Girl Picture (2022 | Finland | 100 minutes | Alli Haapasalo)
Girl Picture feels like that perfect Saturday night summer film complete with drama, young love and charm all wrapped up into one. I caught it at Sundance earlier this year, but now you get the chance to fall in young love all over again with this heartbreaking, yet sweet film out of Finland. It’s playing now at Central Cinema and well worth cozying up with your favorite person in a comfy seat in a sweet sweet air-conditioned theater.
Rönkkö and Mimmi are best friends, the kind of buddies that tell each other everything, wear each others’ clothes, and support each other through thick and thin. Throw in more than a few hormones, discovering what your body wants, and how to even talk to someone you’re interested in and you’ve got the jumbled pile we call puberty; that’s exactly where we find these two women.
Mimmi meets someone that lights a fire inside of her like never before. The fear of rejection brought on by an absent mother who leaves her behind in favor of a new family makes her act idiotic, just as things get too comfortable. On the opposite side of the coin, Rönkkö can’t figure out what she wants, how to get it, or even what makes her happy to begin with. In comedic and not-so-comedic moments of teenage angst their inner turmoil explodes. And, as we do when we’re young and confused, they take it out on each other. Eventually they find their way back to the person that knows them and loves them the best.
This is a lovely story of teenage romance, sexuality, being true to yourself, discovering the beauty that others can add to your life, and how to accept ourselves for who we really are. There’s no song, movie or play that can truly emulate how you feel as a teenager and if there ever were, I don’t think I’d want to experience that again anyway. Films like this find the passion, embarrassment, fear and ridiculousness that we faintly remember from those years (let’s call it selective memory) and turn them into a sweet portrait that’s less traumatizing and more endearing. Well worth the time to enjoy Girl Picture and reminisce about the days where nothing made sense and even though we may not have realized it, we had plenty of time to figure it out.
As a side note, the moment Seattle sweetheart Perfume Genius’ song “Slip Away” slid into the soundtrack I was hooked. I was having a good time beforehand, but that sucked me right in to the dance scene and gave me all the feels.
Girl Picture originally premiered on 1/24 in the Sundance Film Festival’s Feature section and is part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.