Fantasia '18 Film Review - Blue My Mind

Teenage girls go through major adjustments and changes in high school. It's tougher if you transfer to a new school in the middle of the year. These changes are trumped by hormonal and physical ones which  are taken to the extreme here. Mia (Luna Wedler) is the new girl. Mid-year transfer desperate to fit in with the cool kids. She starts by staring at their back of the class antics then marches up to them demanding a light for her smoke at recess only to learn it's not allowed. She's also battling with her mother at home as her dad appears to be disinterested. Mia behaviour becomes more reckless after physical changes begin to occur. The first change, her first period is natural, but next up is webbing growing between her toes then an uncontrollable desire to eat the goldfish out of the fish tank.

Director Lisa Brulmann used this story art her film thesis project in school. She has her pulse on the modern teen. Regular takes of designer drugs, normally shaken up and mixed with soft drinks, skipping school to go shopping and stealing at the local mall plus attending parties with older boys looking to take advantage of a young girl that's had too much at every opportunity.

Welder has a very physical role as Mia. She has heated confrontations with her mother. Pulls at her own body trying to stop the physical changes as they occur. Plus several aggressive encounters with males as they bounce the local term for having sex. Zoe Pastelle Holthuizen' Gianna has surprising depth as Gianna. She is the leader of the cool girls in class that likes to be chocked until she passes out for fun. But when a situation becomes intense she holds her head well excavating her friends from a bad situation or helping Mia to take the critical step in her transformation.

Blue My Mind is subtle take on a physical transformation piece that creeps up on the viewer until the changes go into overdrive in the final third. The young cast captures the rebel vibe of the modern rule breaking teenager. Director Lisa Brulmann's story is more about a young girl discovering herself than body horror as she physically morphs into something new.

*** Out of 4.

Blue My Mind | Lisa Brulmann | Switzerland |2017| 97 Minutes.

Tags: New Girl, Field Trip, Theme Park, Permission Slip, MDNA, Street Party, Tail, Gills, Pick Up Truck, Gold Fish.