Psychobitch

This film is a really sensitive and genuine look at confronting your own insecurities and the fact that you might unknowlingly be hiding your true self from even those who are closest to you.

Yes, there is this cheesy love story about "falling in love with the whimsical girl from school that no one understands" that ties it all together, but it goes a lot deeper than that. The main character is forced to confront his own insecurity with how he presents himself to his friends/family/school, if he wants to be with the girl that he really loves. Sometimes making true love work isn't easy and sometimes through that work we do we discover hard truths about ourselves.

Just the same plot, good popular guy who is ashamed of the girl he loves. Good music, lots of snow.

It is a coming of age love triangle situation where opposites attract...

Beneath this though, there are two genuinely interesting characters, whose relationship grows organically and naturally. It was interesting to work out how it was going to be done, and the director did it well.

The other unusual thing is how deeply flawed both main characters were, to the degree that I never really rooted for their relationship, given its cost. Especially in the climactic scene which in any other film would be an 'awww' moment, it had all the same set up, but you know what this will do to other characters (and the avoidable cruelty in it).

It is incredible how cruel a person can be through indecision, and this film definitely showcases that. And for her part Frida went way too far on several occasions. Marius' parents then definitely try to force their son into being the image they want, to the point of just piggy backing his successes and rolling him out at parties to brag.

People are messy, the people in this film were messy. If you like character study type films, it would be worth giving this one a shot.

P. S: Is this communal management of relationships a Norwegian thing? I cringed so much in this film at the fact that people appeared to have a very weak appreciation of boundaries between the public, outer friends and their intimate relationships... The scene with the school nurse encouraging them to talk about their feelings randomly in public (where they all parroted vapid cliche lines to sound like they were contributing) was almost creepy. It may be healthy to discussion emotions and relationship details with others, but not just anyone, in public. Boundaries are healthy... Not to mention the public conversation following a rejected sexual advance... conducted by a friend who apparently was a good friend and had the spurned's best interests at heart (and even permission to do so?). It was none of the business of 90% of the people there.

Marius is a good boy. He's good in school, he always does what he's told and what's expected of him. We as the audience are never exactly told if he's happy with that, but we suspect that he's not. In comes Frida, the new girl in school who, rumour has it, had tried to commit suicide. She's the exact opposite, she never does what she's told and shows some very rude behaviour. For a class project, a techer asks Marius to team up with Frida and although he's not thrilled, he can't say no., so he awkwardly tries to engage with Frida. Being strong-willed, Frida plays with Marius and makes him do things that are completely against his nature, even things that are forbidden. Not to spoil anything, you can guess that a teen romance eventlually leads to them falling in love, not without complications like the girl Marius used to date before he met Frida.

The core message of the movie is that our society wishes for children to be like Marius, but in order to be happy they need to develop their own character and do what makes them happy, even if it doesn't always make their parents happy.

My main criticism is that both the characters of Marius and Frida were too extreme to be entirely credible, Marius too boring and Frida too impulsive, but I guess the director wanted it this way to drive home the "opposites attract" thing. My teenager days are long gone, but still I found the movie entertaining, the acting was solid and while I wouldn't pay to see it in a cinema, the time watching it on tv was not wasted. Of course the movie is aimed at teenagers and parents with teenage children.

Psychobitch is one of those high school romance stories that aspires to be socially relevant by exploring mental illness and manages to do that to some extent. However, the forced wickedness that one finds in the characters of Frida and Marius make the drama look like it was concocted just to make that point. But, it is still fun to watch as these characters fool around together in a brutal high school setting where making fun of each other and gossiping is the average order. There are a few palpable sequences (some funny, some serious) that you will take away from Psychobitch but anything more than that will be a stretch. TN.