Sex Education

 Teens from two different worlds, connected only by a common language:

LINGUI (THE SACRED BONDS) (B+) - From Chad, this luxurious drama features a mother navigating a strict religious patriarchal society to help her teenage daughter get a safe abortion. This is another leisurely paced character study from writer-director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who scored in 2010 with "A Screaming Man."

He is blessed her with a fresh pair of newcomers, Achouackh Abakar Souleymane as the iron-willed mother, Amina, and Rihane Khalil Alio as the moody 15-year-old Maria. Amina was quite young when she had Maria, and she is determined to not doom her daughter to a life of lost opportunities. Maria can be quite irascible, and she is constantly telling her mom not to touch her, as if the pregnancy has traumatized the young girl and turned her into a leper.

Haroun has a sharp visual flair, comfortable flaunting colors in bright open spaces as well as building intrigue in the dim shadows of forbidden lairs. Amina struggles to earn a living, stripping the steel from vehicle tires to fashion rustic cookers, while getting both harangued by the local Imam for being single and hit on by a neighbor seeking to exploit her vulnerability.

Amina and Maria set out on a journey through the underground medical system. But this is less of a cold procedural than it is a warm tribute to mother-daughter relations and a paean to individual freedom to pursue a full life.

SLUT IN A GOOD WAY (2019) (B+) - From Quebec, this lightweight comedy dabbles in the sexual politics of teens, albeit in a rosy-cheeked aw-shucks manner. TV actress Sophie Lorain settles in behind the camera to direct a script by Catherine Leger (they previously teamed on a film called "The Little Queen") to follow three teenage girls who bring their own unique take on entering the world of relationships.

The film centers around perky Charlotte (Margueritte Bouchard), who finds out her boyfriend is gay but is sexually adventurous enough to want to explore her own needs and desires.  She and pals Megane (Romane Denis) and Aube (Rose Adam) take jobs at a mega toy store because it's full of cute guys their age, the perfect laboratory for experimenting with the opposite sex. However, Charlotte dives into the deep end, having sex with nearly all the guys over the course of the first month, earning her an instant reputation from the staff, male and female. Aube, tall and shy, is at the other end of the spectrum, pining for one boy in particular.  Meantime, Megane is a leftist revolutionary in training; when told told that her strident politics is a turn-off to men, she spins it as merely her own system of natural selection.

Lorain and Leger immediately set a tone of light banter and blunt talk about sex, opening the movie with a scene set in an adult toy store. The dialogue is witty among the friends. The boys can be two-dimensional and interchangeable at times, but that might be the point. While the script, on average, deploys a smart, modern sensibility, it always seems headed toward a quaint John Hughes denouement, especially considering that the one boy at the store Charlotte hasn't slept seems like the perfect mate. 

It is refreshing to watch a young woman like Charlotte shrug off criticism as she seeks natural pleasure.  She does get nagged a lot and told that guys are an important part of her identity. Bouchard at times gives off a Jan Brady vibe, a budding beauty fending off criticism and self-doubt. In the end, this is fun and entertaining without getting trapped in those teen-romp tropes.