Turn Me On!

Like any other Indie Teen Movie about Sex,"Turn Me On Dammit!" is a movie about a fifteen year old girl named Alma who's hormones are out of control and desperately wants to experience sex for the first time.

Living in a very dull small Norwegian town, Alma can only daydream about Arthur (The guy at her school she crushes on) and make calls to phone sex lines just so she can pleasure herself. Basically, her life is very mono-sexual. At a party one night, Alma finds herself suddenly alone with Arthur, who out of nowhere ends up exposing himself to her and pokes her on her thigh with it. As she under reacts in her own way though still freaked out about it, Alma makes the mistake to run off and tell her "friend" who also secretly crushes on Arthur and out of jealousy ends up telling the entire school for her own benefit. As a result Alma becomes an outcast at school and no one would talk to her. To make matters worse her mother finds out about her phone sex calls and becomes aware of Alma's sexual frustration that is out of control. As Alma does her best to live life as best as she can life closes in on her as she struggles to deal with her new found solitude.

This is a very funny and cool movie that I truly enjoyed watching. It has a great young cast, along with a very honest storyline. The cinematography is simple. The color palette on this film is superb which nicely paints a picture. Filled with an awesome score of eclectic acoustic tunes, this is truly a nice simple movie to chill out to. I personally wished it been a little longer but still works out for what it is.

Overall, don't just watch this movie expecting just to see teen sex. You'll probably be somewhat disappointed if you do. This is a movie about a teenager coping with her sexual frustration at home and finding a way to deal with her public humiliation at the same time. Give it a chance, you might just enjoy yourself. 7 out of 10

This film deeply effected me since I had many experiences in the same flavor as Alma as a teenager, and to this day have never seen or read anything that describes the specific pain of those years until now.

I felt that this film very clearly and artistically outlined the double-standard that still exists, even in a relatively feminist country like Norway. Even 30 years after the sexual revolution of the 1960s, it is still taboo for young girls to be fascinated by their own pleasure and sexuality, even though it is expected for boys to experiment early and often.

This film tells a tale which is rarely told so honestly, and instead of painful its gorgeous, smart and funny, set in a beautiful landscape with a dreamy soundtrack. The film is shot in lush colors, with cute humor... well, I big dose of cute (which I am typically allergic to), but this film won me over, big time.

I recently saw this at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is a low budget, quirky, coming-of-age Norwegian comedy from a writer/director (Jannicke Systad Jabobsen), known for making shorts and documentaries, who is making her feature film debut using mostly untrained actors and the results are hilarious and charming. Alma (Helen Bergsholm) is a 15 year old living in a small rural Norwegian town called "Skaddeheimen" who has discovered self-gratification and phone sex. She, like her friends, long to leave the town they live in and go to a big city like Oslo as one of her friends older sister Maria (Julia Bach-Wiig) has. Alma has a crush on Artur (Matais Myren) but when he makes an offensive move toward her outdoors at a community dance, she flees inside to describe it to her best friends Saralou (Malin Bjørhoude) and Ingrid (Beate Støfring). They don't believe her story, and Artur of course denies it, so she becomes ostracized by the whole school and loses all her friends. Her mother (Henriette Steenstrup) is beside herself with Alma's fascination with sex but devises ways to put up with it. Director Jacobsen co-wrote the very funny script along with Olaug Nilssen adapted from Nilssen's novel. Excellent soundtrack music from Ginge Anvk, nicely edited by Zaklina Stojcevska with beautiful cinematography from Marianne Bakke this film comes together and delivers a smart and witty comedy. The casting is perfect and Bergsholm, who was 17 when this was filmed, playing the 15 year old lead is outstanding in her debut acting performance. She is both poised and comedic and pulls off her role with genuine charm and skill. I'll look for a future for her and for director Jacobsen. I would highly recommend this film and give it my highest rating of 10 out of 10.

I don't know what to say about Minnie Long's comment that Helene Bergsholm hadn't told her parents about the scenes she plays in this film. She obviously thinks she heard it.

As the US publicist, let me tell you what happened in fact: when Helene was offered the role of Alma, director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen met with her and her parents in a hotel to have them read over the entire script, and, as Bergsholm was underage at the time, to give their consent. As anybody who has worked on a film knows, the film could never have been released without a signed document from the parents. It is very serious business what you depict sexually with minors on screen. And in particular, somebody like Helene, who is not a professional actor.

I happened to read the more negative review further down, and thought I had to post some input. If you live in Scandinavia and a "youth movie" comes out in your own language, you're bound to think the pace is wrong, the acting is poor and that the story isn't believable.

As I live in Sweden I couldn't sense anything wrong with the dialog, thought the acting was good and nothing sounded unnatural. I bet if Espen down here went and saw a similar Swedish movie like Lina's Kvällsbok or Sandor Slash Ida, he wouldn't find them as awkward as I did.

So maybe Norwegian and Swedish scriptwriters should just start sending their scripts across the border, shoot their movies in the other country with foreign actors/actresses, and then market it through local media as the new hot movie from the neighbor country :) Personally, I read about the film in Ottar, the member newspaper for RFSU (the Swedish "National Association for Sexual Enlightenment").

The movie was a little short though, only 72 minutes. I think they could've thrown in more of those embarrassing comic relief scenes, you'll understand what I mean if you go and see it!