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Død snø (2009)
A Hilarious and Inventive Slapstick Horror Film
A group of college friends are caught in a frightening attack by Nazi zombies in Dead Snow, a 2008 slapstick horror film that entertains for an hour and a half despite a complete lack of plot and characters. The film, directed by Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola, centers on a group of college friends spending Easter break at a cabin in northern Norway. On the night they arrive, a stranger shows up looking for a cup of coffee. During his visit, he informs the students of the history of the area involving the Nazi occupation during World War II. He tells of the horrible atrocities committed by the Germans and warns the students of the presence still felt in the woods surrounding the cabins after the Nazi's defeat. The carefree students hardly take him seriously except for Vegard (Lasse Valdal), whose girlfriend, Sara (Ane Dahl Torp), is skiing to the cabin. He leaves the next morning on a snowmobile to find her. That night, both Vegard and the remaining campers are faced with the presence the stranger warned them about. They come in the form of frozen Nazi zombies who occupied the region during World War II in their lifetime.
Dead Snow is a film that is not serious in the slightest. It was simply made for the actors, director, writers, and audience to have fun, and it should be appreciated in that sense. The film is very funny and inventive. Probably the most inventive feature of the film is how many hilarious and entertaining ways the characters kill zombies. They use as many weapons as they can find, including a chainsaw, a hammer and a sickle (shown one after the other in reference to the Russian Communist Party), logs from the woods, grenades from the zombies, a machine gun, and even the belt on a snowmobile. This list is very incomplete. I spent the entire film wondering how they would kill the zombies next and laughing when the next crazy killing spree broke out. Indeed, this film is a great example of cinema that is not to be taken seriously but simply enjoyed for its ingenuity and comedy.
Despite the lack of seriousness in this film, it has many artistic moments. I was impressed by several scenes in which there was a great deal of creativity and art that went into their making. The best example of this was a scene in the middle of the movie where the audience sees a first-person view of a major character dying. The girl involved ran into a tree branch, knocking her out and allowing the zombies to catch up to her. The audience is shown how the zombies are killing her through her own blurred vision, giving the scene an intense reality and adding to the film one of its only airtight scenes. This scene and several other artistic scenes really add to the movie, creating a further sense of wonder and amazement over the creativity and cleverness of the writers.
The cleverness does not guarantee a perfect movie, however, and this film certainly has its flaws. Firstly, the actors in this movie hardly need to be recognized for this film because they really had little to do. The film really never focuses on the characters and does not develop them at all. It also does not develop a plot. The movie starts with a group of carefree kids arriving at a cabin and basically turns into a killing spree after that. The audience also watches as individuals wander off from the group which could have created interesting side stories. But instead, these characters run into Nazis that they have to deal with on their own. This creates for a quite boring story if that's what one is looking for; however, as I mentioned earlier, this film needs to be approached with the expectation that it does not need a good plot or good characterizations in order to be entertaining. The film is supposed to be enjoyed without too much thought, and those who do not like to do that should avoid the film because it really is not for them.
Overall, Dead Snow delivers by being fun and entertaining. It is certainly not the most complex or airtight of horror movies, but it's not supposed to be. It's a slapstick horror film that should be enjoyed with an absent mind and a carefree attitude. It is definitely not for drama lovers or for those who get easily queasy, but for those who are simply looking for a good time, it delivers with creativity, humor, and vast amounts of blood.
7/10
Så som i himmelen (2004)
A well-intentioned but overly sentimental and clichéd film.
An internationally renowned conductor returns to simple living in his home town in As It Is in Heaven, a generally well received Swedish drama film that I found to be over-sentimental and clichéd despite a fairly engaging story. Directed in 2004 by Kay Pollak, the film follows former child music prodigy Daniel Daréus (Michael Nyqvist) as he returns to the town of his childhood due to serious health concerns that have sidelined his career. He moves into the town's old school house and slowly begins to meet some of the town's inhabitants. Generally acting shy and anti-social around others, he does not want to become involved with them but simply wants "to listen." However, once a local store owner invites him to choir practice, he decides to become the church cantor in order to direct the choir.
