Dreams (2024) review

Seventeen-year-old Johanne (Ella Øverbye), who's a dancer but wants to study sociology, becomes fixated on her French instructor Johanna (Selome Emnetu) and even goes to her apartment to ask her for knitting lessons - afterwards, she writes a book about the experience (in extreme detail), gives a copy to her grandmother Karin (Anne Marit Jacobsen) to look at, then her mother Kristin (Ane Dahl Torp) reads it and there's a debate as to whether or not it should be published.  As the second part of Haugerud's Oslo Trilogy, it takes a level-headed approach to the problematic realm of teacher-student relationships, except it contains an exhausting amount of voice-over from Johanne instead of the captivating conversations that helped drive the first film (Sex).  It's never clear what the appeal of Johanna is for the lead character aside from the fact that she's older and has darker skin (actress Emnetu is of Ethiopian descent), although the racial component of her fixation isn't addressed (and may not even be at the forefront of her mind).  As for the "new boyfriend" Johanne eventually winds up with: he's going to learn a hard lesson in dating, and I hope he keeps a close watch over his own heart....