Young and wild is a film about adolescence, self-imposed boundaries, religion, and spirituality. Perhaps the unique hitch is that, rather than being told by a mature and seasoned (read curmudgeonly) adult, it is told unflinchingly through the eyes of its protagonist, a seventeen- year-old Chilean girl named Daniela. A local legend, even in real life, Daniela maintains a detailed blog of her sexual exploits and deepest thoughts. Through a creative use of Chilean pop-music, graphics, and editing, the audience is let into this world. The content of the film is shocking, explicit, and (at moments) even pornographic. Thus with a surface level look, it would be easy to condemn it on this basis, However, writing it off wholesale would risk losing the truth depicted in Daniela's personal spiritual struggle. Here we experience, as much as we can, what it feels like to be a teenager under the iron thumb of mature Christian shame (not Daniela's, but her mother's). While it is true that director Marialy Rivas goes over the top to be outrageous (I could not help but avert my eyes at certain moments),it is also true that if it wasn't explicit in some ways, it couldn't claim to tell Daniela's actual story from her perspective. Aside from my shock at the graphic sexuality, my primary emotional response to the film was sadness. As a human being, I too have lived in the tension of knowingly, willingly, happily stepping into wrong/unhelpful behavior (we call it 'sin' in the Christian world-view) and yet believed in and tried to follow a God who is not OK with that. I too have lived in the tension of being in a community in which I assumed that I was the only one to have shameful secrets. It is a lonely place to exist; and I don't think it has to be that way. Thus my sadness is twofold: for Daniela's despair and isolation (she eventually fully embraces her wild side admitting "I am Lost, I am Lost, I am Lost"),and for the ineptitude of the church to teach an open and humble path of living for real people who make mistakes that run the gamut of human experience. As a Christian pastor, it is on me to demonstrate authenticity and the kind of truth that Young and Wild explores.

"Joven y alocada" is a rare bird in its species, I believe. Coming from Chile, it is said to be a real story, told in first person and based on the experiences of a teenage blogger, who starts discovering her own sexuality while being raised in a very religious family (Evangelical).

It depicts a modern society in the "open-mindedness" and yearning for self-discovery of its young protagonists, who face the traditional side of society represented by austere religion. Daniela, the protagonist, experiments with love, trying to fit love for man, woman and Jesus in herself.

The movie integrates new technologies (blog entries, messenger chats) with the actual scenes, and it is innovative in this way, although it looks already a bit outdated, the way online interaction was in 2012. It includes a good deal of Chilean slang, especially words used online and among young people.

The soundtrack is a fundamental part of the movie too, with Chilean technopop star Javiera Mena's original songs and her covers of "Je ne regrette rien", "Sólo te pido la luna" and others.

These three elements (new technologies, the main story and the music) are beautifully wrapped with bright colors and details, it is easy to see the real person whose life and blog the movie reflects, was close to the making of the film and looked after its creation.

YOUNG AND WILD (dir. Marialy Rivas) A sexy and thought provoking film from Chile about a young woman's journey to sexual maturity and the problems posed by her domineering and overbearing family. Because Daniella receives nothing but banal Christian platitudes about her emerging sexuality, she shares her private anguish and confusion with friends on the Internet in her blog entitled, "Young & Wild". The film makes the point that evangelical acculturation is only psychological coercion sweetened with biblical aphorisms, and offers no real answers and only false comfort. Daniella comes to reject the relentless dogma of her parents, and learns to accept the undetermined nature of life. She seems to realize that it's healthier to embrace an uncertain existence without doctrine than to be conned with pious nonsense, and Daniella's family inadvertently prods her into an acceptance of a more secular humanistic world-view. MUST SEE