Joven y alocada

Young and Wild is a chaotic look at a teen girl's life as she struggles to find her identity personally, religiously, and sexually. I might have been more intrigued by it if the main character wasn't so obnoxious. Throughout the film she is entirely self-centered and does nothing to redeem herself in any satisfying way. I know there are teens who behave this way, in fact many would say this kind of self-centeredness is a defining characteristic of the teenage years, but I don't particularly want them as the protagonist of a film I'm watching. It's kind of infuriating how her continued selfish exploration of her own wants and needs begins by alienating her family, then proceeds to tear into the people she "loves." There were some interesting ideas to explore, particularly when it came to her dilemma over her confused sexual desires, but it wasn't handled all that well. The end of the film was easily the most infuriating part. It seems to just skew off in a strange direction for no logical reason, and then lacks a satisfying resolution for anyone. And, if I'm honest, the overt sexuality of the film isn't exactly my cup of tea either. I think Young and Wild could have been good, but didn't live up to its potential.

"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entries, messenger chats) with the actual scenes, and it is innovative in this way, although it looks already a bit outdated, the way online interaction was in 2012.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.

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.

Daniela (Alicia Rodriguez) is a 17-year-old girl who had a strict upbringing within her evangelical family. Rebellion and frustration, typical of her age, lead her to live a life based on sexual adventures that are narrated in a blog. One of these adventures is discovered and she is expelled from school. As punishment, her mother (Aline Kuppenheim), imposes that the young woman works on a station that produces gospel programs, where she meets Thomas and Antonia. The relationship with Thomas and Antonia will enhance Daniela's existential questions, also intensifying her individual experiences...

It reminded me a lot of Bruna Surfistinha, despite the objectives being adverse, recently watching "Jovem e Bela" which reports the same jovial compulsion for sex as girls, and I realize how much this is still a great love, who you were with which women they like sex as much as with men, surrounded by taboos, prejudices, and retaliation, highly harmful to young people... Beautiful and crazy film...

Living in the American South's Bible Belt, I am deeply familiar with the kind of intense religious bombardment the protagonist experienced -- it's pretty much par for the course for any place or subculture where religious fundies have a grip.

I thought the movie did an EXCELLENT job of portraying this aspect of the film. I thought maybe mother was a WEE bit over the top hateful and intrusive, not that I don't believe mothers like her exist, but that I think the filmmaker missed a big chance of portraying the way kindness can also be used as a tool for psychological manipulation.

The part the filmmaker UTTERLY screwed up was helping us understand the reason for the protagonist's rebellion. Was it adolescent angst, a healthy sexuality growing and rebelling against the repression, or just a healthy human response to the general repressiveness of evangelical beliefs? We have no idea, because the idiot filmmaker just gave us lots of shots of the lead actress looking sullen instead of any meaningful dialog that would have helped us UNDERSTAND the reason for all the sullenness. Of course, there was a lot of dialog with other young people on her blog that MIGHT have been illuminating, but it wasn't. It was just the usual shallow talk of normal teens about sex.

I was hoping for more depth, more insight, than a teen might have about the issues raised in the movie. I didn't get that. A shame, because without it, the movie is a real nothingburger.