Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Measuring the full emotional extent of a hormonal teenage mind is something cinema rarely manages to get right, normally forcing its characters into easily categorised pop psychology pigeonholes. When a rare film actually nails it, we should take notice, as in Swedish director Lisa Aschan’s startlingly chilly feature debut, She Monkeys.
Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser) is a quiet, composed, meticulous teenage girl and a keen equestrian vaulter. She meets Cassandra (Linda Molin), a fellow vaulter, and the two embark on a friendly relationship which soon seems to become something more. As the competitive pressure of qualifying for their vaulting team mounts, so too does the sexual tension, with some unexpected consequences.
It would be very easy for something like this to start as a meet-cute and quickly devolve into a sleazily exploitative middle-aged man’s fantasy. Guided by Aschan’s firm – yes, feminine – directorial hand, it...
Measuring the full emotional extent of a hormonal teenage mind is something cinema rarely manages to get right, normally forcing its characters into easily categorised pop psychology pigeonholes. When a rare film actually nails it, we should take notice, as in Swedish director Lisa Aschan’s startlingly chilly feature debut, She Monkeys.
Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser) is a quiet, composed, meticulous teenage girl and a keen equestrian vaulter. She meets Cassandra (Linda Molin), a fellow vaulter, and the two embark on a friendly relationship which soon seems to become something more. As the competitive pressure of qualifying for their vaulting team mounts, so too does the sexual tension, with some unexpected consequences.
It would be very easy for something like this to start as a meet-cute and quickly devolve into a sleazily exploitative middle-aged man’s fantasy. Guided by Aschan’s firm – yes, feminine – directorial hand, it...
- 5/19/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
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