Womansplaining

Verdens verste menneske/The Worst Person in the World (2021) - Trier People. You love them, you hate them. You want to be around them sometimes, you want to be as far away as you can from them, other times. Some of us, by some miracle, end up with someone we love, to spend the rest of our lives together... or so we'd like to believe. As we grow older, we realize more and more that the human existence is frail and fleeting. And because the world we live in is increasingly getting crazier, for those of us who've found someone special, count ourselves lucky, and hope to have that special someone will be by our side in our last moments.

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. And Trier again, embraces the title as one of the most literary directors working today - the film is in chapters with prologue and epilogue, like his debut film Reprise, of what's now known as the Oslo Trilogy (along with Oslo, August 31st). Similarity is there - an arc of young people on the verge of adulthood: careers, ambitions, disappointments, regrets... but from a female perspective.

It starts with a young woman named Julie (Renate Reinsve), impulsively trying various majors in college - Medical school, psychiatry, and then photography. Her indecisive nature limits her working at a bookstore as she nears 30. She meets Aksel (Trier regular, Anders Danielson Lie) at a party. He is a cartoonist, whose creation, Bob Cat, a foul mouthed, very non-PC cartoon feline has gotten some notoriety and he is making a comfortable living off of it. Also he is much older. Their attraction is palpable. They talk about pros and cons about getting involved with someone with their age differences - it's not going to end well. But Julie moves in with him and they become a couple. Julie has to deal with the usual challenges that any woman her age - the talk of having kids before it's too late, career goals (if there are any), aging parents, other's perception of her, her own prejudices, getting mansplained and psychoanalyzed about her life, etc.

Julie meets a total stranger Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) at a party she just crashed. As consenting adults, they talk about the moral ethics of cheating. They reveal a lot of themselves over that one magical night but part their ways. What Julie craves is to get a handle on her life by herself, because she feels like a spectator when she is with more 'successful' Aksel.

As usual per Trier films, there are a couple of cinematic showstoppers in The Worst Person in the world. Their simplicity and practical effects are real fun to watch.

Layered and richly textured in presenting and contrasting the object oriented Gen-Xers and the Millennials who grew up plugged into the internet and social network - tangible vs. intangible, nostalgia vs. impending doom, the film speaks volumes about modern life and its seeming purposelessness. When it's all said and done, what remains is our relationship with each other and the love we have for one another. It is not my swanky vinyl collection or books on my bookshelf or how many times I watched Dog Day Afternoon, or a clever article I once wrote online that I will be remembered for.

What I admire about Trier and Vogt's characters over the years is not only their modern sensibility, but also their indomitable youthful spunk, no matter what situation they find themselves in. It would be a mistake to define them by their cultured, ultra urban sophistication and therefore consider them hollow. There is a sense of defiance in these characters and Julie, played by Reinsve, who gives the tour-de-force performance, trying to navigate this crazy, complex and uncertain world on her own terms - even if her life decisions were bad. She doesn't resign herself into the corner of the world and retreat. She is a thoroughly modern woman and doesn't need to dress up like Annie Hall. Clothes she wears or music she listens doesn't define her. It's her defiance that defines her. And I love her for that.

Repressed No More

Thelma (2017) - Trier

Joachim Trier's new offering starts out rather ominously - Norwegian Liam Neeson named Trond (Henrik Rafaelson) goes out hunting with his young daughter Thelma in the snowy woods. But when they spot a deer, unbeknownst to the little girl, Liam Neeson dad aims his rifle at her. The tension builds up, but at the end, he can't do it. So we know, there must be something terribly wrong with our Thelma.

Now Thelma is a mousy, good Christian girl attending college in the city. Except for unusually nosy parents, seen calling everyday to check on her, She leads a very normal life as a Freshman at college. There are little vices around at every corner - the boys, alcohol and weed, the usual stuff. She has to fend off these temptations with daily prayers and atone her sinful thoughts. Thelma has an episode of a violent seizure at the school library. She doesn't remember having one when she was growing up and fear of being called back home, she hides the fact from her parents. This episode introduces her to Anja (Kaya Wilkins), a dark beauty who came first to her aid. They fast become friends.

Weird things are happening around Thelma. Her dreams have become more vivid and she can't distinguish if they are hallucinations or her will to make happen. As she falls deeply in love with Anja, her seizure episodes also increases. Through the remnants of her medical history, she finds out that her conditions might be hereditary and her parents have been hiding things from her.

