She Monkeys
2011 ‘Apflickorna’ Directed by Lisa Aschan
Synopsis
When Emma meets Cassandra, they initiate a relationship filled with physical and psychological challenges. Emma does whatever it takes to master the rules of the game. Lines are crossed and the stakes get higher and higher. Despite this, Emma can't resist the intoxicating feeling of total control.
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Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Equally comparable to both water Lilies and Tomboy, Céline Sciamma’s powerful examinations of gender and sexuality, Swedish director Lisa Aschan makes her attention-grabbing feature debut in She Monkeys, the bipartite story of Emma and Sara, young daughters to a single father. The elder of the two and an amateur equestrian acrobat, Emma begins a sexually charged relationship with one of her teammates, their strange intimacy a suitably mercurial encapsulation of the odd power plays of pubescent youth. Sara, meanwhile—endearingly portrayed by the scene-stealing Isabelle Lindquist—reaches the age of sexual awareness, pestering her father to buy her a new bikini and innocently asking her babysitting cousin whether they are in love. Perfectly pitched between the sweet tone of the latter story and the sinister undertones of the former, She Monkeys is a brilliant debut, an intriguing look at issues of sexuality as funny as it is fascinating.
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From Sweden. Didn't see the point of this one. Strange film.
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Monkeys in women's underwear, faces plastered with lipstick and rouge - thems the type of she monkeys I like.
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Amongst the wave of particularly fine films generated in Scandinavia in recent years, is released “She Monkeys” (“Apflickorna”) directed by Swedish filmmaker Lisa Aschan.
The film focuses on adolescent Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser), a self-possessed girl with ambitions to break into the local equestrian acrobatic team. Through training, Emma meets Cassandra (Linda Molin), an already established member of the team.
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scene360.com/articles/16581/she-monkeys-2012/(Review by Mairead Roche)
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Everything runs in the undercurrents of Lisa Aschen’s impressive, understated debut. Charting the course of a tempestuous relationship between two Swedish teens in patient, subtle strokes, Aschen crafts an assured inversion of the coming of age film by observing the darkness that can lie beneath teenage existence.
Using equestrian vaulting as a symbol for the competitiveness and jealousy often inherent to young female relationships, Aschen explores the struggle between her two conflicted teens, in sport and in life. Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser) is new to the sport, a peculiar fusion of gymnastics and horse riding which involves balancing tentatively on a circling horse, an exercise in strength, control and grace, hence its metaphorical value to the line Aschan is pursuing with…
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Monkeys in women's underwear, faces plastered with lipstick and rouge - thems the type of she monkeys I like.
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Intriguing exploration of burgeoning female sexuality that isn't afraid to touch on uncomfortable issues. Excellent performances from the three leads.
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Maybe I need to revisit before I write my review for HeyUGuys but I didn't like the characters, story, arc nor how uncomfortable it was.
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(NET)
A quiet, emotionally tense film, SHE MONKEYS examines a teenager dealing with acceptance while her much younger sister handles the beginnings of sexual awareness. It is a strange film in that it always feels like something dreadful is about to happen, but usually it's just what children go through, awkwardly, painfully. Terrific work by all involved.
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Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Equally comparable to both water Lilies and Tomboy, Céline Sciamma’s powerful examinations of gender and sexuality, Swedish director Lisa Aschan makes her attention-grabbing feature debut in She Monkeys, the bipartite story of Emma and Sara, young daughters to a single father. The elder of the two and an amateur equestrian acrobat, Emma begins a sexually charged relationship with one of her teammates, their strange intimacy a suitably mercurial encapsulation of the odd power plays of pubescent youth. Sara, meanwhile—endearingly portrayed by the scene-stealing Isabelle Lindquist—reaches the age of sexual awareness, pestering her father to buy her a new bikini and innocently asking her babysitting cousin whether they are in love. Perfectly pitched between the sweet tone of the latter story and the sinister undertones of the former, She Monkeys is a brilliant debut, an intriguing look at issues of sexuality as funny as it is fascinating.
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From Sweden. Didn't see the point of this one. Strange film.