Joven y alocada

Graphic images however the strong sense of such issues are realistic

Despite the pros and the cons, me, I liked it. Very much! I saw it 3 times, to understand it better. First, I saw the Spanish version on You-tube, without subtitles, and I don't know Spanish perfectly. Very bold and very naturally interpreted by all actors. If you don't like the movie, because you are too puritanical and you will be shocked by the porn scenes, you will definitely like the music, abundant and very beautiful, especially the Spanish version of "Je ne regrette rien" by Edith Piaf, sung by Javiera Mena and the Italian song "No voglio mica la luna" originally performed by Fiordaliso, which became "Yo no te pido la luna", sung by the same Javiera Mena. Me, I'm young and wild even now, at 62.

Ever since the surprise success of "Y Tu Mama Tambien", Latin American filmmakers have realized they can compete with Hollywood, and even successfully export Spanish-language films to North America, if they make films that contain a strong dose of the kind of sexual explicitness their more Puritanical northern neighbors tend to shy away from. Unfortunately, few of these films are nearly as good as "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and are more likely to approach the dismal depths of something like "Night Buffalo".

This Chilean movie is about a girl in her late teens who is kicked out of her evangelical school for having sex and decides to start a blog to rebel against her community and overbearing religious mother. Her blog involves her talking about having all manner of sex (oral, anal, you name it) with partners of both genders. And, not surprisingly, a lot of this sex occurs on camera. The problem with this movie is it is neither fish nor fowl. It kind of wants to be a serious art film, but the character is just not particularly believable. Nothing that happens to her really justifies her rather extreme rebellion. The movie wants to take it as a given that religious repression will inevitably result in promiscuity and jaded sexual attitudes, but it doesn't SHOW how it happened with THIS character very convincingly. I would compare this movie--unfavorably--to the excellent Argentinean film "The Holy Girl", which much more believable portrays the nexus between religion and sex.

The lead, Alicia Rodriquez, is definitely very cute, and with all the graphic sex scenes this movie could have at least been solid exploitation. But while it definitely has enough hot sex scenes to qualify, to really do this it would need to make the character LESS realistic and sympathetic and much more satirical. An example of this would be the recent US indie film "King Kelly" about very hot, but very stupid, fame-obsessed young woman who sets out to become an internet porn star. This movie is only slightly more realistic than that scathing satire, and it is also not as much fun.

"Joven y alocada" is a rare bird in its species, I believe. Coming from Chile, it is said to be a real story, told in first person and based on the experiences of a teenage blogger, who starts discovering her own sexuality while being raised in a very religious family (Evangelical).

It depicts a modern society in the "open-mindedness" and yearning for self-discovery of its young protagonists, who face the traditional side of society represented by austere religion. Daniela, the protagonist, experiments with love, trying to fit love for man, woman and Jesus in herself.

The movie integrates new technologies (blog entries, messenger chats) with the actual scenes, and it is innovative in this way, although it looks already a bit outdated, the way online interaction was in 2012. It includes a good deal of Chilean slang, especially words used online and among young people.

The soundtrack is a fundamental part of the movie too, with Chilean technopop star Javiera Mena's original songs and her covers of "Je ne regrette rien", "Sólo te pido la luna" and others.

These three elements (new technologies, the main story and the music) are beautifully wrapped with bright colors and details, it is easy to see the real person whose life and blog the movie reflects, was close to the making of the film and looked after its creation.

YOUNG AND WILD (dir. Marialy Rivas) A sexy and thought provoking film from Chile about a young woman's journey to sexual maturity and the problems posed by her domineering and overbearing family. Because Daniella receives nothing but banal Christian platitudes about her emerging sexuality, she shares her private anguish and confusion with friends on the Internet in her blog entitled, "Young & Wild". The film makes the point that evangelical acculturation is only psychological coercion sweetened with biblical aphorisms, and offers no real answers and only false comfort. Daniella comes to reject the relentless dogma of her parents, and learns to accept the undetermined nature of life. She seems to realize that it's healthier to embrace an uncertain existence without doctrine than to be conned with pious nonsense, and Daniella's family inadvertently prods her into an acceptance of a more secular humanistic world-view. MUST SEE