As cantor, Daniel becomes directly involved in people's lives for the first time in his life. He begins to care about the problems of those in the choir while the members of the choir and the town's inhabitants learn about and acknowledge these problems for the first time. The most serious of these problems is the regular beating of a choir member named Gabriella (Helen Sjöholm) by her husband, Conny (Per Morberg), an old classmate of Daniel's who beat him up as a kid. The choir must also deal with Erik (Lasse Petterson), a man who has been called "Fatso" his entire life and has always hated it, and Tore (André Sjöberg), a mentally challenged individual who wants to join the choir but has never been included. While dealing with these and a few other problems, Daniel becomes close with a young member of the choir named Lena (Frida Hallgren). She has trust issues after previously finding out her boyfriend of two years was married. This potential relationship between Daniel and Lena gets them into trouble as the minister and a member of the choir work to have Daniel dismissed because they think he is using his position to develop an intimate relationship with Lena. The choir must come together and deal with all of these problems before a huge performance at a choir contest in Innsbruck, Austria, where Daniel plans to accomplish his lifelong goal: to create music that opens people's hearts.
Daniel's goal is a perfect example of why this film did not connect with me. It is over-sentimental and clichéd, qualities that are incorporated into every aspect of the film. Firstly, the film almost plays like a soap opera. Every character has a serious problem that must be addressed by the group. Many of these problems are slightly overplayed, but the presentation of the problems is not the issue; the issue is that almost every resolution to these problems is artificial and overplayed. Every character has their emotional scene where they cry at first, but the choir soon supports them as emotional (and generally bad and soppy) music fills the background while everyone begins to smile with angelic looks on their faces. They look at each other with amazed faces and laughter generally ensues. Every issue is resolved in this overplayed and fake manner. Not once does the film give an authentic resolution that does not need emotional music in the background to make the audience feel good. A film that is well done should not need to rely on sentimental music in the background or overplayed emotions by the actors and actresses to make a feel-good scene.
Not only are the plot and characters over-sentimental in this movie, they are also largely based on stereotypes and clichés. For example, Daniel's interaction with the church, one of the more major story lines of the film, follows an old direction that has been used in numerous films already. A stranger who is cold and indifferent towards the church comes to town. He is immediately distrusted by the church and its more serious members. After the stranger tries to change some things in the town, the church retaliates in ways that exclude him, and he must find a way around the church's influence. This format is being reused from older films and the film has little new to say. It also has little new to say about the characters; they are almost exclusively stereotypes. There is a genius who has never experienced love in his life, an overweight man with a low self-esteem, a close-minded minister, a mentally challenged man with a talent, a man too obsessed with perfection, and a childhood bully who beats his wife. Not one of these characters breaks their clichéd and stereotypical role throughout the film.
Clichés and over-sentimentality are present throughout the entire film, but it might have been redeemable had it had a respectable ending. However, the filmmakers did not opt to make a realistic or imaginative ending. Without giving away too much about it, I will only say that it was humorous how ridiculously unrealistic, and corny the ending was. It almost seemed like the filmmakers where wondering how much artificial emotion they could force into the final scene, and it ultimately ruined the film.
Despite these very large and noticeable flaws in the film, As It Is in Heaven has some redeeming qualities. Firstly, the emotion displayed when the village's problems arise is generally real and heartfelt. Some of it is overplayed, but overall, the characters' plights create a feeling of empathy. Also, I thought the general idea behind the plot could have been the basis for a very good film. An entire town working through its issues in the context of a choir could have been a very spiritual experience, and for the most part, the film does a good job of using the choir as a vessel for change in the community. However, these positives do not overcome how the film was portrayed. As It Is in Heaven is a well intentioned film with good ideas that ultimately fails due to over-sentimentality and clichés.
