17 Meninas

Men, women, young, old, when somebody from France makes a movie about coming of age the best word to describe that work is slime.

Slow script. Rigid delivery. The production team is unable to get closer to the chosen issue, but at least they can take the clothes off some young bodies and parade them around for the viewing pleasure of an audience that might creep a lot of people.

It just plain and boring, the plot is basically nonexistent and they lost an opportunity to treat such an important theme.

They show this group of teen that decides to get pregnant without giving a valid explanation and without considering the psychology of the characters which is really important in this situations: we barely get any emotional responses from the girls, almost no reaction from the parents and the fathers just seem to not exist.

They even had the chance to evolve the character of florénce but they totally wasted it, she needed attention in almost a pathological way and everybody seemed to hate her and we don't even get a full chance to understand why.

The only good thing is the end where they treat an important theme even if superficially.

I feel like they wasted an opportunity.

The first thing of note here is the quality of the acting and direction. The way everything is natural and believable here is mind boggling. These are very young girls and yet they're caught on film doing things we've all seen young girls do as if the camera were invisible. How is that possible? Because if they're only acting they are incredibly convincing.

If I were a director filming a competing film about female adolescents I would shoot myself out of sheer envy. And I'm afraid I can only attribute the poor reviews this film got to something similar. I much prefer a different more masculine kind of film, but I was riveted by this film's persuasiveness. That's quite a trick. This director is ingenious. If he or she is not given some meaty project after this masterful accomplishment then I'm quite sure the movie industry is dooming itself to deliberate mediocrity.

The only caveat I have is that the story itself, in the end, is not very satisfying. However, as I understand it, the true story behind this fanciful embellishment was even less satisfying. In other words this movie is a flight of imagination on pretty slim facts. But don't let that stop you from seeing it, it's unforgettable.

Sometimes I just do not want to live on this planet anymore. A "poetic" movie about girls who want to become mass pregnant, because they are kinda bored? And that did actually happen somewhere? Having a kid in adolescence is probably the totally worst rebellion you can possibly do. It is actually just a "f*k you" shout at your very own parents, then you will return to them and beg for help. You will have no bloody idea what to do and will not be able to survive without their help. You will became even more dependent on them. You will waste your life and theirs as well. There is nothing poetic or charming on such rebellion.

It is just a pure explosion of idiocy, that will very probably lead to wasted life. Young marriage will rarely work and hardly anybody will have interest in 22 years old single mothers with 6 years old kids. Usually the less successful, the old, the divorced, the outsiders, amazing choices here. I have seen this multiple times. You have passed education for parenthood and this leads to inevitable career choices. Poorly paid bartenders, cashiers and such. Then you are in early 30ies, fighting your own teenage rebel at home. Your life is full of badly masked self hate and hate to men. It's easy to spot these people, just walk into bar at late hour and you will meet some of them. I'm really disgusted by this sort of young stupid and feel no pity to them.

I'm so angry by such "poetic" movies that show this bored spoiled youngsters as a "dreamers". Yes, in some sense even the Mason's family were "dreamers". That makes them no less disgusting. "Nothing can stop 17 years old girl that dreams." Oh yes, something can. Your kids, baby. The game is over now, the dream is over. This "rebellion" will make a lifetime slave from you, because you were so so so incredibly stupid. And making advertisements for such decisions is no less stupid.

Whatever bar I once had to measure boredom while watching a movie, it might have been surpassed by 17 Girls. It's hard for me to even express how little interest I had in this film. I dozed off 3 times, before deciding I had to stop and wait to finish the film the next day. Basically what seems to have happened is that a couple of filmmakers found out the true story of a high school where a bunch of girls all decided to get pregnant and raise their kids together. The problem was that, when writing the screenplay, they didn't take the time in order to make a plot or characters to help engage the audience in the story of these girls, so there's very little movie here. There are barely any defining characteristics to differentiate any of the stars of the film other than their names and faces. A couple times they have very minor personality traits, but most of the way through it's just a mass of pregnant teens. The ending might have been the most anticlimactic thing I've ever seen, and it left me annoyed. There's simply no movie here, I don't even know if there is enough for a short film. Perhaps that's the artistic statement Delphine and Muriel Coulin were trying to make, a film that was just as vapid as the teens featured in it. If you are looking to fall asleep quickly, then a little time with 17 Girls might take care of that for you.