. Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. is the opposite of polished. It’s grainy. Sometimes the lighting is weird. The acting from the supporting cast can be a bit stiff. But that’s why it works. It feels like a documentary that accidentally caught a real life falling apart.
There’s a lot of discourse now about "Black Excellence" and the pressure on Black youth to be perfect just to be considered "good enough." Chantel Mitchell is the blueprint for that struggle. She feels she has to be the best to avoid being a statistic, and when she feels herself becoming that statistic, she cracks. It’s a psychological horror story wrapped in a coming-of-age drama.
The film also tackles the healthcare system and how it fails young women of color. There’s a scene in a clinic that is brutally honest about the lack of empathy Chantel receives. It’s a reminder that the barriers she faces aren't just personal—they're systemic.
Comparing Then and Now
If this movie were made today, Chantel would be on TikTok. She’d be "main character energy" personified. But in 1992, she only had the I.R.T. and her own reflection in the train window.
Interestingly, many people complain about the ending. It’s abrupt. It’s not a "happily ever after," nor is it a total tragedy. It’s just... life continuing. Leslie Harris refused to give a neat resolution because that wouldn't have been true to the experience. For a girl like Chantel, there is no "The End." There is just the next day, the next struggle, and the next train ride.
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How to Experience the Film Today
If you’re looking to watch Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., it’s luckily easier to find now than it was ten years ago. It’s frequently available on Criterion Channel or for digital rental.
When you watch it, don’t look for a blockbuster. Look for the nuances:
- Pay attention to the color palette. The transition from the bright, hopeful colors of her school life to the darker, claustrophobic tones as her pregnancy progresses is subtle but effective.
- Watch the background. The street life of 1990s Brooklyn is captured purely by accident. You’re seeing a version of New York that literally doesn’t exist anymore.
- Listen to the dialogue. Harris wrote the script based on conversations she overheard. The slang, the cadence, and the "disrespect" are all authentic.
Actionable Insights for Cinephiles and Creators
If you are a filmmaker or a writer, there is a lot to learn from the production of this movie. Harris didn't wait for permission. She didn't wait for a $5 million check. She used what she had.
- Embrace the "Low-Fi" Aesthetic: If your story is strong, the graininess of the film won't matter. In fact, it might help the mood.
- Character Over Plot: The "plot" of this film is thin, but the character of Chantel is so dense that it doesn't matter. Focus on creating a protagonist who is polarizing.
- Voice Matters: Don't try to make your characters sound "proper" if they aren't. Use the language of the street, the office, or the home as it actually sounds.
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. remains a landmark of independent cinema. It proved that a story about a teenage girl from the projects could be just as compelling, complex, and cinematic as any mob epic or war movie. It gave a voice to the voiceless, and it did so without ever once apologizing for its volume.
The film stands as a testament to the fact that everyone—even a girl on a crowded subway train—has a story worth telling. You just have to be willing to listen.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Knowledge:
To truly understand the impact of the New Black Realism wave of the 90s, watch this film as part of a double feature with Matty Rich’s Straight Out of Brooklyn. This provides a male and female perspective of the same era and borough. Additionally, look up Leslie Harris's interviews regarding the "lost" sequels to Chantel's story; understanding the difficulty she faced in getting a second film made is a masterclass in the realities of the film industry for women of color. Finally, analyze the use of "The Fourth Wall" in 90s indie cinema to see how Harris influenced the visual language of the decade.