Puppylove

Before you get ... well before you think something that isn't true: the girls in the movie were already of age when they shot their scenes. Something that is not suggested (age wise) when it comes to their respective characters.

Of course that being considered they are ahead of what their age or their body should look like. That actually is not the right way to put it. The way their bodies supposedly should look like for anyone else than themselves.

Two girls, who are quite different. One is quite mesmerized by how the other one is: open about sex. And while she says she is not into what the other one is doing, it does seem like a part of her is yearning to be more open ... to explore her sexuality.

So a lot of nudity, but do not expect this to be too explicit. It is mostly about the drama and the relationships this affects (no pun intended) - their own and the ones they have outside their bond. Quite provocative - and maybe too much for some to watch.

A wonderfully casted and acted film. Natural performances that make you feel like you are looking into the lives of the characters. Very well done.

Puppylove seemed to be set to be a very interesting drama. It contained some unusual characters, complex relationships and had the temerity to deal with a few taboo subjects.

Then it suddenly ended.

Instead of attempting to supply solutions, or at least tackling the issues, the writers and director just seemed to give up on the problems. The ending is incredibly disappointing.

The other disappointing thing was the performance of the lead actress, Solene Rigot. Admittedly, her character was meant to be shy and sullen, but she overdid the quietness and expressionlessness. She was Kristen Stewart-like, she was that bland (and that is not a light insult).

Co-written and directed by Delphine Lehericey focusing on a teenage girl, Diane (Solene Rigot) showcasing her adventures to her sexual identity and perhaps toward approaching to her adult hood as she is living with her young brother and her single parent dad. As we almost see her being pressured by a former friend, she doesn't go through with it. And it is during then as she meets the new neighbor, Julia (Audrey Bastien) moving next door is when her sexual identity is tested.

A realization movie consisting of a baffling ending that can be interpreted as ambiguous, but it can be the result that I have not seen enough French movies.

This French movie is somewhat similar to the overrated American indie film "Thirteen" that came out a few years back. It involves a young teenage girl (Solene Rigot) who is still an inexperienced virgin despite some casual fumblings with a male "friend with benefits". When a perhaps older, and definitely more experienced, girl (Audrey Bastien) moves in next door to her, they become friends, and the virgin follows the promiscuous neighbor into various sexual adventures like a near threesome with an older bartender (in a hotel room adjoining the room of one of the girl's parents), and later an actual threesome while on the standard French-movie holiday.

What I hated about "Thirteen" was the alarmist and hypocritically moralistic attitude. Everybody knows that many teenagers have sex, and a lot of males vividly remember having sex with teenage girls when they were teenagers or a little older. There's no good reason to shy away from the subject like American films do (except maybe in PG-13 movies actually aimed at impressionable teenagers), and if you're worried about creepy male adults, there's certainly no shortage of "barely legal" XXX porn in America--I doubt they bother much with movies like this. French movies don't necessarily glamorize teen sex, but they don't treat it as purely comical and consequence-free when the protagonist are horny teenage guys, and then turn around and become horribly alarmist when the protagonists are teenage girls. They treat it seriously, but also in a more matter-of-fact and in less judgmental matter.

The two actresses in "Thirteen" were actually about fifteen at the time and easily looked 20, so even though they didn't show nudity or anything, they did NOT exactly de-glamorize teen sex, and as a result the movie seemed more than a little hypocritical. The actresses in this actually are over 18, but look younger, especially Solene Rigot. Her sex scenes are less graphic, but perhaps a little uncomfortable because she genuinely looks about 15. The more mature-looking Audrey Bastien has full-frontal nudity and pretty graphic sex scenes, but even this actually feels more honest and less exploitative than most American films on this subject.

The one problem though is the end, which I won't reveal, but it's a VERY common plot twist in French movies like "In a Wild Moment" and "Girls Can't Swim" that probably has less to do with the real-life behavior of teenage girls than it does the sex fantasies of middle-age men. The female director can't help but indulge in this too, but it is not treated in a very exploitative manner (and is the least graphic of the sex scenes). I also appreciated that the very end was not the consequence-free ending of "In a Wild Moment" OR the ridiculously melodramatic ending of "Girls Can't Swim", even if some reviewers did find it frustratingly open-ended.