March 6, 2012

Turn Me On, Dammit! Horny Teenage Girls {featured film}

(This review was originally posted at Good Vibrations Online Magazine.)

In the US, girls are supposed to be sexy, but not sexual. In Norway, girls are expected to be both sexy and sexual — the problem is when they're horny (kåt). A "horny girl" is still very much taboo; obscene, too much. Even in so-called gender democratic and sexually liberated Norway.

The American Pie movies immortalized horny boys on film; Turn Me On, Dammit! (original title is Få meg på, for faen!) finally does the same for a horny girl who wants sex, but in a much more true, real way. This quirky, offbeat Norwegian sex comedy, which won the award for Best Screenplay at Tribeca Film Festival (2011) as well as Best Debut Film at Rome Film Festival, and which has been widely praised by among others The Huffington Post, Variety, Bust.com, and Salon, is about a 15-year-old girl, Alma (performed by 17-year-old Helene Bergsholm), who is insatiably horny all the time. Consumed by her out-of-control hormones, her fantasies range from romantic dreams of Artur, the boy she yearns for, to smutty scenarios about practically everybody she lays her eyes on.

The film's key scene is an awkward, erotic encounter with Artur at a party which she makes the mistake of telling her incredulous friends who in turn ostracize her at school, nicknaming her "dick Alma."

What I love about Alma is that she refuses to repress her lust, though not unfazed by all the slut shaming. She racks up her single mom's phone bill, calling sex lines (a certain "Stig," a male phone sex worker, seems to take some pity in her). Working at the local store to make up for the money, Alma's caught stealing a porn magazine only to further exasperate her already mortified mom. "There's something abnormal about Alma," she pleads with the shop's owner. To her friend, she airs her shame about Alma's constant self-gratification, which she wears earplugs to muffle.

Poignantly capturing the awkwardness and vulnerability of adolescence, especially for the social outcasts who fail to fit in (and it's not just Alma), Turn Me On, Dammit! is ultimately a story of staying true to and owning who you are, including your desire. Even Alma's mother in the end comes around to see Alma's struggle for what it is. Turn Me On, Dammit! is bound to strike a chord with youth and those who remember the awkwardness of adolescence. I believe it also can be a good conversation starter for parents to talk with their kids about sexual awakening, masturbation, slut shaming, fitting in, and all the other trials and tribulations of adolescence. (And a reminder for parents not to shame kids about their sexuality.)

Based on a novel by the same name (by Olaug Nilssen), and adapted by the director, Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, a young, up-and-coming filmmaker who has already won praise for her non-traditional documentary films, Turn Me On, Dammit! is made available to a US-audience by New Yorker Films. It premiers in theaters March 30th. Take a look at the trailer here.

7 comments:

  1. this is 2012   ...NOT 1812 ...get with the times people !

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  2. You have it correct, as far as I know,  Anne. Aphrodite is also correct, although a photograph of a girl fully dressed with her hand not in her pants may also excite a zealous prosecutor. So may hundreds of other images.

    As for the so-called Parents Television Council, it should be exiled to a country that would welcome its incessant, self-serving, body-phobic, wholly sex-negative fear-mongering.This country has to stop its usual way of dealing with teen sexuality --- which is to issue orders to ignore or deny its existence.

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  3. Sigh, PTC is a small group that has an unreasonable amount of say in this country due to its loud, screaming voice.

    Skin is an award-winning British drama that dares to look honestly at all the typical and all the difficult issues young people have to deal with, sex being just one among many others.

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  4. And I thought that all kids were interested only in their Playstations and Barbie dolls, and didn't think of sex until they reached puberty... on their 18th birthday.

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  5. Hi Anne,
    I have a legal background and have researched the laws regarding child pornography.  Based on my understanding of the law, the image you have posted above of the girl with her hand in her panties would support a prosecution for child porn by a zealous prosecutor.  In most of America the posting of such a picture would not likely be prosecuted, but that is the type of image that easily gets people harassed and into jail in certain states.

    If this movie actually gets shown widely in the U.S. without anyone being prosecuted for its exhibition, it might signal that there is an opening to discuss teenage sexuality more openly and honestly.  

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  6.  Hi Aphrodite,

    Thank you for sharing your concern, but I'm not worried. The wide positive reception this film has received around the world and within the US, from film critics and audience members alike, send a loud and clear message that this film has nothing to do with child pornography and all about the need for approaching teenage sexuality, be it male or female, openly and honestly, and with respect.

    Anne

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  7. The Parents Television Council was successful in getting MTV drop the teen show Skins--after PTC persuaded several advertisers to stop sponsorship of the show.  PTC called on state attorney generals of several states to investigate Skins (and MTV) for child porn.  

    Do you have any opinions on Skins?

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