MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

NordicFilm In the pop song "Lola", the band The Kinks sing about a romantic encounter between a young man and a possible transvestite. The innocent enough sounding song, but is in many ways the perfect theme song for 101 Reykavik by Baltasar Kormakur. This movie follows Hlynur, a 29- year-old man who still lives with his mom whose days blend by in a succession of drug filled weekends and days spent at the computer, but are quickly turned upside down with the arrival of his mom's new girlfriend--Lola. Once the love triangle develops between Lola, his mom, and Hylnur, the boy-man finds his life changing drastically. Reykavik, both the title of the movie, the setting for the story, and the hometown for the director, is a small Icelandic town under the oppression of winter. Hylnur, played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason, though on the edge of turning 30 is perpetually living as if he was 17, and feels as if he is oppressed as much by the town as his own lack of ambition. His mother's house, a small cupboard of an apartment where a bath doubles as a couch, is the entirety of his world. His universe only expands to the local pub during the weekends, where he drinks with the same group of people. There is no better description of his character then to say he is sleeping through his life.The movie is almost repetitious to a fault, but perhaps that is the point; by midway through the movie, the viewer feels like they themselves are bored to tears by the cyclical nature of the scenes. Hylnur spends his days at the house and pub; desperate women search for love only to be insulted by Hylnur and his friends, and Reykavik remains buried in the snow and dark. However, the movie is very self-aware of this: best categorized in the scene where at a holiday dinner, where the family actually sits and watches a video of the previous year's dinner party with the same people parroting identical phrases. While low budget, Guðnason makes excellent use of lighting and setting to reflect and parallel the story and tone of the movie. At the start, Reykavik is cold, dark, and snowy; the weather reflects the mood and feelings of the characters. As the movie moves along, the snow melts, the days grow longer, there is more lighting in the shots, new life is breathed into the characters. Mirroring the thaw of routine, and the creation of new life as prominent characters become pregnant. Upon viewing of this movie, it can become easy to be disgusted and distracted by the gratuitous scenes of sex and drugs--often included for comedic value-- and miss the central points the film tries to convey. While these scenes do detract from the overall message, 101 Reykavik hits uncomfortable nerves. Can a person have a second rebirth? While no one who watches this film could ever possess the lack of ambition of Hylnur, there is a common feeling that one falls into ruts that cannot be broken. We feel like we are just passive recipients of life, just participants in events beyond our control. In this sense the movie is redeeming--much like Hylnur experiences--what takes us out of ruts and makes us feel like we are once again "living life' is what pushes us out of our comfort zone and into uncharted territory. In many ways, the fundamental judges of a movie such as 101 Reykavik is whether or not the viewer enjoys viewing it or it stimulates thought. On these grounds, the movie succeeds with flying colors. The comedic aspects most often do fall short, but the movie stands on other grounds. It makes one examine their own life, whether or not they themselves are sleeping through life, or an active participant; do they truly know what they want out of life or is it simply a less extreme version of Hylnur's life plans to perpetually live off welfare?

