Kidskycom
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Joanna Mccarty
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
bashfulbadger
I watched this because I read a rave review.Maybe it is realistic. In the sense that reality can be extremely dull.I found it tiresome and completely uninvolving. If you end up caring about any of the characters, you're a better man than I.In presenting someone who's suicidal, it certainly left me wanting to slit my own wrists.Basically, it's a day in the life of a spoilt, self-pitying, self-absorbed twit.I only wish he'd killed himself at the start of the film rather than the end as it would have saved me the tedious torture of watching it.I hope this review saves someone else from wasting time that could be much better spent.
clubmonstar
This is probably one of the lighter films to touch on the perils of addiction. The main character has clearly been through his ups and downs, but this film touches on his rehabilitation and him working out ho he might work his way back into his relationships with friends and family.It is incredibly visceral, with a soundtrack that matches the echoey pace of the film. I loved the extensive dialogue with the first friend he makes contact with, which cleverly compares the 'lost soul' of the reformed addict with the general malaise of the modern married person.This film has a light touch but I felt myself gripped the whole way through.
georgep53
Anders Danielsen Lei gives a very impressive performance as a once-promising writer whose life got derailed by substance abuse. Now at 34 he's in recovery and taking a leave from rehab to interview for a job but despite the fact that he's been clean from drugs for several months Anders is depressed. Stopping by to see old friends and acquaintances he volunteers his sense of hopelessness. He tells a friend that he can't accept being another nobody stuck in a nowhere job. Particularly painful are old friends who are reluctant to accept him back. Lei who is a doctor in reality skillfully captures the spirit of a highly intelligent man who can't tolerate failure. "Oslo, August 31st" is a sensitive, melancholic mood piece that flows quietly at a pace of real-time. It's beautifully directed by Joachim Trier and photographed by Jakob Ihre. Writers Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt have created a tragic character who perhaps like Icarus soars to acclaim only to crash and burn for reasons that may be a mystery even to him.
wandereramor
The opening and closing minutes of Oslo, August 31rst are peerless filmmaking, a simultaneously nostalgic and disturbing slideshow of images from the titular city, which appears as some kind of larger supernatural entity with a will of its own. The film that they bracket is pretty decent too. It's a quiet slice of cinema verite about Anders, a recovering drug addict.This isn't your standard AA-approved narrative of redemption, and that's what makes it good. Anders discovers that the world outside is frosty, ambivalent towards him, and most of all banal and meaningless. Of course, the difficulty is portraying banality without being banal yourself, and Trier doesn't entirely succeed here. But it does provide, on top of the more philosophical statement, a great representation of the difficulty of getting back into society after leaving it. Oslo, August 31rst is smart enough to see the social barriers that make the standard addiction narrative so deceitful.Other than the immediately striking opening, there's nothing overtly impressive about this film. It has its flaws, such as the ending, which seems contrived compared to everything that's come before. But it's a quietly solid picture that certainly deserves a little of your time.
