Sentimental Value (2025)

AKA: Affeksjonsverdi

A strained relationship between a famed director (Stellan Skarsgård) and his daughter (Renate Reinsve) comes a head when he casts a young Hollywood starlet (Elle Fanning) to portray her in his new film. Explores the relationship between artistic expression and intergenerational trauma. I found it a bit too clean cut for my liking, but the performances and the sentiment are top notch.

3½ slaps for good luck out of 5

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Picking up more or less where the first entry left off, we're treated to...more fucking sand. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya make great decorative scenery against the bleak, unforgiving landscape, but the real highlight of this episode is the epic sandworm taming scene. I honestly found the majority of this film boring, and—surprise, surprise—we're left with yet another cliffhanger at the end of a three-hour snooze fest. Will they even make a Dune Messiah at this point? Who knows...it takes so long for them to come out with these movies, I doubt I'll even care by then. Sorry, it just wasn't for me. 

2½ sandworm goatses out of 5

Dune (2021)

People love these movies, but I can't stand them. I find them pretentious as fuck. Still, the VFX are nice and the direction is accomplished beautifully by Denis Villeneuve. Maybe what annoys me the most is how long they are. Do we really need to devote 2½ hours to approximately one half of a novel? It travels at a leisurely snail's pace, but maybe that's the point. And there's sand, sand everywhere. It's like Tatooine: The Movie. Personally, I thought the 1984 version was superior, because at least it told a "complete" story. I'm being generous here with my rating because I don't want the fanboys to come after me.

3 stillsuits circulating your own urine out of 5

Borg vs McEnroe (2017)

I've zero interest in tennis, but it didn't matter because the film is a character-driven piece about two determined men more than about the sport itself. Rivals in the media, opposites in approach but less so beneath the surface, the story gets under the skin of Swedish Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) and American John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) as they approach and face off in the 1980 Wimbledon final. It probes their moods and modes, their rituals and reasoning, and, unexpectedly but crucially, explores their teenage years.
Language is English and Swedish, but it favours the latter conceptually more and is all the better for it, in all likelihood being more understated and singular in focus than any US made version of events would strive to be.
The cast are excellent, too (even LaBeouf), effectively conveying the isolation and pressure that each one is under, in his/her own way.

4 serious calls out of 5

Ronin (1998)

The tense opening is arguably the best part of Ronin, with the remainder of the film attempting to match it, but overall it's an enjoyable crime drama with some solid acting from its primary cast members. It's the not very original 'group of men who don't know each other hired to commit a robbery' scenario with the usual stock types (i.e. anonymous employer; loose cannon; overly-cautious planner; the quiet and amiable teammate, etc) but the sense of foreboding is well-implemented and likely strong enough to keep fans of this kind of thing intrigued. But I suspect what a lot of people will remember most is the bitchin' car chases through the tight and narrow roads of Nice.

3 boost multipliers out of 5

Beowulf and Grendel (2005)

There's always a danger that any filmed version of the famous Anglo-Saxon poem will turn it into little more than a man vs beast action movie, but happily that isn't the case with Dir. Sturla Gunnarsson's B+G.
It establishes sympathy for Grendell (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) early in the running time, and then shifts much of the focus to the Danes and Beowulf (Gerard Butler) himself. The clash of accents is distracting, but the actual compromises made in the language used aren't too bad.
The real star of the show is the environments; the frigid, uncompromising landscapes are like something ancient and slumbering, the biting winds a reminder that what men do in their brief life matters only to other men, whereas nature's moods affect us all.

3 gnawing thoughts out of 5

GOOD WILL HUNTING [1997]

Director Gus Van Sant puts aside his usual artistic quirkiness and lets then unknown actors Ben Affleck & Matt Damon's script shine in the broad-minded character piece, Good Will Hunting.
A troubled janitor turns out to be a mathematical genius, who'd rather drink & fight and has a smart-ass answer to everything but the purpose of his own life.  Here he meets a mild-mannered yet eccentric community college psychologist that seems to be the only person that truly understands him.  The film is about experience being more than knowledge, insecurities, finding one-self growing-up, class differences and just about everything else Van Sant poetically explored in My Own Private Idaho and Drugstore Cowboy.  There's some beautifully crafted character moments between Damon & Robin Williams which will enthrall by the performances alone.
A wonderfully crafted film that tugs at the heart-strings in all the right places that'll make you think about the choices you've made.

