Female Film Critics 24/375
Emilie Bierre delivers a gripping performance as 13-year-old Magalie in Quebecois writer/director Jeanne Leblanc’s wrenching drama Les Notres. Unexpectedly pregnant and left feeling adrift and out of control as her life constricts around her, Magalie is a child who’s forced to make adult decisions after a trusted family friend — literally — abuses that trust. But, as she learns, decisions have consequences.
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Julie Delpy has often said she doesn’t like like to be thought of as a movie star, but the problem
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Canadian writer-director Jeanne Leblanc’s family drama centers on 13-year-old Magalie, whose unexpected pregnancy throws her small Quebec town into a state of constant gossip. Everyone is quick to blame Magalie’s best friend and neighbor Manuel, who happens to be the Mexican-born teen foster child to the town’s beloved mayor -and his wife.
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Les Notres, Quebecois writer/director Jeanne Leblanc’s beautifully crafted, taut and extremely gripping coming-of-age drama, centers on 13-year old Magalie (Emillie Bierre), a joyful and talented schoolgirl whose life falls apart when she realizes she’s pregnant and circumstances force her to face and experience the full impact of sexual predation by – no spoiler because it’s evident early in the narrative — the beloved mayor of the tight-knit community in which she lives.
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Among several recent standout films such as Groomed and Slalom that are about the sexual manipulation and abuse of young girls, director Jeanne Leblanc’s Les Notres (Our Own) distinguishes itself for its seeming “normal” depiction of small town life until it gradually turns dark and uncomfortable.
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The American Dream feels almost as far out of reach as the moon in Nicole Riegel’s compelling feature debut, Holler, which follows an enterprising teenager named Ruth (Jessica Barden) who would do just about anything to escape her inevitably bleak future in a dying Southern Ohio town. She’s smart, and college could be her ticket out, but paying for it means taking dangerous chances with a not-exactly-legal scrap-metal scavenging crew.
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If you were a big fan of the Moomins but had no idea who created them, Tove will fill in all the blanks. Tove Jansson was an artist and a writer in her public life but also in her private adult life, she started with a man, then with a woman, so the feature film is perfect for Pride month.
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Holler is a portrait of a community with diminishing opportunities for its citizenry. But, what sets this coming-of-age tale apart isn’t that it takes place in a dreary, down-beaten town in Southern Ohio. Instead, it’s the central character of Ruth, a whip-smart high-school senior who has managed to be accepted to a college.
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This is a realistic, unblinking view from life at the bottom of the socioeconomic strata, but Holler is mercifully free of the poverty porn found in some films of this type. It tells some hard truths about a town devastated by off-shored industries, a place where the only way to have a chance at life is to leave. Despite that, Holler is a hopeful film, focused on the bond between brother and sister.
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It’s no surprise by now to discover that the private lives of the authors and artists behind some of the world’s most beloved children’s books were anything but calm (or G-rated). But it’s always fascinating to get a glimpse into the events, people, and places that shaped them and led to their iconic creations, and Zaida Bergroth’s Tove — which stars the excellent Alma Pöysti as Finnish Moomin mastermind Tove Jansson — is no exception.
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