Sometimes growing up just means realizing your parents never really did. And while they’re busy falling apart, you stumble into something that feels like love — messy, confusing, and more honest than anything they ever had.
Summer, chaos, and a little bit of love
Screwed (original title: Pihalla) is one of those quiet films that don’t try too hard. It just lets you sit there, in the middle of a Finnish summer, surrounded by mosquitoes, bad decisions, and too many emotions for one teenage brain to handle. Everyone’s a bit lost — the parents, the kids, even the family dog if there was one. Nobody’s fine, but somehow, that’s okay.
Miku (played by Mikko Kauppila) is seventeen and already tired of the adults around him. His mom’s a drama queen, his dad’s an invisible man, and his older brother Sebu could write a book called “How To Ruin a Party in 10 Minutes.” Then comes Elias — soft-spoken, kind, and probably the first person who actually sees Miku for who he is. And that’s when everything starts to get complicated… in the best possible way.
Two boys and a summer that doesn’t go as planned
The beauty of Screwed is in how normal it feels. No grand speeches, no slow-motion kisses under the rain — just small, real moments. A glance, a touch, a silence that says more than any line of dialogue. Miku and Elias don’t even know what they’re doing most of the time, but they know it feels right. And that’s enough.
“Mom, hi.”
“I am gay.”
“I’m just glad it’s you. I’ve been seeing gay porn in history for years and thinking it’s your dad.”
That line — oh man. It’s funny and painful at the same time. It’s the kind of awkward honesty that makes you laugh first, and then hit you in the chest a second later. That’s what this film does best — it never fakes emotion. It just lets it happen.
Parents, pills, and other disasters
While the boys are trying to figure out who they are, the adults are out there making a complete mess of everything. There’s drinking, crying, and questionable life advice all around. You start wondering if anyone in this family has ever heard of therapy — and yet, you still root for them. Because they’re trying. Badly, but trying.
The way it’s shot — and why it matters
The camera in Screwed doesn’t intrude. It watches. It feels like the lens itself is shy, peeking from behind a curtain, afraid to interrupt what’s real. There’s a softness in the light, a kind of quiet melancholy that belongs to long Nordic days — when the sun refuses to set, but everything still feels a little cold. The music doesn’t lead you; it just breathes with the characters. You almost hear the silence between them, the hum of a summer afternoon when nothing and everything happens at once.
Nils-Erik Ekblom, the director, has that rare gift — to let chaos feel intimate. He doesn’t rush the story, doesn’t push for emotions. He lets awkwardness linger. He trusts us to recognize ourselves in these kids, even when they don’t recognize themselves yet. That’s not easy to do, and it’s what makes the film feel alive.
And then there’s that ending…
When Elias says, “Fortunately, summer is not over yet,” it’s one of those lines that doesn’t sound like a line. It sounds like life itself. You know they won’t stay together forever — they’re seventeen, for God’s sake — but for one brief summer, they got it right. And that’s what matters.
Maybe that’s the whole point
Screwed isn’t really about being gay, or being young, or being Finnish. It’s about being human when everything around you makes no sense. It’s about watching your parents fall apart and realizing you’re the one who has to grow up first. It’s about love that doesn’t last forever, but still leaves a mark. The kind of love you don’t regret, even when it hurts.
And maybe that’s why it’s called Screwed. Because in the end, we all are — by family, by love, by life itself. But in between the chaos, there’s that one afternoon by the lake, that one kiss that feels like freedom. And if you’ve ever felt that, even once, you’ll understand this film completely.
If you ever had one of those summers — the kind that makes you feel alive and completely lost at the same time — this movie will feel like coming home.