4 apples out of 5

HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS [2014]

Director Peter Chelsom's adaptation of French psychologist François Lelord's fictional novel Hector's Voyage or the Search for Happiness feels like it's 2014's The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.
Simon Pegg plays the title role as a psychiatrist that travels the world to seek out what truly makes a person happy.  Pegg is absolutely wonderful, displaying layers and nuances in his performance I didn't actually think he was capable of, while Rosamund Pike is as always irresistible.  Chelsom wisely plays down the fish out of water moments and instead focus mainly on the characters studies and what it all means, while remaining playful with bits of animation and miniature set pieces.  Unfortunately the film is weighed down by schmaltzy simplicity and life lessons that are easier said than done but in the end the good feelings can't be denied no matter how fleeting they may be.

3 Tintins out of 5

THE RAILWAY MAN [2013]

Director Jonathan Teplitzky adapts The Railway Man, the autobiographical novel written by Eric Lomax, with powerful results due to precise story structure and compelling performances all around.
It's a psychological war story that tells of the suffering several decades later which is something we rarely ever seen portrayed on-screen and makes for a vigorous impact I wasn't prepared for.  Beautifully photographed as it gracefully moves back & forth through time and settings, the film never overwhelms with images and remains steadily focused on the message it's portraying.
This one is going to linger with me for quite sometime and it's really something I feel it set out to do so.

4 train rides out of 5

THOR: THE DARK WORLD [2013]

After Kenneth Brannagh shat the bed with the first film, I figured Game Of Thrones director Alan Taylor could only do better on Thor: The Dark World.
I was pleased to find my assumptions were slightly correct.  The first act is a dull bucket of boredom, however it's the second act where the story and conflict picks up into some enticing adventure and then it falls into an overdone grand finale of CGI effects and noise.  The only thing the first film had going for it, besides Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston was it's duck out of water humour which is sadly gone here.  It seems to take itself a bit too seriously, apart from a hilarious scene stealing Kat Dennings who fortunately gets a bit more screentime on this ride.
It's an improvement from the first film but doesn't stand up against it's Marvel counterparts.

2½ dreamy Cappy Americas out of 5

Boogie Woogie (2009)

A collective of pretentious pricks in the London contemporary art world masturbate their egos in what I assume was supposed to be for comedic effect. Watching was like self-harming without the scars.

0½ canvas out of 5

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

The first attempt at an Exorcist prequel, held back and eventually released because the other one stank, is a better film than its successor but only just. It tells of Father Merrin’s first brush with the demon that would take control of Regan twenty-eight years later.
This one puts the emphasis on characterisation, so Skarsgård is again the focus. Sadly, the supporting cast suck. The film suffers greatly from the absence of Izabella Scorupco.
Dir Paul Schrader wanted a film about a man, full of dramatic parallels, but the studio wanted a bankable horror and consequently it ended up as neither.

2½ fake hyenas and a box of matches out of 5

Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)

The second attempt at an Exorcist prequel, confusingly released first, fails to excite. It’s a shame because the cast, particularly Skarsgård, are excellent. It paints a very believable back-story for Father Merrin, which is handled well and enriches the character. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is great, as always, although the post-prod team went a little crazy with the colour correction. Hollywood really need to stop doing that. Alas, the last third plummets into a mess of lazy CGI action and audience-pleasing predictability.

2½ fake hyenas and a genuine Zippo lighter out of 5

The Hunt For Red October (1990)

Tom Clancy's classic work of military industrial complex porn has been humanized with actual characters, who have depth, arcs, relatable behavior, and most importantly, subtlety. The proceedings get off to a quick start and the pace doesn't slow down until the end credits. This is a conventional Hollywood studio film that earns its stripes the old fashioned way, with clean, solid, professional work on all levels.

4 pings Vasili. 4 pings only out of 5

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO [2011]

Why make a film that's all ready got an amazingly perfect adaptation made only 2 years before?
Director David Fincher does his own thing with Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and if not for the strongly written characters, it'd be almost unrecognizable compared to the Swedish film version. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara do a fine job in their roles (in fact they were perfectly cast) but being a dedicated fan to the original film I feel they can't compare to Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.
It's more faithful to the novel than the Swedish film and goes into greater detail but makes some slight changes here and there that might anger the dedicated fan.
If you hadn't seen the Swedish version than this would be an excellent introduction...if you have, than it might pale in comparison.

4 Orinoco Flows out of 5

Melancholia (2011)

Dogme 95 director Lars Von Trier (whose last effort I saw was Antichrist) delivers his latest in cinematic experimentalism. Kirsten Dunst is troubled by a deep affliction on the night of her wedding which leads to the breakdown of her life. On the other side of things, you have her very supportive sister who comes to her aid throughout it all. The first hour or so is very slow and you have no idea where it's going and then...BOOM. Everything else that comes before it is rendered trivial. Like The Tree of Life, it makes use of impressive visuals and beautiful music. It's much better to go into this film knowing nothing and enjoy it for all it's worth.

5 brilliant uses of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde out of 5