Charming and brutal

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

More powerfully tense than many thrillers full of action and blood, this finds the terror in the small gestures of growing up, and the enormous implications behind them.In the main story, adolescent Emma befriends cool girl Cassandra as they train to be part of a team that does gymnastics on horseback. Both friends and rivals, director Aschan manages to load almost every scene between the two with incredible unease. It seems as if at any moment they are either going to tear each others clothes off and make love, or kill each other, or kill someone else -- any and all combinations seem possible as they test their limits on the ragged edge of adulthood.At the same time, Emma's 7 year old sister Sara is pushed by the world around her to become aware of her body with alternating pride, curiosity and shame, and her nascent sexuality leads to some wildly uncomfortable scenes with the adult men in her family. This never crossed the line into exploitation, but it effectively made me want to jump out of my skin, while making me ponder the deeper thematic and psychological/social issues.One thing bothered me; the very end of the film seemed to over-simplify the mysterious complexity of much that had preceded it, reducing the story to something more pedestrian, and taking some of the considerable wind out of the film's sails. But this is still one of the better films about the terrors of youthful sexuality I've seen in a long while.

Watching this film I was reminded of a hard-to-define need for ethical treatment of characters and issues in a film. By that I don't mean films can't describe ethically challenging or ambivalent situations, they should. But there should be a sense of commitment to the characters and the issues. This film was lacking in that. As a result, it felt pointless and disturbing. The plot centers around two teenage girls who are competing in the sport that consists of doing gymnastics on top of a galloping horse. One, two, three girls on a single horse running in circles to the sound of a whiplash. I would like to see this sport, which completely seems to forget the horse is sentient, forgotten. The film could have used it as a metaphor, but I don't think it did. I think the horse was ignored in the meta level as well. This is the kind of lack of commitment I mean.Harrowing things happen to the teenage girls and a seven-year-old little sister. The viewer is presented with hardly any tools to understand them or care for them. Thus, it feels they are left alone. There is one illuminating scene though: Cassandra asks Emma what she wants (a question misplaced, as it seems to be Cassandra at that moment who is acting out of unclear desires) and Emma replies "I want to be like I was before".As far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with the acting or the technical work of the crew.

Yes, this film unravels slowly... like a Swedish winter, but it is a fascinating glimpse, I think, into female psychology in general (not just Swedish). The film is very sly, and you won't appreciate the bitter, yet kinda funny, poetic justice of the plot... until the final scene. Highly recommended. Gorgeous young actresses in the leading roles, and lovely Swedish scenery abounds. The film is poetic and even somewhat oneiric, and, in its glacial ellipticality perhaps owes more to old Ingmar Bergman films than it does to more recent Swedish fare. Indeed, the story of the love/hate relationship between two young women seems a nod to Bergman's 1966 classic, Persona. So universal is the the theme of this film that one could almost comprehend the story without subtitles and not knowing Swedish. A real gem.

I found She Monkeys to be a somewhat confusing film, meaning that the intent of the director was not readily apparent to me.The tone of this film was more melancholic than playful. And foreboding. That is primarily because the main character, Emma, is a girl who purposefully hides her emotions. Because she is so stone-faced, it is difficult to know what she is thinking or to anticipate what she might do next.This does add some suspense to the story. And it did keep me involved, wondering where the story was going next.In the end, I did not find many truths or questions to reward my involvement. Technically, the film was well made. But emotionally, it left me wanting.