4/10
101 Reykjavík (2000)
A Hilarious and Enjoyable Comedy
101 Reykjavík tells the hilarious "coming of age story" of a thirty year old man dealing with real adult issues for the first time in his life. Baltasar Kormákur's 2000 film follows Hlyner, an unemployed thirty year old who has not grown out of his teenage years. He still lives with his mother, Berglind, in a small apartment in the center of 101 Reykjavík (101 refers to Reykjavík's area code) and spends his days at home relaxing and his nights at the pub partying. He has no passion for anything and avoids working at all costs. His lack of motivation even extends into his personal relationships as he only bonds with people he can party with. Relationships that take work, such as those with family members and with significant others, are too hard for Hlyner, and he does not even try to pursue them. His maturity level is also very low for a grown man. Indeed, his deepest thought in the beginning of the film is to wonder why porn is not shown on TV in the morning. Hlyner does not really live his life; he simply exists while the government and his mother care for him.
Hlyner's "perfect" life cannot last forever, though, as one of his mother's close friends, Lola, comes to visit over Christmas. The two surprise themselves by having sex on New Year's Eve while Berglind is away. They act as if nothing happened when Berglind returns home, but the incident is hard to ignore as she and Lola announce their love for each other and their plans to live together. The relationship between Lola and Hlyner becomes more awkward when Lola announces that she is pregnant (presumably with Hlyner's child) and that her and Berglind plan to raise the baby together. While all of this is going on, Hlyner must deal with another girl that claims that he impregnated her. He has slept with her several times but has always rejected her attempts at a real relationship. He must now deal with the prospect of being a father and the responsibilities that go with it. The film centers on how Hlyner deals with these problems and his inability to address them maturely. In the end, he is faced with two options: grow up and take responsibility or give up and remove himself from the lives of everyone he knows.
The absolute triumph of this film is its humor. The movie is funny from beginning to end without resorting to slapstick comedy or easy laughs. The humor does not arise from the acting, but from the situations themselves. The way the actors played their characters straight, without making it seem like the characters are winking at the camera telling us "this is funny," allowed the script to take over and create humor. The part of Hlyner was played particularly well. His immaturity and inability to deal with the crazy situations in the film is incredibly funny and drives most of the humor throughout the movie.
Another way this film succeeds is how it embeds real social issues into a lighthearted black comedy. Firstly, Hlyner must cope with his mother's coming out as a lesbian. While he initially acts in a politically correct manor, Hlyner does not really know what to think of the situation. He cannot deal with it emotionally and has further problems when he learns that Lola is carrying his son. This confuses him as he does not know how the child will be raised or how his family will be organized. Will he be the boy's brother or father? Can the boy be raised by all three of the apartment's residents? Do Lola and Berglind have the right to decide the boy's future when Hlyner is his biological father? Another issue brought up by the film is the abuse of the welfare state. Hlyner is completely living off of unemployment benefits. He does not even try to find work and takes it for granted that the state will take care of him for his entire life. Lola challenges him on this and encourages him to find a job and do something with his life. Issues like these give the film intelligence and relevance. However, they do not overshadow the film or take away from its comedic values.
One last success of the film is Kormákur's use of several non-vocal covers of the song "Lola." Originally about a transvestite, the 1970 song by The Kinks is perfectly used to enhance scenes with Lola and Hlyner. But the real success of the score does not come from the appropriateness of the song; the score succeeds because of how slightly different versions of "Lola" can create completely different emotions in the viewers. It is amazing how one song can follow Hlyner's emotions from his initial joy of having Lola to party with, to his fear after he and Lola sleep together, to his contempt for her as she carries his son. This one song creates a perfect atmosphere for the film as an immature Hlyner deals with the emotional problems that Lola's presence causes.
101 Reykjavík does have a few problems. The film is very short (approximately 90 minutes) and would benefit from an influx of more story. The plot seems thin in some places and could be expanded upon. Also, Hlyner's mother had an abnormally small part in the movie for being quite a major person in Hlyner's life. Seeing more of her could have added to the relationships in the film. These complaints, however, are small when compared to the ways that the film works. 101 Reykjavík centers around some serious topics, but these issues are woven into a charming comedy that is incredibly enjoyable to watch.
