Sunshine, ice pops and rainbow flags mark a summer of transformation for a teenager in Berlin in the coming-of-age drama, “Cocoon.”
There are butterfly species that have evolved to be invisible to predators until their wings open, and suddenly their backs have the appearance of watchful eyes peering out from the wilderness. Nora (Lena Urzendowsky), the teenage protagonist of the German bildungsroman “Cocoon” is interested in butterflies, even keeping caterpillars in her bedroom. Like them, everything about Nora, except her watchful eyes, seems to blend into the background. Like them, she’s looking for a reason to transform.
When the film begins, it’s summertime in Berlin and Nora is 14 years old, a quiet girl, less brash than her blonde and boy-crazy older sister, Jules (Anna Lena Klenke). Nora still has the choppy bangs of a middle school student, and she’s too naïve to know how to use tampons. that the heart flutters her sister experiences around handsome boys, Nora instead feels for girls. Nora falls into a flirtation with an older classmate, Romy (Jella Haase), a tomboy who skinny dips with the class heartthrobs and doesn’t lose her cool over it. As attraction blooms into a tentative romance, Nora grows a little more confident, and her sense of self becomes a little more defined.
The writer and director Leonie Krippendorff favors warmth for Nora’s coming-of-age story. Even when Nora encounters things she doesn’t like — boys with their loud rap music, girls with stick-straight hair who slur cold words after sniffing lines in the bathroom — the cinematography lingers on golden light and soft skin. The softness lacks detail, the butterfly metaphors lack originality, but the movie is pleasant, a balmy introduction to adult feelings of desire and belonging.
Cocoon
Not rated. In German, with subtitles. On virtual cinemas and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