Trier and his writing partner Eskil Vogt wrote a beautiful script once again, this time applying their skill and grace to their first genre film - a Sci-fi thriller. But Thelma is much more than that. Instead of going the route of a typical teen superhero flick, Trier and Vogt portray being an adolescent in its truest form - frightening sexuality: massive confusion where you can't trust your feelings nor your body and the terror of being in love for the first time. Added here is a big middle finger to organized religion, combined with some show-stopping imagery that trier has ever created in his short but fruitful filmography- especially the snake scene and the underwater pool/lake scenes.

Eili Harboe does a phenomenal job as a supremely confused young woman whose power has been repressed for so long. She gives achingly vulnerable performance as Thelma.

Thelma is first and foremost, a love story. It will make a handsome double feature with The Witch as a kind of female empowerment anthem. But instead of being cynical, something to fear and gaze at, girrrl power in Thelma is a sweet, positive and dare I say, life affirming affair.

Joachim Trier's Louder than Bombs is a beautifully written gem of a film

Louder than Bombs (2015) - Trier

I can't stress enough that watching Joachim Trier's films is like reading really good books. That he might be the most literary (not in a superficial sense) film director working today. With each new films, Trier and his writing partner Eskil Vogt, show what mature, gifted writers they are. Their English language debut, Louder than Bombs, is a finely tuned chamber piece about grief and family dynamics. It is a great American film that brings out nuanced, beautifully drawn, rich characters just under two hours running time and would give Jonathan Franzen a run for his money. The title comes from the Smiths' album which was the US only released compilation, taken from Elizabeth Smart's prose poem By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. It's an apt title to illustrate the state of internal grief felt by the characters. The film's so beautifully written and acted, I can't find one false note.

The Reed family is grieving the death of the family matriarch, a strong willed war photographer, Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert). Her husband Gene (Gabriel Byrne) is a gentle high school teacher who had been always supportive of Isabelle and took care of their two sons while she's away in the war zones. Josh the elder son (Jesse Eisenberg), who just became a father himself, has his mother's traits - smart, driven, but has an air of a boy who grew up too fast. Then there is Conrad the younger son (Devin Druid), an unresponsive, always plugged in high schooler. Even though she's gone for two years, Isabelle is always present through numerous flashbacks, dreams and even has her own narrations. Things get a little complicated when Isabelle's colleague and former lover Richard (David Strathairn) is about to publish his article on her in New York Times and mention her suicide, a fact Gene never told Conrad about. As Josh comes home to take charge of Isabelle's photos in her untouched studio, it slowly becomes clear that the visit is an excuse for him to get away from his nagging wife and the new born. The three men have to deal with their grief in their own way.

As Trier and vogt explored before in Reprise, Bombs deals with the consequences of being a talented, driven person. Many fail to balance work and relationship. For Isabelle, her work was like an addiction, no matter how much she kidded herself with the notion of family life. Not that she was an uncaring mother, but she was unhappy, feeling that she wasn't needed every time she came home and at the same time felt guilty for being selfish. Gene, who gave up his acting career to take care of their sons, never found his place in the world and doesn't really know how to connect with his growing/grownup sons who worshiped their mom and in turn resented him. Although Josh would never admit to anyone, he regrets having to grow up too fast and made rash decisions undoubtedly because of his mom's death. Conrad daydreams and makes up scenarios how his mom really died and lives in his head most of the time.

Acting is superb throughout: Byrne exudes warmth and patience in an anti-patriarchal character that is rarely seen in American films. Added to his arrogant, intelligent kid he always plays, Eisenberg brings vulnerability in a basically a not showy supporting role. But it's Druid who is truly phenomenal as a weird kid who is much more mature than he seems. And of course, Huppert, again, makes her presence felt, even with limited screen time, playing enigmatic, complicated woman.

Despite its heavy subject matter Bombs contains many humorous moments involving Conrad's crush on one of the school's popular girls while Josh matter of factly discouraging him that it would never work out ('been there done that' defeatist nerd talk) and Gene trying to connect with Conrad through a role playing video game with resulting in hilarity. And just like in his two previous films, Trier uses fast moving montage sequences that signify meaningful moments in characters' lives (over Conrad's confessional essay) that are truly beautiful and touching. Dense yet lively, touching but not corny, mature and intelligent without being showy, Louder than Bombs is a rare gift of a movie. So good!