Girl picture

It doesn't do anything radically different; it's pretty much your standard coming of age movie... but by the end, I'd bought into, believed and come to love these characters - just as much as they loved each other, when all was said and done... Girl power.

A rather frank Finish feature of girls deciphering hormonal urges as they mature into adulthood. The matter of fact sex talk is blunt, refreshing, insightful and often funny, as director Alli Haapasalo avoids the sensationalistic and exploitative Hollywood pratfalls of bedroom romps. These are kids, experimenting, exploring, learning, fumbling, growing and most importantly, discussing. A talkie, not a humpy.

Mimmi and Ronkko swap sex tales whilst serving up ridiculously named smoothies ("It Takes Two To Mango") at the local food court, when clique preppie figure skater Emma disrupts their world. The punky, cynical and rebellious Mimmi (Aamu Milonoff) argues with, then falls for the forbidden fruit, and we have story. A story that feels natural, flows true, views like a diary.

Milonoff is sensational in the lead, owning the screen at every emotional turn: burning embarrassment at her mother's neglect, seducing her target on the dance floor, and lashing out physical for attention. Though this is a three girl story across three Friday nights, and Haapasalo splits the plot pie in equal portions, Milonoff as Mimmi steals the show. "Girl Picture" is her movie.

Watch out!

• hipCRANK.

Told over a trio of Friday evenings, this follows the story of three lifelong pals who are entering the exciting new world of adulthood and discovering things about their bodies and themselves that director Alli Haapasalo has knitted into one hundred minutes of light-hearted drama. "Mimmi" (Aamu Milonoff) and the figure skating-obsessed "Emma" (Linnea Leino) have always been joined at the hip and appear destined to take their relationship to the next level, whilst "Rönkkö" (Eleoonora Kauhanen) is more into finding out just to get her juices (quite literally) flowing. What now ensues sees these three girls go through some of the turbulence of adolescence, exploring their sexuality and questioning their priorities as they go - whilst causing some mayhem with the equally hormonal boys whom "Rönkkö", especially, seems to manage to frustrate at every turn as she rather methodically searches for her own "tingle". It's quite a quirkily coming of age sort of story, this, with a candidness to it that is quite refreshing at times. It's not often that we get films that deal with the feminine side of the coin when it comes to initial sexual encounters - some more successful than others. The writing and acting, though, is all rather underwhelming and it loves a stereotype as it's initial innovation gives way to an Hollywood-esque sisterhood exercise that can be quite cringemaking to watch at times. There's something entirely superficial about the whole thing and after half an hour I just felt that we were being presented with a series of scenarios straight (or not) from the teenage pop-up Kamasutra. It's not bad and at times is quite revealing of attitudes and that physical passion we all felt in our teens, but that quickly gives way to the routine and it loses it's punch.

This film depicts three affluent European high school girls in the middle of some coming of age issues - I would not go so far as to call it problems.

The structure and the feel is a derivative of the Norwegian Internet series SKAM, which was made on a string budget with authentic real aged teenagers.

In SKAM, characters were balanced, multi layered and above all believable, while the characters here are quite shallow and, for that matter, portrayed by over age women. This gives it a somewhat awkward feeling at times, especially when it comes to portraying first sexual encounters. It is worth noting that Aamu Milonoff is 23, Eleonoora Kauhanen is 24 and Linnea Leino is 30 when the "girls" keep on experiencing these first (random) sexual encounters and discuss them on their job in a fruit juice stand, usually right after high school classes.

There is an abundant supply of cliches, like singing to random music playing on the car stereo while driving to parties or bouncing around each other in luxury apartments like happy young kittens.

All characters, even more so the male characters, feel constructed with a need to cover cliches. For the sake of comedy this is okay and at times it is entertaining. Anything beyond that feels contrived. The teenage love stories do not have the kind of pull that some teenagers actually feel when they are in it, thinking they experience the end of the world.

There is a lot of sexuality in this film that obviously comes from teenagers watching too much pornography. While it is true that European teenagers are highly exposed to pornography, portraying this issue with over aged actresses playing teenagers recreates a feeling of sexual exploitation that was declared as the arch enemy in feminist film making. In this aspect the film has failed. It could have been a chance to authentically rewrite the way teenage girls are portrayed in modern cinema.

"Girl Picture" is a wonderfully compelling, beautifully directed and shot story about three young women growing up in Helsinki and their relationships. The actresses quickly ensnare you and you find yourself feeling the characters' feelings along with them. I loved the figure skating plot line. Highly recommend.