Cropped out of “Girl Picture” are the angsty awkwardness and crippling self-doubt that usually plague cinema’s teens as the training wheels of adolescence are removed.
In a way, that makes director Alli Haapasalo’s up-tempo light drama a refreshing spin on a familiar genre, as it presents an attractively bouncy, perhaps even aspirational portrait of not-terribly-painful Gen-z growing pains.
But as much as the trio make for pleasant company as they navigate a benevolent passage into adulthood, Ilona Ahti and Daniela Hakulinen’s screenplay never really grips; it’s hard to generate much real tension with characters one never truly worries about, who are going to be able to solve most of their problems with a quick heart-to-heart or an oversized-knitwear hug.A likable portrait of three young Finns chasing down their sexual and romantic awakenings with an emotional frankness that would be enviable in women twice their age,
Read full article