9/10
Hawaii, Oslo (2004)
A Story About How Love Affects Those Who Need It Most
Hawaii, Oslo is a story about the fear of being alone and the struggle to find someone to love. Set in present day Oslo, Erik Poppe's second film tells three different stories that intertwine. First is the story of Leon, an institutionalized kleptomaniac who is celebrating his 25th birthday. He is waiting for Åsa, a longtime friend and soon to be fiancé if they carry out their pact to marry each other if they are both single at 25. The plan becomes more complicated when his imprisoned brother, Trygve, comes with plans to escape the guard watching him and move to Hawaii with Leon. Leon is unwillingly taken on a journey through the streets of Oslo which seem to be taking him farther and farther from Åsa.
Next, we meet Mikkel and Magne, brothers who are living on their own after the recent death of their father. Mikkel fears separation from his brother if they enter into state care and acts hostile towards two social workers who take them to see their father's funeral. He is also hostile towards his mother, who has not seen her boys in over ten years. She is introduced in the film with a failed suicide attempt, but finds meaning in life when notified of her children's' father's death by Magne. Her battle to become the boys' mother will not be easy as Mikkel and Magne run away to avoid separation in foster homes.
Frode and Mille are the last couple we meet in the film and are the happy parents of a newly-born boy. Their joy over parenthood is destroyed, however, as they learn that their child has a rare heart condition and most likely will not survive for more than a week. Only one hospital in the world has ever fixed this kind of defect, and the operation will cost 900,000 kroner (about $155,000), far more than the couple's assets. Frode will stop at nothing to raise the necessary funds for the operation while Mille gives up on hope for a cure. Their relationship understandably becomes strained over the fate of their child.
While these three story lines intertwine, they are connected by Vidar, a supervisor at the institution where Leon lives. He has the ability to see the future and past in his dreams and seems to have a platonic love for anyone he encounters. As he bumps into the troubled characters of the film, he uses his visions to prepare them for the future and comfort them about the past.
The film centers on the characters' struggle to find love in their life and the fear of losing the love or fallacy of love they already have. The characters are beautifully portrayed in this aspect, and their fears and hopes seem real. Nothing is overplayed or romanticized and the stories create a fear for the worst in the viewer. Leon is driven by the memory of Åsa and is determined to reach her if she shows up. He is also haunted by the fear that she has forgotten him and that he will never see her again. Meanwhile, Frode fears losing his child and will do anything to assure a long and healthy life for the boy. He sells all his assets, including a guitar once owned by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, but still comes up short in his quest for 900,000 kroner. With the almost certain death of his child approaching, he must act quickly if he wants to save both the boy and his relationship with his wife. At first glance, Mikkel may appear to dislike his brother, often berating and abusing him. However, this is a sign of love as Mikkel fears losing Magne and only wants to control him to keep him close. He fears his mother does not actually love them as she attempts to become their guardian once again. We see this is not true though, for she seems to need them to carry on with her life. There are some other minor story lines about love including an ambulance worker who falls for the boys' mother after saving her and the love Trygve feels for Leon.
The movie also has religious and spiritual themes. Vidar uses his visions to guide and comfort the other characters and is seen as a guardian angel or even as a Jesus-like image. Early in the film, he quotes Jesus in order to stop a patient from harming Leon, saying, "Whatever you do to Leon, you also do to me." He also seems to shed feathers in several scenes and Leon even calls him his guardian angel while holding one of these feathers. There is a great scene later in the movie when we learn that another recurring character is "not who she says she is," but presumably an angel as well. These two divine figures interfere with what appears to be the fate of the characters to be alone and are a driving force for change in the lives of those around them. I did not find this theme particularly compelling but thought it was well done. Poppe presents the divine figures in a very subtle way, not making the movie about them but using them to progress the story. I also think that religious audiences will be more interested in this aspect of the film than I was.
Despite these triumphs, the film does have its drawbacks. The plot takes a long time to set up and the slow nature of the beginning can take viewers out of the story. The film is not particularly unique and has nothing new to say. The ending was especially predictable and turned me off a bit. However, Hawaii, Oslo was fun to watch and really involves the viewer. The experiences in the film are ones that everyone can connect to and sympathize with, and the story, driven by many great performances, is engrossing once it takes off.
7/10