C Jo ***WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***101 Reykjavik takes place in the heart of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik. Hlynur, a 30 year old "mama's boy", is happily jobless, living at home, filling his days with porn and his evenings at the pub. After years of idleness, Hlynur suddenly faces a promising relationship, threats from the unemployment agency, his absent, alcoholic father, his mom coming out of the closet and learns he is the father of his mother's girlfriend's child (opps). Life is coming at Hlynur hard and he is turning and running away as fast as he can. Director Baltasoar Kormakir uses the blustery Icelandic winters to portray Hlynur's life coming at him hard and fast. Often, we see Hlynur walking through the streets of Reykjavik with the snow and ice blasting him in the face, coating his glasses and beard. His only escapes are home with his mother and the pub. Even during Hlynur's darkest moment we see the ice and the snow consuming him; his suicide attempt was to let the snow and ice bury him. However, Hlynur comes to realize that even when life is coming at with all its fury, the best you can do is stand up, brush yourself off and push forward. One of the storms Hlynur needs to get through is coming to terms with his mother's announcement that she and Lola are lovers. For most people, especially American viewers, hearing your mother come out of the closet as a lesbian can be quite a shock. For Hlynur, however, it is really no big deal. He tells her that its "great" and assures her he has no problem with her sexual orientation. What I think this represents is the general notion that people who identify as GLBT are typically accepted. Indeed, Nordic and Scandinavian countries are well known for their progressive public policies regarding those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual. In Iceland, at the time of 101 Reykjavik's release (2000), same sex sexual activity had long been decriminalized, there was equal age of consent and anti-discrimination laws protecting housing, employment and civil rights (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iceland). While it is heartwarming to see Hlynur accept his mother and her lover, we still get a glimpse of anti-gay attitudes. Hlynur's drinking buddies and friends at the pub tease him and make fun of his mother for being lesbian. This is a good reminder that although governments can be accepting and accommodating for GLBT people, the public's attitude may not be as friendly. While Hlynur accepts his mother for who she is and clearly loves her, his feelings towards the rest of his family are less than amiable. To Hlynur, his extended family is another extension of the rut his life is stuck in. Dreading the Christmas Day dinner, Hlynur explains to his mother he cannot stand going to his sister's house because it is out in the middle of nowhere. What Hlynur labels as "nowhere" is really not far from the city and is still considered a suburb; hardly the middle of nowhere. However, without the nightlife and bar scene of Reykjavik, the suburb seems lifeless. The Christmas dinner is a painful experience for not only Hlynur, but everyone else as well. The dinner table is crowded and cramped and no one has anything to say. After a few awkward and failed attempts at conversation ("so how is everyone?"), the family falls back to the safety of the weather. After dinner, we continue to see the conversation struggling as the men talk about the new sofa. Trying to save the evening, Hlynur's sister puts on the home video of Christmas dinner from the previous year. There they sit and watch and the very same people talk about the weather and new items. It seems like every aspect of Hlynur's life is in repeat. In this scene, we see a rather disturbing and humorous daydream of Hlynur shooting his extended family; symbolizing that he is coming to a breaking point and he needs to take some control of his life. Hlynur's experiences at Christmas dinner are a good reminder that although family is important, they can be one of the factors that keep people stuck in ruts. Once Hlynur is able to come to terms with all the different aspects of his life and find a way for them to live in harmony with each other, he starts to realize there is more to life than living off unemployment and porn. He takes great care of his brother/son, finally gets a job, and is able to live with his mother and Lola. Most people do not live in cold, isolated areas like Reykjavik but from time to time, people do find themselves stuck in life's ruts like Hlynur. The small, isolated island of Iceland was a good backdrop to the feelings and experiences Hlynur was facing. The strong elements were beating Hlynur in the face and yet he was able to move on. Reykjavik 101 is a hopeful film that shows audiences that even when life seems dead and desperate, we can always brush ourselves off and move forward. In all, 101 Reykjavik is a heartwarming and refreshing film about pulling yourself up and bringing your life back together. I would definitely recommend it for mature audiences who can handle sexually explicit scenes and themes.

