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Review of "Show Me Love"
This is the genius of Show Me Love: it lays bare the worst of human behavior and leaves you feeling that there's still hope for the human race anyway. It accomplishes this by refusing to make cardboard cutouts of its characters, instead showing that everyone is capable of good and evil under the right circumstances. For example, Elin tells everyone at a party that kissing Agnes was "horrible" to keep anyone from thinking she liked it, and then cruelly breaks up with Johann, a boy who is desperately in love with her, for showing weakness in standing up to his friend. Agnes is vicious to Victoria at her birthday party, but forgiving of Elin when she apologizes later for the dare. Viktoria is initially supportive of Agnes' love for Elin, then tells everyone at school about it after Agnes verbally attacks her.
Agnes' mother is very positive about lesbianism until she finds out her daughter is one, at which point she becomes worried and upset and violates her own ethics by reading Agnes' journal. These are just some of the ways in which Show Me Love demonstrates the power of context, timing, and luck in determining our behavior. Unlike so many other films, which gloss over or sugarcoat the effects of teenage cruelty, Show Me Love is unflinchingly honest in showing the serious and long-term scars that it can create. From suicide to drug and alcohol abuse to dreams deferred, the film is artful in its ability to demonstrate the damage cruelty can inflict, without ever veering into preachiness. Another film about teenage lesbian love, All Over Me, addresses the same subject, but set in a big city (New York). There are some clear parallels between these two films, as both are gritty, honest portrayals of teenage life, both require the particular location in which they're set to tell their story, and both are excellent films. All Over Me is less concerned with showing the co-existence of good and evil in its characters, however, focusing more on the impact of an individual's actions, while Show Me Love revolves more around the power of group behavior. Show Me Love is not without its flaws — it is full of loose ends, maintains an erratic pace, and transitions abruptly in some places. But somehow, these things seem to work for the movie, instead of against it. The lack of a polished, Hollywood-style feeling only makes the story seem that much more realistic, but at the same time the film never comes across as amateur or low-budget.
Show Me Love is at its most powerful in demonstrating that finding a kindred soul is instrumental to getting you through the ugliness, even helping you rise above it. This is the larger message the movie imparts: cruelty and ugliness exist, but so do love and beauty. For Agnes and Elin, who finally find this beauty and love in each other, their relationship becomes not just a luxury, but a necessity. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
i have to be honest..
don't be angry at me but i haven't seen the movie... you might say im new..
cause i am.. ahahaha anyway after readin this very nicely done review.. i can say that the movie IS WICKED brilliant..
ahah im gonna watch it! ahahahahaah ....
xoxo,
andy
Loved loved loved...
...this movie when it came out. I was about 14, scared like hell to "come out of the closet" so I rented this film and watched it when my parents were at work. Haha.
Wow, I forget how young
Wow, I forget how young high school kids look. I love this movie, it's on my Guilty Pleasures list. Every time I hear "I Wanna Know What Love Is" on the radio, I sneak in a chuckle.
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I love it!
I remember paying $25 for the DVD through Strand Releasing (significant because we all know that in college, spending anything about $5 on non-food/non-toilet paper/non-school items is a huge luxury rarely afforded ;)
I love it! It's bizarre (cinematographically), choppy (like you mentioned), but it's so real. I wish more come-out movies could be done in this style.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
i loved this movie :) i
i loved this movie :)
i watched it when i was in high school and could definitly relate.
and i also loved that poem/quote that agnes had on her computer at one point
You are my sun
you shine over me
you warm me
but I can't touch you!
You are so far out
I am a little planet
which turns around you
round round round
by all the planets
which you never see
Classic.
bought this during spate of lesbian films
ahh...puberty
I saw this movie twice in a week when it hit the theaters here. I must have been about 14, and the movie just hit very close to home, with all the teenage angst, the group dynamics, the home alone parties, the cruelty of kids... The movie actually got standing ovations both the times i went to see it. That doesn't happen a lot...
But I never realized that it was a lesbian movie, or a coming out movie. To me it was just about being a teenager. And i always questioned Elin's motives a bit when it came to Agnes, I'm not sure if she did it because she really liked Agnes, or because it was something new and different, so that she could stand out in the crowd. However, her feelings and actions towards Johan shows us that she's definitely not in love with him, so maybe she is a lesbian?
