Turn Me On, Dammit!

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.

This film is definitely quite interesting. It's not appropriate as a family film, but I think the title suggests that. Much of the film carries a sexual context to it, but unlike many films and TV programmes, it's not over-the-top or unnecessary, but fits the plot appropriately.

The film manages to take one very strange, small, and extremely socially inappropriate action from one character and make an entire plot out of it. This takes a lot of creativity and I don't think I've seen that done as well as in this film. With just a few words about this film, I usually can convey enough about the entire plot to get someone interested in it.

The film also manages to present well the negative feelings some people get when they've lived in a small village for a long time. From the beginning of the film, the characters express a form of hatred for their village, which is definitely a feeling many villagers have.

Although I wouldn't say the film is one of the best I've watched, it manages to be mentioned by me a lot as "the weirdest film I've ever seen." It's definitely worth watching, especially if you're interested in something unconventional.

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.

Alma is a fifteen year old girl living in Skoddeheimen, a fictional town in Norway, with her single mom and her best friend close by her side. Alma's biggest battle in her life is different from the battles we see in most young females' lives, especially in film, and it's with her raging hormones. She is beginning to become sexually awakened, and it becomes so consuming and so smothering that she can barely concentrate on anything else besides feeding her sexual desires.

And they are explicit. Writer/director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen doesn't turn Turn Me On, Dammit! into a shallow exploration of self-pleasure nor does she make it become so comedic that we laugh at the lead character, Alma (played perfectly by Helene Bergsholm) but more often wince and regard her story as depressing or possibly relatable. Her acts are not small, shoplifting pornographic magazines from the grocery store where she works and charging up a hefty bill from several phone sex lines. The opening scene even shows her in the middle of a masturbating act with the phone lying next to her.

The more definitive conflict in the film is the fact that Alma has mistaken an accidental gesture from her crush Artur (Matias Myren) as a sexually flirtatious act, bringing her embarrassment throughout her school. At home, her mother, played wonderfully by Henriette Steenstrup, becomes aware of the steps she takes to pleasure herself, but unable to process the ideas and the resources to help her combat this problem. It becomes so bad that Alma has begun to fantasize not only about being with her crush, but fantasizing about engaging in sex acts with other friends and even her boss. Again, these fantasies are not meant to provide the audience with comedy but poignant realism in the sexual awakening of young teenagers and how sometimes their thoughts are uncontrollable. At times we see the look in young Alma's eyes when she awakens from one of these fantasies and see she is not aroused by sometimes shocked and ashamed.

It was wise for Jacobsen to set her sights on a female lead. I've wearied of watching males in American films make choices for their own gain based on lust, greed, and hormones - also solely for comedic purposes. To see Turn Me On, Dammit! focus on the bitter side hormones play in the lives of teenagers in a raw form is intelligent and courageous. Had this been an American film, its subject matter most likely reduced to vast oversimplifications of the topic, the characters undeveloped and shortchanged, the depictions of steps for sexual gratification tasteless and filmed with smug undertones, and the aftertaste unremarkable and void of any truly impacting substance.

The film begins immediately, the plot and conflict turn up instantaneously, the characters quickly introduced and developed, and the film clocks in with seventy-one minutes well spent, not wasting a second in its goals to try and humanize the hormonal confusion and uncontrollable sexual tendencies of a young girl's pubescent beginnings. Turn Me On, Dammit! is something of a miracle. American cinema should begin, if not, continue to take notes from foreign cinema.

Starring: Helene Bergsholm, Henriette Steenstrup, Malin Bjørhovde, and Matias Myren. Directed by: Jannicke Systad Jacobsen.

i saw this movie in nyc for the film festival. this is one beautiful movie. i wish i could describe the beautiful, daring way the filmmakers captured the story and the scenery. it is very hard to watch movies that have good acting but this film certainly does. i couldn't believe it when the director said these actors had never done this before. i was completely surprised. funny that she also said the leading girl had not told her parents yet! very good thing it was such a wonderful job of acting or she might have been busted.

i also loved the humor, especially from the mother. I thought it was great how the sisters and friends are so ridiculous and yet sad and delightful. great job very good! thank you for being a voice that has some unique style!i hope the film will be able to play in America? are there plans for that? anymore film festivals? i also hope there is a way that i can purchase this film.