100% Coco (2017)

Directed by: Tessa Schram | 88 minutes | drama, family | Actors: Nola Kemper, Valentijn Avé, Merel de Zwart, Firy Beuk, Thom Vendrik, Anna-Sophie Kummer, Rosaline Lantink, Faye Gunther, Sydney Tros, Vincent Visser, Keanu Visscher, Eva Duijvestein, Iris Hesseling, Rienus Krul, Loes Schnepper, Dionne Slagter, Défano Holwijn

One of the most difficult weeks in a child’s life is the transition from primary to secondary school. But twelve-year-old Coco faces it with confidence. All she cares about is which outfit to wear: she has too many choices! Coco loves clothes and fashion. She has developed her own style, which is colorful and definitely stands out among the youngsters dressed in jeans and gray long-sleeved shirts. But unfortunately she only realizes that when she is standing on the lawn in front of school in a pink pleated skirt…

‘100% Coco’ is a smooth youth film, based on the wildly popular books by Niki Smit (1975). She wrote three books about Coco and the screenplay of the film was inspired by the first two books. After Coco’s disastrous first day at school—her eye-catching look earns her the nickname Coco the Clown—she decides she doesn’t want to stand out anymore. From now on she will also be dressed in jeans and sober sweaters. But the blood creeps where it can’t go and when a competition is organized for fashion vloggers, Coco decides to participate. Anonymous, though, she hides behind a tiger mask and calls her vlog the Style Tiger. In no time she has a large fan base. Her own nemesis Amanda turns out to be fond of the Style Tiger’s tips. She should have known who is responsible for the vlogs…!

Although the story sounds very familiar, there is nothing wrong with the performance of ‘100% Coco’. Leading actress Nola Kemper is perfect for the role. She convinces in her enthusiasm, but also in the more difficult scenes – when she has to play an insecure or even sad teenager, she comes across as natural. The supporting roles are also well filled, although they do consist of clichés: the girlfriend who should know nothing about fashion (and from whom she must therefore keep the big secret), the already mentioned bitchy Amanda, the most popular girl in the class, who has her sights set on the boy who actually likes Coco, not to mention her sidekicks (one of whom is of course dominatrix).

What makes ‘100% Coco’ so successful is not only the cool design (with the texts and crazy drawings in the picture, the film itself occasionally reminds us of a vlog), but also the honest relationships that the lead actress has. Her mother (Eva Duijvestein) is absolutely her opposite, but despite that (and the fact that mother falls in love, yikes!) they grow towards each other in this film. Clothing store owner Alicia (Iris Hesseling) also has a positive influence on Coco’s self-confidence. The message of the film is of course that you should always be yourself and not conform to the opinion or (lifestyle) of the masses and that is something that young girls (and boys!) can’t hear often enough. Nice movie.