[In Eng.] Jeune Juliette, Story of a Teen Girl’s Annoying Desires.

Anne Hemond’s latest film, set in Quebec, tries to explore the feelings and the mind of a bullied teen. But just tried. The result is shoddy, as the movie gets entangled in an ever-expanding mesh of questions… Juliette is a cheeky, lying and chubby girl. She isn’t popular in her high school… But at the end of the day, she doesn’t care, because they’re all “dumb”! She is 14 and believes in her dreams. While the summer, along with holidays, are ahead, her world and her certainties about love and family will be deeply disrupted…

Anne Hemond’s movie leans on a good premise. Indeed, it could have been great to expose such society issues as homosexuality and the research of sexual identity, school bullying in Quebec, a region already aware of these important society questions. Actually, it’s really hard to put words on what the movie really wants to transmit. The main actress hasn’t been able to transmit emotions, and if, at first glance, it can be tempting to sympathize with Juliette, she becomes quickly very annoying with people as she only waits for her love (her father, Arnaud, Léane).

From then on, the movie loses its sense and becomes very clumsy; scenes come one after another without any logical thread or clear links. The ending is quite cryptic as the spectator is somewhat dropped without parachute and can’t really understand why Juliette had a complete change of mind in the last five minutes. At the end of the day, we keep waiting for a real outcome and it’s a little painful because this movie could have been a proud banner for these society issues.

Nicolas Vrignaud.