Stars: Helene Bergsholm, Malin Bjørhovde, Beate Støfring, Matias Myren, Henriette Streenstrup | Based on the novel by Olaug Nilssen | Written and Directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
I’ve had something of a soft spot for coming-of-age stories ever since I read Jd Salinger’s perennial classic The Catcher In The Rye. Whether it’s the tough but good-hearted lessons of Stand By Me and Almost Famous or bleak but profound entries into adult like The 400 Blows and Kes, they usually contain a great deal that I can relate to on an emotional and thematic level, even if I never grew up in Paris, toured with a rock band or found a dead body in my youth. I did get drunk in a park once, but that’s about it. Realistically I think I still enjoy these stories because, despite having been legally adult for quite some time, I still haven...
I’ve had something of a soft spot for coming-of-age stories ever since I read Jd Salinger’s perennial classic The Catcher In The Rye. Whether it’s the tough but good-hearted lessons of Stand By Me and Almost Famous or bleak but profound entries into adult like The 400 Blows and Kes, they usually contain a great deal that I can relate to on an emotional and thematic level, even if I never grew up in Paris, toured with a rock band or found a dead body in my youth. I did get drunk in a park once, but that’s about it. Realistically I think I still enjoy these stories because, despite having been legally adult for quite some time, I still haven...
- 4/28/2013
- by Mark Allen
- Nerdly
Based on the novel of the same title by Olaug Nilssen, Turn Me On, Goddammit tells the well-worn story of teenage sexual awakening but refreshingly explores the female perspective.
Alma is almost 16 and dreams about fellow classmate, Artur, climbing into her bedroom window at night. Playing guitar in the choir band, Artur has also attracted the attention of Alma’s friend Ingrid.
During the opening credits, Alma’s voice-over narration, emphasises the boredom of living in Skoddeheimen as we take a quick tour of the community: "Empty roads, more empty road.... stupid sheep..." Jacobsen doesn’t mess around with our first introduction to Alma; she challenges our expectations of the stereotypical bored female adolescent by showing her masturbating lying on her kitchen floor, listening to phone porn before the return of her mum interrupts her “down” time.
Later pre-“incident” scenes of Alma with her friends awaken painful, and often embarrassing,...
Alma is almost 16 and dreams about fellow classmate, Artur, climbing into her bedroom window at night. Playing guitar in the choir band, Artur has also attracted the attention of Alma’s friend Ingrid.
During the opening credits, Alma’s voice-over narration, emphasises the boredom of living in Skoddeheimen as we take a quick tour of the community: "Empty roads, more empty road.... stupid sheep..." Jacobsen doesn’t mess around with our first introduction to Alma; she challenges our expectations of the stereotypical bored female adolescent by showing her masturbating lying on her kitchen floor, listening to phone porn before the return of her mum interrupts her “down” time.
Later pre-“incident” scenes of Alma with her friends awaken painful, and often embarrassing,...
- 4/7/2013
- Shadowlocked
Teenage Alma takes on all of the taboos of Western sexuality in this delightful coming-of-age fairytale. Awarded "Best Screenplay" at the Tribeca Film Festival 2011, "Independent Distribution Award for Best Debut Film" at the International Rome Film Festival 2011 and Best European First Feature at the Mons International Love Festival (Belgium) in 2012, Jannicke Jacobsen.s debut directorial effort is as quirky as it gets. Starring Helene Bergsholm as 15-year-old Alma, bright and fresh as the Norwegian spring itself, .Turn Me On. takes on several modern taboos with humor and understanding. The result is that both adults and teens get a much-needed chance to look at, and laugh at, themselves. Olaug Nilssen.s novel .Turn Me On, Dammit. is a...
- 7/2/2012
- by Ron Wilkinson
- Monsters and Critics
Adapted from Olaug Nilssen’s novel of the same name, writer-director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen shows us how the repressive tendencies of small rural towns can really screw with the adolescent minds of its inhabitants. The teens of Turn Me On, Dammit! feel locked up and oppressed (they hate their town so much that they flip off the town limit sign every time they pass by it) and hormonal tension is boiling inside them. The cast is played primarily by teenage actors, lending Turn Me On, Dammit! the aura of an authentically awkward adolescent world that is saturated with overwhelming sexuality. In Hollywood, these kids would have been total horn-dogs, talking raunchily about wanting to get into each others' pants; but Jacobsen’s film is incredibly subtle, approaching teenage sexuality naturally rather than exaggeratedly. The high schoolers in Turn Me On, Dammit! are way too shy and timid to discuss sex with each other,...
- 5/29/2012
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
If the title of Jannicke Systad Jacobsen‘s Turn Me On, Dammit! has you expecting a raunchy comedy of flamboyant zest, it may not hurt to dial back your expectations a bit. We do get no less than two up-close-and-personal looks at Artur’s (Matias Myren) Dirk Diggler, and I’d be lying if I said our introduction to 15-year-old Alma (Helene Bergsholm) — the outright image of her exploring her pants under the tutelage of a phone-sex worker named “Stig” — is something you see at the movies every day.
But Jacobsen, working from her own adaptation of an Olaug Nilssen novel, approaches the material with a Norwegian bite that keeps the on-screen stuff at a sleety distance. What we’re meant to laugh out loud at like rowdy, foolish goons in a Judd Apatow movie plays severely differently here, and that generally gives the film a more interesting aura than...
But Jacobsen, working from her own adaptation of an Olaug Nilssen novel, approaches the material with a Norwegian bite that keeps the on-screen stuff at a sleety distance. What we’re meant to laugh out loud at like rowdy, foolish goons in a Judd Apatow movie plays severely differently here, and that generally gives the film a more interesting aura than...
- 3/30/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Norwegian film Turn Me On, Dammit! is a coming of age story about the blossoming sexuality of a teenage girl, based on a novel by Olaug Nilssen. It is the feature debut of writer-director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, and won "Best Screenplay" at the Tribeca Film Festival, "Best Debut Film" at the Rome Film Festival and "Best European First Feature" at the Mons International Love Film Festival (Belgium).Synopsis: 15-year-old Alma (Helene Bergsholm) is consumed by her out-of-control hormones and fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of Artur, the boyfriend she yearns for, to down-and-dirty daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on. Alma and her best friend Sara live in an insufferably boring little town in the hinterlands of Norway called Skoddeheimen, a place they...
- 3/17/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Director: Jannicke Systad Jacobsen Writers: Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, Olaug Nilssen Starring: Helene Bergsholm, Matias Myren, Malin Bjørhovde, Beate Støfring, Henriette Steenstrup Alma (Helene Bergsholm) is a 15-year-old virgin...well, except by her own hand; but what else is a teenage girl supposed to do when she is trapped in a secluded Norwegian town that has nothing to offer except empty roads, sheep, tractors and hay? Alma wants to get all hey, hey in the hayloft with Artur (Matias Myren); but until that time comes, Alma must rely on a friendly phone sex operator at "Wet and Wild Dreams" to get her rocks off. A relatively normal teenager with an overactive imagination that has been hijacked by hyperactive hormones, Alma daydreams incessantly about a variety of sexual encounters. Her fantasies begin to get so confused with reality that neither Alma nor the audience know which is which. It is important to...
- 5/2/2011
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
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