MQFF REVIEW: Puppy Love (2013, Dir. Delphine Lehericey)

I have to say, straight off the bat, Vincent Perez has still got it. He may be pushing 50 but he's gotten hotter with every year. It doesn't hurt that Christian, his scruffy single father character in Delphine Lehericey's Puppy Love is more affable than humanly possible. He's aware, emotional mature and a fantastic father, even if he is a little lost at times.

All that may sound a strange thing to pick up from a film that is basically a shared coming of age drama about two high school girls busting through puberty in a way that can only really be described as precocious, but in the end (and quite unfortunately) it all turns out to be disturbingly relevant.

Christian's daughter, 14 year old Diane (Solène Rigot) is the focus of the film. She's happy enough but, like most teenagers, she's slightly isolated, slightly awkward and slightly interested in sex. When she catches a (quite considerable) glimpse of her new next door neighbour, Julia (Audrey Bastien), she finds a tempestuous soul-mate who pushes her out of her shell and into some pretty testing sexual territory.

Lehericey's take on the young girl's sexual and physical identities has a fierce clarity. Julia especially knows full well the attractiveness of her sexual confidence and she wields it with empowering determination. Her decisions and her influence on Diane may not always be as positive or as prudent as she thinks they are, but she is a child. That's something that the men the girls encounter seem blissfully (or worse, wilfully) unaware of.

This disturbing undercurrent of Puppy Love's thematic content is well camouflaged by the warmth of its performances, the tenderness of the father/daughter relationship (Christian and Diane's at least) and the honesty with which Lehericey unpicks the girls' relationship. It is that undercurrent, though, which makes the film what it is.

Puppy Love is a challenging work. The sexual landscape it traverses may be recognisable but the age of Lehericey's protagonists and the her unrepentant depiction of men as shameless sexual opportunists resets the familiar dynamic in a far more realistic light. It is difficult to watch, especially when it comes down to the trial of Perez's father figure, but that's only because it treads on society's accepted stereotypes. It's upsetting (for me and for Diane) but never comes across as anything but truthful.

★★★☆

Trailer:

Puppy Love screened as part of the 2014 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.