Amundsen (2019)

Director: Espen Sandberg
Starring:Pal Sverre Hagen, Christian Rubeck, Katherine Waterston, Trond Espen Seim .Norway/UK. 2h 5m

Every explorer deserves some kind of detailed recognition of their sacrifices for their “art” and this sentimental epic really touches on the sacrifices made by Roald Amundsen, the first man to arrive at the South Pole.

From a historical perspective there’s a lot missing and a few facts that have been replaced by nurtured cinematography rather than being 100% factual, however the overall sentiment and gratitude from director Espen Sandberg is firmly stamped on every scene.

The Painter and the Thief (2020)

Director: Benjamin Ree.
Starring: Karl Bertil-Nordland, Barbora Kysilkova. Norway. 1h 42m.

From a selfish and despicable act of theft came a truly beautiful relationship erupts in Ree’s near perfect documentary that focuses on Czech artist Barbora Kysilkovaand a Norwegian career criminal, Karl-‘Bertil’ Nordland. This tale of forgiveness, obsession, friendship and love is what we need to see in this crazy climate where everyone seems to be lacking those tangible experiences, does it restore faith in humanity? It’s certainly a highlight of the simplistic Scandinavian ethos of rehabilitation.

Trolljegeren / Trollhunter (2010)

Day 15 of 31

Director : Andre Ovredal
Starring : Otto Jespersen Hans Morten Hansen Tomas Alf Larsen Johanna Mørck Knut Nærum Robert Stoltenberg Glenn Erland Tosterud. Norway. 1h 49m.

From the moment I saw the bold blue and yellow poster I was immediately drawn to this strangely stylised movie. Looking like a special shiny rare card from a collection of Monster In My Pocket I knew that this was going to be a different kind of film, just literally from its approach to it’s advertising techniques… yeah I’m that finely tuned.

So after being astonished by a poster alone I was thrilled to find that this is a found footage horror.. With TROLLS! I was so psyched I was nearly ready to explode.

Død Sno – Dead Snow (2009)

Sometimes a film will completely change a genre by being totally new and a super breath of fresh air and everyone loves it. Then there is Død Sno,  now i’m not saying it’s the opposite but it utilises everything that we’ve already seen but just makes it fucking awesome!!!

I’m not sure why it’s so perfect?! Maybe it takes a while after all the clichés have been played out to the nth degree that finally we can parody them?! Luckily it doesn’t become ridiculous like Scary Movie (2000) but there some very comical scenes in between the buckets of gore, metal soundtrack and some cute snowy Zombie’s.

Basically a group of teens go out to the middle of nowhere, find some cursed nazi gold and get stalked by horde of zombies but it’s unashamed and holds no punches whatsoever. The blood literally flows and  there is no fucking around, these kids are clued up and know what zombies are and what you may need to cut off to stay alive.

This is a fresh take on the aged and now somewhat boring genre, that was frayed into a tattered mess with a huge barrage of shitty zombie films to satisfy the Hollywood overlords. But instead of following the herd this runs off into the middle of the field butt naked and swinging glo sticks, screaming come and have some fun!! Not to be taken seriously this film is dangerously fun.

8/10

Full review to come soon.