One of the things I really remember of this movie is how truly sorry i felt for Johan when he was getting dressed to go to the party, really hoping to impress Elin, it was so clear how in love with her he was.
Now i want to watch it again, better go see if i can find the vcr underneath all the dust...
I still go on the swings, but now my ass gets stuck.
F*cking Åmål!!
Remember this so much, being 14 years old and going to the movies with my mum and my sister, none of whom I had come out to yet. Didn't know what the movie was gonna be about, I just knew it was Swedish, which usually meant pretty tacky. And then it was about (among other things) a lesbian high school misfit named Agnes, which isn't the most common name over here but happens to be my name. Imagine the strange mix of intense happiness/the creepy feeling of having had your diary stolen and read...
Loved this film, now I'll have to see it again! It should be around here somewhere in a shoe box with the other vhs-tapes.
I just actually re-watched
I just actually re-watched this the other week. I think it is defo my favourite coming out/coming of age/high school film of all time... gay or straight!
Love the chocolate milk ending!!
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Oscar Wilde: "I can resist everything but temptation"
I'm surprised
You didn't mention this movie is what encouraged Yulia and Elena from t.A.T.u. to audition for the duet in the first place. People, this is what spawned the Faux Lesbians from Russia! But lol I saw it right after I found out about it (by reading up on t.A.T.u.) and I really liked it. But I could have done without the "I want to know what love is" song part in the car.
Great review!
~* Sunt îngeraşul tau, dar tu eşti îngerul meu *~
Really?
Favorite movie Ever
This is like my all time favorite move... back in 98 when it first came out I watched the movie about 6-7 times a weekend for almost a year... then I got the dvd copy when it was realized. Have watched that one waaaaay to much also.
I don't know what it is but something is soooo addictive with the movie. Also the movie script's incredible to read.
FUCKING Åmål RUles
My Blog:
http://elininferno.blogspot.com
this film was probably one
this film was probably one of my most life changing
ahaha sad?
This movie means so much to
This movie means so much to me.
It's the first lesbian themed movie I ever saw, and I remember feeling completely attracted towards Agnes. I really identified myself with her, and I remember wishing I really WAS her ;D
Cutest movie ever!
this movie
this effin movie is AM-A-ZING! i've probably watched it a thousand times and i still laugh at all the same parts and cringe at others like i'm watching it for the first time. it's just so damn relatable. while i definitely identify as Agnes (as most people here probably do) i can recognize so many people ive known in the other characters. no one - not even the sharp-faced bitch girl who's friends with elin and makes the prank phonecall - is an exaggeration. that's what's so beautiful.
that and at the risk of sounding culturally offensive, my girlfriend and i totally repeat our favorite lines in exaggerated swedish at each other. because we have the movie THAT memorized.
*may she live for hundred years! hoorah!! hoorah!*
Fucking Åmål is definitely
Blah.
***No, you came out wrong...shut it DOWN!***
Wow, I guess I'm the only
Wow, I guess I'm the only one who DIDN'T like the movie... I had really high expectations of it but after I watched it I just thought it was plain boring. I might re-watch it to see if my opinion changed but I strongly doubt it...
When it's your first lesbian movie (or helps you come out or whatsoever) it's just natural that you think differently about it, that's why I'll always love Lost&delirious! And I first heard of Ani DiFranco on the soundtrack of L&D =)
I agree
I was living in Ljungskile
i liked it. i watched it a
Agnes!
Saw it a long time ago. I was younger and it changes the way how i feel about myself and being gay. I really loved it . . and i still do. Agnes is my favourite one .. although Elin is cute too . and love the chocolate milk ending with morrissey's pictures behind them.
its an impressive flick
I heard they were gonna remake it in english, please dont. The realism of the film is what i understand and loved the most about it. The only person i felt didnt have that "mean" bone in thier body way johan. I saw this movie reviewed on in the life years ago and bought it. And then recommended it to other pople and if they can watch the subtitles, they love it. The soundtrack is also amazing, which i would love to own it but its impossible to find. Love is messy, its not neat adn when we are trying to figure out what we want, we screw up bad. But it does have that formula in it that i explain to my friends.
When you think you like someone of the same sex, you kiss somone of the oppisite sex. When other people think you like someone of the same sex, you sleep with someone of the oppisite sex.
"stop, you don't get to break my heart and comfort me too."