Blue My Mind

I had no idea what the movie would be about. It seemed to be "just another" teen coming of age drama. There is more to that and I reckon most will already know it unless you are like me and try to watch movies with as little information as possible.

The acting is really good and apart from the usual stuff you may have seen in other movies (Thirteen and Bahnhoff Zoo are two that come to mind) has this otherworldy feel to it, that goes ... under your skin - no pun intended.

Apart from that, there are some sexual situations you may feel uncomfortable with, depending on your own sensibilities. Those do not just involve the main character girl (especially in one scene towards the end), but also video footage that is rather explicit and vividly showing sexual intercourse (pornograhic content you can find on the internet). It's just for a short moment, but in cast this ruins the movie for you, I thought you'd better know.

That all aside the movie ends in the only way that makes ... well sense in a way.

After watching this film, I was very much reminded of that other intense, coming-of-age girlhood drama, Thirteen. Both films feature a young protagonist who, in the midst of trying to navigate adolescence amidst loving but oblivious parents, get sucked into the depravities of underage drinking, substance abuse, promiscuity, self-harm and the like. The scenes of Mia trying to find an in with the cool crowd is immediately familiar to Thirteen's Tracy trying to cozy up to the wild Evie. If the film had a mood board, I could also see the similarly named Fish Tank (maybe even Pixar's latest, Turning Red, could be the Disney-fied version of this story), or the French film Water Lilies, as inspirations.

As a metaphor for the turbulence of the teen years, shape-shifting stories, and mermaids in particular, are a very interesting idea. But not enough is done with it in Blue My Mind. I wanted to know if Mia had prior suspicions about her origins, or if she just started having inklings that she is not like others. We also don't get much insight into some of Mia's decisions other than her being driven by hormones. Some of the plot mechanics were also improbable, notably Mia's parents leaving her at home alone despite worrying changes in her behavior.

I did like how the film avoided falling into some cliches, particularly with the Gianna character who is at first introduced as the sexually precocious "bad influence"-type. Also the cinematography is pretty striking with its palette of blues. Overall, this is definitely a film that leaves an impression on you with its vividly startling imagery. I would have liked it even more had it spent more time developing Mia's thinly sketched parents, or her relationship with Gianna, and gave Mia more of a complex, defiant send-off.

I see this movie as a poetic self-deletion movie. A young girl going through puberty and not able to cope and thus acts out. She's like many teens who don't feel like they belong, even to the point of thinking that they're adopted. The telling sign for me was the knife. I see it as she made the attempt and her friend found her in the tub. Letting her go at the end reminds me of Big Fish. That movie, like this one is double-meaning.

Sad and lovley... Truly not for the masses. Your average Joe will not like or get this at all.

There are no shortage of films telling stories about young teens facing changes in life, especially puberty, and even such movies with a "creature feature" twist number more than a few. Among such company, 'Blue my mind' nonetheless stands as a fair competitor.

Yet the problem is that while the concept is solid, and there are some good ideas in the screenplay, the best word I can think of to describe the execution is "incomplete."

Mia (Luna Wedler) is having difficulty fitting into a new school or getting along with her parents, to the point that she wonders if they're actually related. Things start looking up as she befriends a fellow student, Gianna (Zoe Pastelle Holthuizen), a rather rebellious young woman whose "devil may care" lifestyle draws out behavior in Mia that contrasts with the stricter upbringing and expectations she has known. The bulk of 'Blue my mind' is devoted, narratively, to a "coming of age" exploration of who Mia is, or could be, or might want to be. The story is anchored by fine performances from Wedler and Holthuizen, but even so, the way these scenes play out feels a little forced, and inorganic.

At the same time, Mia begins to experience strange new feelings, and see differences in her body, that portend something more transformative on the way. For about 75 of the film's 97 minutes, those troubling curiosities Mia is experiencing - a bizarre new craving, unseemly marks on her skin, acute changes in her toes - are delivered on-screen very piecemeal, with no notable progression per se. Which would be fine, cinematically, if not for the fact that in the last 20 minutes those slow and minor changes abruptly launch forward into being nearly complete. What were odd symptoms suddenly become a jarring transformation, and there's no real flow in the narrative from A to B.

Yet the film is capped off by a surprisingly strong ending. The full realization of Mia's transformation, physically and emotionally, results in some heartfelt moments before the tale comes to a rewarding close.

The great flaw here, though, is that the entire rest of the movie - an uneven coming-of-age story followed by abrupt body horror - does not convincingly flow into the ending. As a result, pleasing as the final scene is in and of itself, we're left feeling a little less than satisfied overall.

I don't dislike 'Blue my mind.' The primary young actors are good, there are good ideas, and I enjoy the ending. It's just not entirely successful in telling the story that it wants to.

Worth watching, I think. Just keep your expectations in check.