Melissa P.

Based on a controversial novel, this coming-of-age drama from 'A Bigger Splash' director Luca Guadagnino focuses on a fifteen year old girl who begins to sexually experiment in unconventional and degrading ways. María Valverde is well cast in the title role and wearing negligible makeup, Geraldine Chaplin looks at least a decade older than her actual age in a memorable turn as Valverde's feisty, free-spirited grandmother. Interesting as Valverde is to follow around, there are some gaps in her character progression. At times, it seems like she is acting out as a result of being rebuffed by her high school crush with at least a couple of points in which she agrees to do things to prove that she is "not a baby". And yet, it is what happens to her grandmother that actually initiates her quest, and try as the film does, it has trouble finding a balance between being about grief and societal pressures. There is also something to be said for the lack of graphic imagery. Most of her exploits are told to us via diary entries and while this has the advantage of leaving it up to one's imagination to fill in the blanks, everything that occurs resonates less since we only ever see fleeting glimpses of her quest. Curiously enough, even with the explicit content kept to a minimum, the film has still sparked some controversy. It is certainly not a film for all tastes and its low IMDb rating is only representative of just how divisive a movie it is. 'Melissa P.' is hardly a flawless motion picture, but there is more of interest to it than one might expect.

I saw many embarrassed and even angry reviews on this film, which were pushing me off the chair, and i wanna talk not about the film itself, but the topic it chose. Because that caught me in memories of my youth, that is what also makes a great film, the script, and I can't be grateful enough for this made me remember.

The film is not as much of a fiction as many would like it to be. In very realistic way discloses the hyper-sensitivity of youth, the feelings, the special way everything is coming to a man's brain, the sex, the colors, messed up thoughts...and then here are decisions. It is wonderful how Melissa always want to choose what to do with her life, what to feel, how to act, what to search for, but somehow the change is only in her deeds but not in her inside, her diary pickups are often in disharmony with what happens to her afterwards. But although she is in fact doing this to herself, she is just so full of it! And so she is coping with her teenage pain as rational as she can in her age. Of course, the sex. When you don't know what it is, but you want it badly. She is less self-aware then the character played by Liv Tyler in Stealing Beauty, but much more pro-active. She doesn't let situations pass by, she is grabbing what she can of them, she does not wait in a corner. That's what i liked at Melissa. The cruelty of acts and the sweetness of the inside. Unsplittable. And that this movie is more real than a sweet romance movie. It is of the age - if she were a little more older, the tender detailed camera would lost its narrative function. And maybe the casting would pickup another actress.

Anyway, I love it more and more. It's telling exactly the teen story, which have been missed.

First-off, the only reason I'm writing this is because the 4.3 rating is almost impossible. I mean the direction and cinematography by itself will get this movie to a 6. No, I haven't read the book and I genuinely do not believe that the movie should be rated as per the adaptation from the book. The performances standing out are Melissa (of course) and her grandmother. The music and cinematography have a presence of their own throughout the movie. And the plot never gets boring or unrealistic, given a slightly open imagination. If you're aged anywhere between 15 and 35 I would highly recommend a viewing. The only reason I gave it an 8/10 is because we have movies like Fight Club and Animatrix.

An Italo-Spanish co-production about the sexual awakening of teenager Melissa, loosely based in the semi-autobiographic novel "100 colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire" by Melissa Panarello.

The movie shows the dilemmas, challenges, and darkness that young women face when they become sexual beings, try to accept their sexuality, but have no sexual education or guidance.

It is truly rare finding a movie that focus on teenager women and sex, and not men, and in which the woman is presented as an explicitly sexual human being.

The movie is frank and even ruthless in its approach to contemporary teens' sexuality in general and Melissa's in particular. We see her strong shameless strong sex drive, which she cannot harmonize with her wish to be loved and respected as a woman by a man. She struggles making sense of the importance of accepting social boundaries and not giving way to peer pressure to fit into a group, which is a quintessential teen problem. Melissa's awakening is a path of pain as well as of pleasure, but takes her to very dark places, in scenes that can be disturbing.

Despite the good premises, the script is uneven, not always engaging, and has most adult characters barely sketched except for Melissa's and for Melissa's charming eccentric grandmother -played by Geraldine Chaplin-. The character of Melissa's mother Daria -played by Fabrizia Sacchi- is barely drawn, and very stereotypical. The absent father, and his marital relationship with Daria, is barely explained, just a reference outside. Most male teen characters are depicted as despicable villains, stereotypical machos, and I don't think I want to believe that is always the case.

Maria Valverde is very good as Melissa, actually, she's the best thing in the movie. She has an impressive acting registry for such a young age. Her face is splendorous always, her expression innocent, childish, weak and boyish sometimes, hyper-feminine, dramatic, strong and sexual some others. Valverde has to deal with very raunchy scenes, some of them very dramatic, and she succeeds at making believable her character. Geraldine Chaplin is always a delight, but I did not find her especially inspired in this movie, mostly because the way her character is written. The rest of the actors are just OK.

A not always engaging movie, but with some interesting themes and a good performance by Valverde.

I was flipping around for something to watch since I was bored. Saw this. Sicily, which is a place I love and visited many times, a good director, some erotica from a young female perspective, and so I thought eh, why not?

And although I was not really bored and there are some good things about this movie, it is not a well time spent and I cannot recommend.

First the good; María Valverde is excellent. She play her lead role brilliantly with a mix of sexual awakening, teenage angst, sometimes adult, sometimes a kid, and with a great range of emotions. The sexual scenes (rather hinted at scenes) were also handled really good, with nothing but some breasts showing, and acted really well. I also think this is a thoughtful movie in many ways, or at least it tries to be. The sexual awakening of young females is not so often depicted in movies, and here it is shown (or: tries to show) some of the traps that comes with it. It is really hard to become a teenager and wanting sex, but also wanting love and closeness, and not fully being able to differentiate between the two. Something that often lead us to make mistakes growing up and also go looking for love/sex in the wrong places. We have all been through it, strange that parents are not able to convey it properly over the generations and teach their young a bit more about reality. But it is not easy being parent, and the young filled with hormones seldom listen.

It is also here the negatives start.

Although the movie tries to tell the story I draw up in the positives above, it fails. Partly it is the acting of the rest of the cast which, with perhaps only one exception, is pretty bad. Partly the writing is way off and is basically only saved by María playing the character of Melissa to perfection, but she cannot save this movie, nor is it saved by its good intention. The directing misses are also there, which is weird since I really love Guadagnino as a director but this is one of his first films so perhaps that is why. The movie also show very little of Sicily which was the main reason I watched it. This could basically have been filmed anywhere. The sets are not very good, the light is off, the sound design is seldom on point, the music bland and seem very random. The great and slightly creepy dungeon scene with all the boys which is very well done is unfortunately the only excellent exception since the entire design of this movie, from the set, to clothes, to directing, to music, to acting, it is all amateurish and subpar. Sadly all the negatives also hide the good intention of the movie and make it into a failure.

I am being very generous giving this movie a 6/10, because I cannot recommend this to anyone. However I really love the main actress - Oscars level of acting! And I like the intention of the movie and what they tried to do deserve an extra point. If you watch this, keep expectations down and enjoy María's acting and you might get some positives out of it.