Thursday, September 13, 2007

Naissance des pieuvres (Celine Sciamma, 2007)


The French seem to tell coming-of-age stories more effortlessly than anyone, and this proves no exception. Delicately and shrewdly navigating the power plays that take place between four teens, the movie quickly abandons its synchronized swimming metaphors to dive into the murkier waters of young lust. It's a film filled with moments of stymied passions and desperate gestures (at one point, the heroine gnaws at an apple core that another girl discarded, hoping to kiss her by proxy). In the typically French style, little is resolved, but everyone's left a bit wiser at the end.

Rating: 67/100

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