User Reviews

Watching this is the southern hemisphere, I felt completely transported while watching this film.

The snow.... The train.... I was so jealous that members of this city has that cute train to travel around in for public transport, we have nothing like that.

Sigrid Kandal Husjord was brilliant. Kind of in line with the vibe of Frances McDormand.

The film overall became a bit heavy handed and overdone.... but I liked the unexpected character moments (closing the curtain) and the film was still endearing, and the setting and performances were engaging from start to finish, and has stuck with me.

"Nattrikken" or "Night Ride" is a Norwegian Norwegian-language live action short film from 2020 and this is special in a way because it took until 2023 for this film to get to the Oscars and even manage a nomination. Huge success. The film runs for 15 minutes, so a quarter of an hour, which means it is neither particularly long or short. The writer and director is Eirik Tveiten and he started shooting films in 2010, so it means that this one here was for his tenth anniversary in a way and the awards accolades following make it a special anniversary, even if another 2-3 years have passed since then and Tveiten has worked on several other short films in 2021 and 2022. The biggest win for this one here was probably at Tribeca. It did not score a big amount of awards recognition, but the subject here linked to LBGT and discrimination was unsurprisingly really up the Academy's alley and that's why it got nominated. I also would not be totally surprised if it wins, even if I don't think it is considered among the first two favorites. But in the live action short film category anything can happen really and if we are honest, then whatever wins, there is no way it can be worse than last year's winner. But now a few more words on this one here: I cannot say anything about the cast members. They do not really seem familiar to me, but this is maybe my loss. I see a few of them have acted on a decent number of projects in the past. I was wondering if the main character here played by Sigrid Kandal Husjord was perhaps disabled or if the actress even was, but could be that she is just small in stature and that is all.

I think I liked the film the most at the beginning and end. How she gets in the train there early on and drives off was funny, the entire scenario really, okay maybe not super realistic, but funny. The ending was then hilarious and maybe it was the best moment from the entire film when the police car sped by the two women as they were sitting on the bench watching. The twist there that she not only managed to get away safely without having to fear consequences probably for what she did and at the same time put the blame on the antagonists of the film, or "antagonist" I should say as the one who discriminated against the character where we cannot be too sure if (s)he is a guy or girl will probably spend the night at the police office then. It was also a nice way to get him away from his victim there. In the end, it is revealed that she is indeed a woman, that she was just wearing a wig for whatever reason and his her long natural hair underneath. From the first moment I saw her, I thought that she could really be a guy in disguise, disguise then (sorry I just had to) because the face looked rather masculine and I was a bit surprised that the antagonist did not see it and did not mind. But yeah, the middle part is so-so only and if the beginning and end had not been better/funnier, then I would have maybe taken away one or two stars and not given a positive recommendation. Comedy is where this film delivers best, everything in-between is liberal Hollywod-pleasing mediocrity. I hope that Tveiten can step away from this a bit and I wonder when/if he is going to take the next step to full feature films. His short film release here is worth seeing. I give it a thumbs-up and even if the title of my review does not sound like it, this film also has its comedic moments that are in fact probably even better written than the dramatic inclusions.

The English translation for this Norwegian short film is 'Night Train'. It begins with a dwarfish woman seeking to board a late evening tram on a frigid night, only to be told by the conductor that the next run takes place in a half hour, and no one is allowed on it while he takes his break. Ignoring his remark, and wanting to enter the tram to warm up, Ebba (Sigrid Kandal Husjord) goes on board and quickly becomes fascinated with the buttons and dials at the driver's station. With the diminutive woman impishly testing the buttons, the story suggests a comedy romp on the rail line as Ebba tries to figure out what she's doing. Once she sets the tram in motion however, Ebba has all she can do to figure out how to make it stop at the next platform, finally screeching to a halt to allow some passengers to get on. One of them is Ariel (Ola Hoemsnes Sandum), an alluring young woman who quickly attracts the attention of a young man who chats her up to get a quick date. Playing along, Ariel suggests coming home with her, but the story suddenly grows dark when Ariel's wig comes off and she's revealed to be bald. Embittered, the young man Alan (Axel Barø Aasen) begins to berate her for deceiving him, and invites a friend on board (Jon Vegard Hovdal) to join him in heaping abuse on the woman. Eyeing all this with the tram in motion, Ebba is conflicted about what to do, when she suddenly stops the ride and confronts Allan, challenging him to drive the tram himself when she refuses to go any further unless he apologizes to Ariel. During this confrontation, Ariel manages to get off the tram, while Allan, seeing his opportunity with her gone, decides to take up Ebba's dare to prove he's not chicken. Quickly and cleverly, Ebba shows Allan how to start the tram, and gets off before he sets it in motion. She sees Ariel sitting on a nearby bench and offers her apologies for the unfortunate incident with Allan. In a bit of a Hitchcockian type twist, Ariel removes a skull cap to reveal she has a full head of hair, while a police car races after the 'stolen' tram to apprehend the prankster who took it on a joyride.

This Norwegian film is a contender for a 2023 Oscar in the category of Best Live Action Short Films. I was lucky enough to catch this short along with the four other contenders for this year's Academy Award at the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York. If not for this limited showing, I don't know how else I would have been able to see it. So, Congratulations to the Paramount for making it available to enthusiastic cinema fans like me.