Cropped out of “Girl Picture” are the angsty awkwardness and crippling self-doubt that usually plague cinema’s teens as the training wheels of adolescence are removed. In a way, that makes director Alli Haapasalo’s up-tempo light drama a refreshing spin on a familiar genre, as it presents an attractively bouncy, perhaps even aspirational portrait of not-terribly-painful Gen-z growing pains. But as much as the trio make for pleasant company as they navigate a benevolent passage into adulthood, Ilona Ahti and Daniela Hakulinen’s screenplay never really grips; it’s hard to generate much real tension with characters one never truly worries about, who are going to be able to solve most of their problems with a quick heart-to-heart or an oversized-knitwear hug.
A likable portrait of three young Finns chasing down their sexual and romantic awakenings with an emotional frankness that would be enviable in women twice their age,...
A likable portrait of three young Finns chasing down their sexual and romantic awakenings with an emotional frankness that would be enviable in women twice their age,...
- 12/12/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Mimmi (Aamu Milonoff), Rönkkö (Eleonoora Kauhanen), and Emma (Linnea Leino) are three ordinary girls trying to navigate the turbulence of teenage life. Mimmi is headstrong and rebellious, introduced in Finnish director Alli Haapasalo’s sophomore feature, Girl Picture, brawling with another girl in the gym over unwillingness to care about the frivolous sport at hand. Rönkkö is Mimmi’s good-natured, curly-haired best friend; she struggles with intimacy issues, at ease with male attraction and sexual desire but unable to find pleasure in the act of sex itself. Meanwhile, competitive figure skater Emma forgoes adolescent delights for the sport she holds dear—until a reluctant party appearance puts Emma within Mimmi’s chaotic orbit. This throws the two girls into a whirlwind romance chronicled over the course of three Fridays and, alongside Rönkkö, all are pulled in different directions of passion, sexuality, and self-discovery.
Rönkkö has made it her mission to finally have pleasurable sex,...
Rönkkö has made it her mission to finally have pleasurable sex,...
- 1/25/2022
- by Brianna Zigler
- The Film Stage
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