Elle Fanning, Alice Englert
“GINGER & ROSA” My rating: B- (Opening April 5 at the Glenwood at Red Bridge)
90 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
When confronted by someone of fierce political and social commitment – particularly if their bent is way to the left – I always wonder if they’re really that dedicated to the cause or whether the cause fills some desperate void in their life.
You don’t have to wonder for too long in Sally Potter’s “Ginger & Rosa,” a film about an impressionable and innocent London teen who converts her anger and anxiety over personal betrayals into a righteous anti-nuke crusade.
The girls of the title are among the first of Britain’s post-war baby boomers. It’s 1962 and Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert, daughter of director Jane Campion) are coming of age beneath the threat of nuclear annihilation.
On one level they’re just regular kids who listen to rock ‘n’ roll, giggle conspiratorially, dream about boys and shrink their new blue jeans by wearing them into the bathtub.
On another level, though, the two young friends are nascent radical activists, terrified of dying in a radioactive mushroom cloud and determined to do something about it.
Butler's Cinema Scene 