Quote:
"A film about the inner malaise of two teenage girls on the verge of becoming women, Sonatine (1983) conveys with rare sensitivity the ambiguity of the chaotic transition from puberty to adulthood. [...] Micheline Lanctôt uses a spare mise-en-scène that, through restrained treatment and telling detail, takes us to the heart of the matter: the existential confusion of a generation whose ideals and desire for tenderness run up against the brutality of the world around them."
-- Damien Detchberry

Source:
Detchberry, Damien. "Sonatine." In The Cinema of Canada, edited by Jerry White. London: Wallflower, 2006. (p. 121)