I am a sucker for coming-of-age stories. Something about teenagers/young adults finding themselves and seeming very real…it’s the kind of thing I’ve related to since I was about 8 and saw Now and Then. I think it’s a tricky genre to really do well. So many writers and directors have these great ideas but try so hard to make their characters cool, creating these fads and slang that just aren’t real.
Bitch Hug did a pretty good job with the coming-of-age movie. The premise is that Kristin (probably 18), who is pretty cynical and can’t wait to get out of her small Swedish town gets the chance to go to New York. While there, she’ll be writing about her new life for her hometown’s paper.
People think she’s going to fail and that she’ll be back within a month. Unfortunately, she misses her flight to New York. In order to prove everyone wrong, she hides out in the country with Andrea. And surprise! They become friends!
I’m going to regret saying this, but Kristin verges on being an almost Holden Caulfield-esque character. She sometimes goes a little far with her realism and brings it into a cynical and mean territory. And that I could relate to. She’s got some good angsty lines that I think everyone has thought, like: “I don’t know what I want, but I know what I don’t want.”
There’s some nice cinematography, the acting was good (somehow, it’s kind of hard to tell in a foreign language how good the acting really is), and the soundtrack was killer. Perfect? No. Enjoyable flick? Yep.
And if you want to know what a bitch hug is, you might just have to watch the movie.
*** stars
threesixfiveFILM 