Jun. 27, 2012 - Issue #871: Edmonton 2012
Turn Me On, Goddammit!
We begin with a brief tour of the ostensible highlights of the hinterland hamlet of Skoddeheimen, Norway. A disembodied voice itemizes various ordinary items in the local landscape as a way of emphasizing their stupefying lameness. The voice belongs to Alma (Helene Bergsholm), almost 16, very pretty in a pleasingly off-kilter sort of way, with her slightly askew mouth, and frisky as a panther in heat, first seen with one hand down her panties and the other clutching a phone. She calls the same sex line often enough to get regular freebies—once a month, the operator actually calls her. Alma's a clever, charismatic teenager, but she got needs. She masturbates at the drop of a hat. The movie is thus titled Turn Me On, Goddammit! (Få meg på, for faen). It's a coming of age story, emphasis on the "coming."There's this other kid named Arthur (Matias Myren), a tall and handsome, but slightly dopey-looking, guy who Alma fancies. While the two are alone outside during a house party, Arthur pokes Alma's leg with his dick. That is, he takes out his dick, his stiff dick, and sort of taps her with it. And that's what some call love, I guess. But then Alma goes back to the party and tells a jealous friend what transpired with Arthur's dick; jealous friend announces it to everyone at the party, and then later to everyone at school and it might as well be everyone in Skoddeheimen; Arthur denies; Alma's social life evaporates. She has become known as "Dick-Alma," small town high school persona non grata.
I like very much how Turn Me On, Goddammit!, Jannicke Systad Jacobsen's feature debut, makes no apologies for weaving its entirety from little more than adolescent horniness and one goofy, abbreviated, blown out of proportion mating ritual. The sense of place, the sense of attitude, the sense of humour: all of these elements feel very genuine and inviting. And I very much liked the character of Saralou (Malin Bjørhovde, who bears some resemblance to the young Liv Ullman), Alma's friend, who wants to get the hell out of Skoddeheimen and mosey on down to Texas to help abolish capital punishment. In a diverting subplot, Saralou becomes pen pals with a death row inmate. But, perhaps inevitably, the movie becomes increasingly conventional, and it all wears a bit thin, even with a mere 76-minute running time. Fantasies keep intruding on the narrative, which is a tactic I sometimes feel very friendly toward (see Belle de jour), but Alma's fantasies just aren't that interesting or funny. Or they're of the one-joke variety, such as Alma's hormone-fueled vision of the not obviously attractive (certainly not obvious for a 15-year-old) quickie-mart manager humping his bike helmet and dancing. I mean, is Alma's fantasy life that impoverished?
The movie lands in a nice place. It's satisfying enough when Alma comes right out and calls Arthur a coward. It's less satisfying when Arthur tries to make up for it with a sort of John Hughes movie gesture. But what can you do? Teenagers: you got to let them make their own mistakes.
3
Turn Me On, Goddammit!Opens Fri, Jun 29 – Wed, Jul 4
Directed by: Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
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