I gave this foreign film a try, not really expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Initially, it feels like a semi-lighthearted and fanciful exploration of girls and their trouble at school, but the movie gets darker and more intense as you watch (similar to Cracks, another coming-of-age gem about a group of girls that starts light and quickly darkens). In this movie, the fantasy element of an odd, dripping black plant grants the girls the ability to be boys for a short time, a catalyst for exploration and awakenings, but also creates rifts in the friendship and new relationships that threaten the old.
Kim, one of the three girls, becomes addicted to the plant when she realizes that she feels at home in a boy's body. This causes a lot of complications among the friends and with others, culminating in an intense ending that seemed a bit odd and abrupt, at best. On the flip side, jealousy, love, sexual awakenings/gender awakenings, and all of those labile emotions of adolescence are very palpable in this film, and sensitively captured both with the male and female actors, who did a great job.
It's a little heavy-handed at times, but as I mentioned, the curiosity and sensitivity of adolescence are captured well. Some questions are left unanswered (why do they transform into older boys?, etc.), but these questions and some of the aforementioned issues aside, this film is surprisingly enigmatic.
Also, I was happy to hear The Knife contributing to the soundtrack....there's no mistaking Karin Andersson's banshee-like voice.
Overall, Girls Lost is a solid coming-of-age movie that burns out at the end, but is still worth watching for its handling of the issues of gender identity, love, and jealousy.
Initially, it feels like a semi-lighthearted and fanciful exploration of girls and their trouble at school, but the movie gets darker and more intense as you watch (similar to Cracks, another coming-of-age gem about a group of girls that starts light and quickly darkens). In this movie, the fantasy element of an odd, dripping black plant grants the girls the ability to be boys for a short time, a catalyst for exploration and awakenings, but also creates rifts in the friendship and new relationships that threaten the old.
Kim, one of the three girls, becomes addicted to the plant when she realizes that she feels at home in a boy's body. This causes a lot of complications among the friends and with others, culminating in an intense ending that seemed a bit odd and abrupt, at best. On the flip side, jealousy, love, sexual awakenings/gender awakenings, and all of those labile emotions of adolescence are very palpable in this film, and sensitively captured both with the male and female actors, who did a great job.
It's a little heavy-handed at times, but as I mentioned, the curiosity and sensitivity of adolescence are captured well. Some questions are left unanswered (why do they transform into older boys?, etc.), but these questions and some of the aforementioned issues aside, this film is surprisingly enigmatic.
Also, I was happy to hear The Knife contributing to the soundtrack....there's no mistaking Karin Andersson's banshee-like voice.
Overall, Girls Lost is a solid coming-of-age movie that burns out at the end, but is still worth watching for its handling of the issues of gender identity, love, and jealousy.