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Pubescent girls click in Porcupine Lake

PORCUPINE LAKE (Ingrid Veninger) 85 minutes. Opens Friday (February 23). See listing. Rating: NNN


Ingrid Veninger, the micro-budget specialist with a scrappy approach to filmmaking, finds her sweet spot in this story of hormonal girls trying to figure out what to do with themselves in sleepy cottage country.

Tween Bea (Charlotte Salisbury) is hauled up to cottage country by her mother, Ally (Delphine Roussel), who is trying to decide whether she will reconnect with her husband, Scotty (Christopher Bolton), now operator of the town diner. Then Bea starts a friendship with Kate (Lucinda Armstrong Hall), who appears at loose ends as she figures out where to fit into what seems to be her uncaring family.

The key to this compelling pic is the way it keeps you on edge. All of the relationships are complicated. In a lovely sequence Ally and Scotty lie down on the bed, both hopelessly ambivalent, and just look at each other. The mother/daughter connect between Bea and Ally seems fraught – Ally isn’t exactly nurturing.

But the central relationship is between budding friends Bea and Kate. Ironically, it’s the country girl Kate who appears worldly while urban Bea is naïve, almost comically so. Veninger toys with an erotic connection between the two girls but because Kate may be trouble, we’re not sure whether we want it to happen.

In fact, throughout the film, we’re not sure who or what to root for. The movie looks great – never mind the budget – and Veninger is turning into a very good storyteller.

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