Review : F---ing Amal (Show Me Love)

Fucking Amal (Show Me Love): It's Swedish and it's not porn. It's a teen movie... and I HATE TEEN movies. But I figured this won't be like most American movies with fashionistas running the high-school yard, a token black kid as comic relief and a love-sick puppy syrupy story as the center of the whole 90 minute GAP commercial most teen movies are. So I ventured forward...

The movie is about Agnes, a beautiful but very reclusive girl who is in love with a schoolmate named Elin. Yes, Elin is a girl also, but don't be expecting some Hot Lesbian Action; this is not what this movie is about. Elin is bored beyond belief about everything: small town life in Amal, her friends, everything. She's the reputed high-school tramp, but is actually still a virgin.

WARNING :: SPOILERS AHEAD

It deals with adolescence. Real adolescence, the kind you lived through, not the Dawson's Creek bullshit you can see on TV and at the movies. This movie is truly about teenagers going through the hell that is teenage life. And it's pretty damned good. It resonates with realism. It's a very good movie.

Agnes is relatively new to Amal, she's been there two years and still hasn't made friends. She just turned 16, everyone at school suspects she's a lesbian, except Elin. The whole story revolves around Elin resolving her own feelings towards Agnes once she finds out that Agnes is in love with her. Turns out she really likes Agnes also, but she is troubled by this and the peer pressure from her friends to hook-up with Johan. He's your typical dumbass sheep who follows the herd (meaning he's one of the guys). They end up together for a short while but his unwillingness to speak up during a fight (when a boy says girls only busy themselves with make-up and looking pretty), she dumps him. The boys are really your typically hormone-fueled adolescents and are not too bright either, but, hey, we were all young, dumb and full of... well, you know what I mean. Of course Elin and Agnes work out their differences, kiss and make-up. The film finishes with them walking defiantly out of the bathroom (which metaphorically works as the closet) and saying to all they are girlfriends and that they are going home to fuck (their words not mine).

Article Author: David Desjardins

Dave works in the IT industry despite his better judgment. He’s an artist at heart with a critical mind. He enjoys photography more than he could ever express. Dave feels a need to tweak his brain with copious amounts of taurine to stay sharp while absorbing all kinds of media on any medium. …

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