adam-may-bower 'Melissa P.' is far too weak and clichéd to be a good film. Upon enjoying 'Lo Sono L'amore' and 'A Bigger Splash' and anticipating 'Call Me By Your Name' I figured I should watch all the other films by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Due to other poor reviews, and the fact that this is one of Guadagnino's early films, I didn't have many high expectations. However, even my mediocre expectations were disappointed by this film. The story was poorly handled and saturated with predictable clichés that caused the film to be un engaging. Surely though, since this is labelled as an "erotic drama" the love scenes will be appealing? Not at all. They were filmed in a very amateur manner and they were cut short, so nothing really happened. For a movie entered around an individual's sex life, all the sexual tension leads up to a few moments of kissing and then before things get excessive, it's cut short. However, there were a few moments of this film that were rather good, such as the character of Melissa's grandmother, played by the wonderful Geraldine Chaplin. The leading role of Melissa was also played quite well by María Valverde and she pulled off the sexually-charged character quite well. There were also a few moments where Guadagnino's potential was shown through some beautifully filmed scenes that is essentially a good indication of the good to come in his future films. While this film had it's moments, overall it was a disappointing bore. I won't hold this film against Guadagnino as I know it is one of his earlier films, and having seen his more recent, brilliant films, I still commend him as a great director. This movie is a good indication of how far Guadagnino has come in his filmography.

qwestwc3 I was so glad to see a film reach for reality. Too many films drop the ball on actually hitting what truly does happen in real life. Built the story and ran with it , great decision making on all accounts during the filming. Just wished they push the envelope a lil more, would've made this a lot better. Certain scenes missed on how it went down & what happened immediately after, not the next day or hours later. Would've been great to see how a few scenes actually ended & how the main character walked away from it ? ***IF anyone knows any other films similar to this, Please fill me in.I've written 5 movies myself, just not sure how to get them out there ?

Imdbidia 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.

vijaymd44 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.