''Turn Me On, Dammit!'' ( no, Få meg på, for faen!) or ''Turn Me On, Goddammit!'' is a 2011 Norwegian

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

film directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen. It is based on

Olaug Nilssen Olaug Nilssen (born 28 December 1977) is a Norwegian novelist, playwright, children's writer, essayist and magazine editor. Personal life Nilssen was born in Førde on 28 December 1977. Career Among Nilssen's early novels are ''Innestengt i ...

’s novel of the same name. Set in Skoddeheimen, a fictional small town in western

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, the film is about Alma (Helene Bergsholm), a 15-year-old girl and her sexual awakening.

Plot

In the small town of Skoddeheimen, Norway, Alma is a 15-year-old girl experiencing her sexual awakening. Unbeknownst to her mother, she regularly calls

hotline A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. An example would be a phone that aut ...

s for

phone sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. All parties participate voluntarily; it is typically accompanied ...

, and masturbates while fantasizing about Artur, a boy from school. One night, Alma attends a party with her friends. While outside, Artur approaches her, exposes his erect penis, and pokes her with it. Thrilled, she retreats to a room to masturbate, and then rejoins her friends to tell them about the episode. They react with skepticism, and Artur obliquely denies the allegation. Alma becomes ostracized for slander, and is bullied with the nickname "Dick Alma". Upon receiving her telephone bill, Alma's mother discovers enormous expenses and immediately confronts Alma about calling a pay number. Alma straightforwardly says it is phone sex, and that she patronizes it because of her

hypersexuality Hypersexuality is extremely frequent or suddenly increased libido. It is controversial whether it should be included as a clinical diagnosis used by mental healthcare professionals. Nymphomania and satyriasis were terms previously used for th ...

. However, Alma promises she will pay for it, and takes a part-time job at a convenience store. There, she gets into trouble for stealing a pornographic magazine, which the owner contacts her mother about. Her mother replies she sees Alma as abnormal. Overwhelmed by the bullying at school, Alma briefly runs away, but her mother eventually welcomes her back home. Alma confronts Artur, who confesses he poked her with his penis, and she did not simply imagine the incident, but denies sexual attraction to her. He decides to make things right with Alma, publicly confirming allegations he poked her with his penis. He also expresses romantic interest. She introduces Artur to her mother, and they have dinner together. However, Alma's mother has now learnt of the chain of events, and so refuses to let Artur sleep over, ending the film in a cliffhanger.

Cast

Production

Director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen said the novel was popular in Norway, and that she "related to it in a kind philosophical and artistic way". Jacobsen said she admired how the story captured the teenage experience, in how minor incidents became major. Much of the casting took place in a town reminiscent of the one in the story, requiring acting lessons for the young actors. Many of them saw the screenplay only shortly before shooting, avoiding a highly practiced approach.

Release

The film was featured in the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...

Zurich Film Festival Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, secon ...

and

Stockholm International Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival ( sv, Stockholms filmfestival, italic=no) is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November. The ...

. It had a wider opening in Norway in August 2011, performing well in the national box office. In the U.S., it opened in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

on 30 March 2012. It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

in the U.K. in 2013, with a 15 rating.

Reception

Based on 39 reviews collected by

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds a 92% approval rating and an average score of 7.4 out of 10. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic Jeannette Catsoulis found an "affectionately deadpan tone" in the film. For '' The Globe and Mail'', Alexandra Molotkow gave it three stars, writing it was unusual as a

coming-of-age film Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

for focusing on a young woman. Jordan Mintzer, writing for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'', positively reviewed the film for its heart, comedy and performances. Ben Walsh of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' called it "droll and refreshingly honest". Jacobsen won the Screenplay award at the 2011

. ''Turn Me On, Dammit!'' also won 2012 Amanda Awards for Best Norwegian Film in Theatrical Release and Best Cinematography.

References

External links

* *{{Sfdb title, name=Turn Me On, Goddammit 2010s coming-of-age comedy films 2010s sex comedy films 2010s teen comedy films 2011 films Films based on Norwegian novels Films set in Norway Films shot in Norway Juvenile sexuality in films Norwegian comedy films 2010s Norwegian-language films 2011 directorial debut films 2011 comedy films