Mary Z Idris

I cried, I laughed and cried again. Repeat. The roller coaster of building a girl within by dodging the pressure of life, friends - or lack of them, money - lack of it! - and just hard life is portrayed in this movie so vividly. Mistakes after mistakes, trials and errors and try again until you find your own voice - kinda theme is a great Soul-jazz-feel good pick-me-upper piece that's always relatable. Joanna, her brother Chris, 'cool' mum and dad, little brother and the twins [bring the whole clan to the party and face the jazz of life!] are so funny, so sad and depressing yet sooo real that I can almost taste it. The dark side of growing pains and taking responsibilities of her struggling parents are not just the reasons why the 16 yo Joanna explores her world and fails miserably but also why she thrives. This is not just exploring feminism with adolescent hormonal drive with a touch of history lessons. I mean, check out her posters on the wall. What is there not to like about this movie????