Connect with us

Movies News

Blu-ray Review: THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Runs to Criterion

Published

1 year ago

on

Blu-ray Review: THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Runs to Criterion

The quickness with which bold Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier’s latest, the accomplished if also a little uneven romantic shapeshifter The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske), was dubbed the third entry in a loose “Oslo trilogy” was nothing if not dizzying.  

Already sporting an equilibrium all its own as a narratively driven kind of open dialogue around male/female romantic relationships, its being lumped in with the director’s considerably heavier efforts Reprise (2006) and Oslo, August 31 (2011) only adds unnecessary baggage to a work that actively demands to run free.  

In fairness, all three not only share Trier and the setting of Norway’s capital; they also all star actor and full-time medical doctor Anders Danielsen Lie.  But he is not the main character this time.

Advertisement

Finding a fully earned degree of global acclaim following a lauded run on the international festival circuit, The Worst Person in the World resonates as a singular film in twelve demarcated parts, with a prologue and an epilogue.  Depending upon one’s life experience, the story of romantic relational foibles, perils, attractions, temptations, and messy reconciliations is never not relatable.   

While the song sung is of an old, overly- familiar subject, its beat-changes run out at us with creative abandon. It wails and riffs from one movement to the next as though all the players- director, co-writers, actors, the cinematography department, the art department, wardrobe, hair and makeup, props, even the extras (many of whom found themselves “frozen” in challenging positions during the prolonged practical filming of a vital “time-stopping” fantasy sequence) are in rare accord.  Jazz by way of Norway.

In his January 2022 Sundance Film Festival review for ScreenAnarchy, Dustin Chang said, “Joachim Trier and his writing partner Eskil Vogt, as they always do, bring maturity and erstwhile wisdom to their new film, The Worst Person in the World. And they tell a story decidedly from a young woman’s point of view in an ironically titled film.”  While Dustin does a fine job of articulating the deep sensations that the film evokes, the passage of months since Worst Person’s debut has helped clarify a few aspects that can be further explored.

While The Worst Person in the World does a top-notch job of showcasing its lead, Julie (a particularly radiant-at-times Renate Reinsve), it cannot be overlooked that director/co-writer Joachim Trier and his co-writer/creative partner Eskil Vogt are male, and therefore imbuing a male perspective from the project’s initial spark. In the fifty-minute Criterion-produced bonus feature, The Making of The Worst Person in the World, Reinsve, Trier, and Vogt discuss how the actress was brought in as a key voice in shaping Julie’s perspectives and concerns, going well beyond the typical level of input an actor would be granted.  

Yet, the implication remains that the default voice would always be male.  This is never more overt than with the character of Julie’s most serious love, Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), a successful underground comic book artist with over a decade of life experience over Julie.  

Though sympathetic throughout, his rants and concerns tend to rain down in a Godardian way, which is to say, he’s a fired-up leftist with a born-in misogynistic streak. Late in the film, his recollection of a time when tangibity mattered in terms of media consumption, and things we could collect and hold in our hands are the words of someone of Trier’s generation (he was born in 1974; Vogt as well). That The Worst Person in the World presents as effectively from a female perspective while in actuality is thoroughly male with female advisory is perhaps the major success behind its enigmatic appeal.  

Advertisement

The performances, Reinsve’s performance in particular, leaves one with the sensation that, yes, this is what vulnerability looks like — unsure, enveloping, vulnerable.  Reinsve’s moments of character exuberance are as infectious as her occasional pain-inflicting cuts are potent.  

In his aforementioned review, Dustin astutely points out that “there is a sense of defiance in these characters and especially in Julie, played by Reinsve, who gives a tour-de-force performance, trying to navigate this crazy, complex and uncertain world on her own terms, even if her life decisions were bad.”  Julie won’t let herself get too close to anyone, an anger that has something to do with her father.  (The hallucinatory lashing-out scene might be as bloody feminine-perspective as it gets).

The Worst Person in the World.jpg

Meanwhile, Aksel’s complicity in allowing his signature comix character’s famed attribute, his asterisk-shaped asshole, to be removed from his animated movie likeness is indicative of his own shedding of youthful defiance, something that Julie just can’t do.  (Also, as Aksel gets older, perhaps he no longer identifies as an asshole… even as he is more likely to be one?)  

Meanwhile in the handful of deleted scenes on the disc, Julie steals not one but two chocolate bars from a grocery store under her boyfriend’s nose.  That time, it’s the other boyfriend, the content barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), who cannot get behind what she’s doing.

Shot on fast 35mm film, The Worst Person in the World harbors a particularly warm, absorbing graininess and tactility.  This is the kind of realization that, for most, only comes once the non-digital method is discussed as they are in the Criterion bonus features.  

A separate featurette on the whats and hows of the film’s complex time-freezing sequence covers the added unforeseen challenges of filming just as Covid-19 hit.  Discussing new safety protocols following a long shutdown, we’re reassured that “everyone had masks on until the camera started rolling”… as we see set footage of an unmasked dolly grip lugging a section of track between the key cast and crew.  

Advertisement

This guy is far from the only unmasked or mask-down crew member shown. Like Trier’s characters, not only was the set itself obviously somewhat defiant and maybe reeling, it was bordering on self-destructive.

In any case, The Worst Person in the World landed as one of the Best Films of 2021, a well-deserved recognition that, we’re told, surprised so many involved.  Now that it’s enshrined in the Criterion Collection (on Blu-ray and DVD), its esteem will be all the more ingrained.  

The disc’s packaging is hard to miss, as it is fronted with a rudimentary, warped rendering of a nude Julie smiling as she holds her own bleeding heart over the faceless likeness of her two beaus.  Is this a paper cutout?  An online doodle?  The most delightfully twisted thing ever?  It’s hard to imagine this newly commissioned and unlikely minimalist artwork by Bendik Kaltenborn not racking up purchases on its own accord.  

Criterion serves up a new 2K digital master for the film, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD master audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray.  It’s a great mix that truly compliments the many musical and aural tonal shifts heard throughout the twelve-plus chapters.  

The supplements aren’t many — just the Making Of, the time-freeze featurette, and the deleted scenes — but it’s enough.  They are rendered with terrific quality similarly to the film itself, even going as far as to utilize onscreen chapter cards.  Throughout the course of them, we hear from Trier; co-screenwriter Eskil Vogt; actors Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Herbert Nordrum; cinematographer Kasper Tuxen; and sound designer Gisle Tveito.  The essay insert is by critic Sheila O’Malley.

It’s a wee bit ironic that The Worst Person in the World, a film about contemporary human inability to intimately connect and commit fully to one another and our deep-seated lack of self-knowledge, thrives precisely because of connection, collaboration, and self-knowledge.  It’s tellingly difficult to get at the cut-out heart of this newfangled must-see, yet it resonates like a thousand romantic comedies and psyche-shattering human dramas all ground into one distinct cup of coffee.  

Advertisement

That it reads as an empathetic men’s telling of a deeply relatable uncertain woman makes it kind of like that compelling cold brew that you just can’t peg, but profoundly enjoy.  You will go back to it again and again if given the chance.

Related Topics:

Movies News

Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Published

1 year ago

on

August 29, 2022

By

Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

Advertisement

The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

Advertisement

Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Movies News

Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

Published

1 year ago

on

August 29, 2022

By

According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

Advertisement

To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

Continue Reading

Movies News

Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

Published

1 year ago

on

August 29, 2022

By

Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

Advertisement

Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

Continue Reading

Trending