A young girl (10) is left alone with her aunt, who proceeds to have a run at her own profanity-laden version of "the talk". The young girl listens to this, but in her mind she is understanding it very well.
This is a hard film to unpack, mainly because it feels fresh and interesting in what it is doing, but it is the manner in which it does it that leaves it feeling tawdry and cheap. I'll break it into two halves (or 95/5 by running time). The 95% sees a "colourful" aunt giving an inappropriate sex talk to her young niece. We do not know what triggered this, but certainly it feels that the aunt is enjoying a moment where she is able to convey wisdom - it does not feel like many of her peers would particularly listen to her, and there is a feeling of this being an ego boost that she gets to hold this position. This is an interesting aspect of this, but instead the film choses to play this character for her colour and dark comedic value and leaves the viewer in the uncomfortable spot of wondering why such an inappropriate lecture to a child about sex is being presented in this way. It feels weird and tawdry, and the fact that the child is pretty static throughout means we do not get much from her.
The 5% of the film adds to this feeling. In this moment (and this is the spoiler), we continue the periodic focus on the young girl who appears to be on her back, and in the final seconds we see a very adult male arm interact with her. The implication is very clear that the young girl is being sexually abused by a man - then the film ends. As a moment of shock value, it works, and the contrast between the slightly comedic tone of the rest of the film and this sudden seriousness adds to this, but there is nothing but the shock. It makes the child even more of a prop than the rest of the film, and it tells as nothing other than why the girl was maybe so silent throughout. Outside of the shock it leaves nothing - two terrible adult relationships for this young child, both using her for their own benefit, but with no commentary, no place where the child can be reached, and only a tone that suggests the whole thing is a plot device.
The end result is that it feels tawdry and cheap as a whole, itself feeling that it is exploiting the child at its centre to get its shock value and edgy-points.
This is a hard film to unpack, mainly because it feels fresh and interesting in what it is doing, but it is the manner in which it does it that leaves it feeling tawdry and cheap. I'll break it into two halves (or 95/5 by running time). The 95% sees a "colourful" aunt giving an inappropriate sex talk to her young niece. We do not know what triggered this, but certainly it feels that the aunt is enjoying a moment where she is able to convey wisdom - it does not feel like many of her peers would particularly listen to her, and there is a feeling of this being an ego boost that she gets to hold this position. This is an interesting aspect of this, but instead the film choses to play this character for her colour and dark comedic value and leaves the viewer in the uncomfortable spot of wondering why such an inappropriate lecture to a child about sex is being presented in this way. It feels weird and tawdry, and the fact that the child is pretty static throughout means we do not get much from her.
The 5% of the film adds to this feeling. In this moment (and this is the spoiler), we continue the periodic focus on the young girl who appears to be on her back, and in the final seconds we see a very adult male arm interact with her. The implication is very clear that the young girl is being sexually abused by a man - then the film ends. As a moment of shock value, it works, and the contrast between the slightly comedic tone of the rest of the film and this sudden seriousness adds to this, but there is nothing but the shock. It makes the child even more of a prop than the rest of the film, and it tells as nothing other than why the girl was maybe so silent throughout. Outside of the shock it leaves nothing - two terrible adult relationships for this young child, both using her for their own benefit, but with no commentary, no place where the child can be reached, and only a tone that suggests the whole thing is a plot device.
The end result is that it feels tawdry and cheap as a whole, itself feeling that it is exploiting the child at its centre to get its shock value and edgy-points.