By: Laura Moreno
Directed by Alli Haapasalo, written by Ilona Ahti and Daniela Hakulinen, “Girl Picture” is truly a fun film to watch. Although it’s not your typical lesbian film (it features as much straight dating and romance as gay), “Girl Picture” (Finnish title “Tytöt tytöt tytöt,” – ‘Girls, Girls, Girls”) takes the prize for authenticity. Starring cast members Eleonoora Kauhanen, Linnea Leino and Aamu Milonoff. it also won a prestigious Audience Award at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category.
The priority in Haapasalo’s filmmaking is never to grab the spotlight. The director’s approach seems to be to simply get out of the way and let the kids speak for themselves as they deal with coming-of-age issues. So it’s easy to see why solid, well-made Finnish films, however, have traditionally been overlooked.
Best friends Ronkko and Mimmi enjoy working together at the smoothie shop. Ronkko is full of a rare natural charm in the vein of comedians like Cantínflas. She entertains as she engages in endless verbosity on-camera with guileless candor, expressing concern that she so far has not found sex enjoyable as people are supposed to. Tending toward being the nervous type, she connects with a handsome shy customer at the smoothie bar who also tends toward nervousness. After a few false starts and an embarrassing accident during foreplay, it seems they’ve at least found true friends in each other.
Throughout the film there are lots of fun scenes between the two main characters, Mimmi and Emma, enjoying what seems like the perfect romance. No doubt, ice-skating fans will love the rapturous performances given by the very talented Linnea Leino who plays Emma.
Although highly compatible, volatile Mimmi can’t help sabotaging her own relationship. The film delves into some of the hard-to-define problems she has with her neglectful mother beneath the smiles and niceties that “now everything’s ok” with her family. It’s painful to watch as her mother forgets that she had invited Mimmi to her little brother’s birthday party. In a beautifully executed scene, the family left for the celebration without her.
In another scene, family is the source of serious emotional pain when we learn that Ronkko’s family has stopped talking with her since she’s been labeled with a “mental illness” that they no doubt themselves caused her. The Nordic family is not overly sentimental, to say the least.
A truly authentic film
The striking soundtrack adds a great deal to the action on-screen, the perfect complement to the cozy in-door scenes that take place over several wintry nights, while reminding us that we’re not in the US. American audiences will scarcely recognize any of the music, or their particular brand of pop music, with the one exception of a sweet, simple contemporary interpretation of the 1935 song “I’m in the Mood for Love,” always appropriate lyrics in the world the film “Girl Picture” inhabits. Perfect.
It’s also striking that the Gen Z students in the film are so nonchalant about LGBTQ relations. They seem to really get that love is love, and to be human is to be capable of the full gamut of human experiences. For some people, though, gay relationships seem to be important (as for Mimmi). Perhaps they are working out childhood wounding from a parent. While for others it’s truly just another flavor on the menu (as it seems to be the case for Emma). No judgment.
There’s also no shortage of subplots to keep things interesting. Romance is seemingly everywhere. The young men in the film have the same fun approach as the girls. From watching the film, it seems like a much healthier society than we have here. The kids, for example, seem far more mature than their parents, actually. Of course, there is plenty of normal teen angst, anger, and an occasional outburst, but they know the importance of real friendship and acceptance in a way that perhaps more alienated and repressed societies and generations cannot know. And that is the film’s authenticity that stays with the audience
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