Buck Bratager 101 Reykjavik was undoubtedly the best film I've seen come out of Iceland. The premise of the movie is funny by itself: a lazy, 30-year-old, unemployed guy named Hlynur (as played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason) lives with his mom (as played by Hanna María Karlsdóttir) in Reykjavik, Iceland, and finds himself going from out of luck, no prospects, and not a care in the world, to a potential father for the children of both his semi-girlfriend, Hófí (as played by Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir) and his mom's new Spanish girlfriend, Lola (as played by Victoria Abril), with whom he had an affair. Hlynur's reactions when he learned of the pregnancies were priceless. So, all things considered, this movie was pretty good. Not only was it a unique plot that had a twist or two thrown in, but the character development, the tone of the film, and even the soundtrack was good. Quite a few of the characters really grew up in the film, such as Hlynur, with his more responsible lifestyle at the end, his mother, and her finally coming out of the closet (despite the fact that apparently everybody knew, including Hlynur), and Lola, who ended up being a pretty solid mom, herself. The movie's tone was just great in my opinion. It was lighthearted, yet still serious. Hlynur had some serous problems, but he could always make light of them, which is an admirable trait. It shows an inner strength, to be able to make fun of oneself. The song, Lola, by Ray Davies is used in a variety of ways, including a few instrumental versions, which cracked me up, because (a) it's got the pun value, what with one of the main characters being named Lola, and (b) I was one of the only people in my group who got it, since it was the instrumental version that played first. Not only that, but there were a few completely unnecessary scenes that were thrown in that were just great. For example, there was this scene where Hlynur is at a family reunion, and he (quite graphically) imagines himself taking the shotgun off of the wall, and shooting his entire family. Now, while the plot would have been unaffected by the absence of this scene, it adds relatability, to the film, since everyone imagines doing that at some point or another. Plus, the scene itself is downright hysterical. Also, the film is pretty educational, on the whole. You get a pretty good handle on how boring Iceland is for its residents. 61% of the population lives in Reykjavik, and that's around 200,000 people, which is around the population of Des Moines, Iowa, which is the home to the world's largest truck stop. Not exactly a high-excitement zone. Which is what the character, Hlynur tells you. They live for the weekend, and all there is to do then is to drink and to be promiscuous. This is undoubtedly why he gets into the trouble he gets into. The ending of the movie was, in my opinion, truly phenomenal. I won't spoil it for you, the reader, though.But the movie isn't without faults. There are a few moments in the movie where you question the sanity of the characters. There's one scene where Hófí and Hlynur talk over an intercom at Hófí's apartment complex, and she casually tells him about how (spoiler alert) not only did she get an abortion, but it wasn't even his baby to begin with, after he had spent the last few months agonizing over it. The viewer and Hlynur both have the same reaction: "WTF?" I thought to myself, "Well, what was the point of that? What did she really stand to gain by messing with his head like that? That was below the belt (pun intended)." Despite the few shortcomings it had in the character department though, the good aspects of the film really shine through, while the inadequacies almost fall away, and I was left with a good feeling coming away from the film. It was one of those rare films where I left saying to myself, "I'm glad I watched that." It was, all in all, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The movie had a good moral, too. "Everything will turn out fine." Hlynur stressed over his seemingly insurmountable problems, but, in the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as he thought. This is, I feel, life in a nutshell. It seems worse than it is, and when you finally realize that, all of your cares tend to melt away.

The_Void Iceland isn't exactly known for it's thriving cinema industry and while I hardly consider myself an expert on the films of obscure European countries; I'm not sure that Iceland have had even one major success in film-making. They do, however, have this film; 101 Reykjavik, and it's actually quite good. The first thing you will notice about the film is it's downtrodden, gritty European style; which has already been implemented in a number of smaller European country's films, most notably those of Sweden's Lukas Moodysson, to great effect. As the film predominantly aims for realism, the gritty style bodes well as the story isn't exactly a happy one. It's more weird than anything else, and it follows an under-achieving waste of space called Hlynur. Hlynur is thirty years of age and still lives with his mother, and her friend Lola, who moved in with the two. After a drunken new years eve fling; Lola finds herself pregnant with Hlynur's child, and things get worse still for our protagonist when it turns out that Lola is something more to his mother than just a 'friend'...The character 'Lola' seems to have been christened that way so that the filmmakers could implement a techo-ish rendition of the hit Kinks song 'Lola' into the plot…ah, whatever. The film delights in it's obscure plot line, and most of the humour derives from that. The movie is actually very funny, and many sequences and dialogue exchanges in the film had me in stitches. The human relationship angle of the plot is the main focus of the movie, and the way that the film analyses what happens to it's characters as they are forced into this unusual situation is actually very good. The realistic acting gives the film more credibility for it's plot, and the gritty style gives it almost documentary feel, which puts the audience in the position of the voyeur; which in turn makes the film feel more like a cross section into Icelandic life. Of course, I'm sure that not every house in Iceland is like the one put forward in this movie... Anyway, the film constantly intrigues with it's plot and characters, and although the ending feels somewhat out of place; the rest of the film is good and although this isn't a masterpiece or a must see; it's not bad, and definitely worth watching.