A tender, impressionistic coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of the Cold War in Great Britain, Ginger & Rosa is a colored pencil sketch of a movie distinguished by its acting — in particular young Elle Fanning, the actress at its core. Giving off the feeling of a short story, it’s not necessarily wildly revelatory, but instead small and intimately observed.

Writer-director Sally Potter (Orlando) has a great gift with mood and melancholy, which gives her story strong roots. In capturing early on the stolen private moments of her titular pair, Potter taps into the same sort of uniquely mad, combustible energy of female adolescents as on display in movies like My Summer of Love and Heavenly Creatures. This mooring helps the movie mostly — though not entirely — cut and shove its way through the melodrama of its late second and third acts, which shares some trace similarities with An Education. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (A24 Films, PG-13, 90 minutes)