The new movie from Joachim Trier starring Renate Reinsve in an absolute star making turn tells the story of Julia in 12 chapters about her indecisiveness and her lack of empathy towards others and how she overcomes this.
Renate Reinsve carries this movie as she embodies the character so well. The character Julia, is fascinating. At first glance she is likeable, incredibly charismatic and she just makes you fall in love with her. But as the movie goes on we get to know her dark side. She really cant take a strong decision which she will stick to, but rather jumps from one place to another, thereby hurting people that love her. So basically the movie is about the responsibility of growing up and having to take decisions knowing full well that these decisions affect people around you too.
But the best thing about the movie, other than Renate's performance, is the atmosphere. It's as if you are in Oslo with those characters which we can attribute to the wonderful production and directing. Add to that there ae two surreal scenes which are probably the best cinematic moments of the year. One is where the world just stops and Julia spends a day with her new lover. The scene is so beautiful and so so sad too. The other scene is when Julia takes mushroom and has a trip where we get to know her character a lot (Similar to the dream scenes in Sopranos), her fears and insecurities. The imagery in that scene is truly magnificent and scary.
But I don't think the movie is flawless. I think the director was afraid of the movie being labelled generic, that he tried too hard to subvert from it. (For example, the ironic use of narration) I thought it was unnecessary as the scenes were so genuine and so well made that it didn't matter it was explored before. I think the director should have just trusted the actors and the plot more and just made it as it is.
In the end, I do think it is one of the best movies of the year, with probably the best performance of the year (along with KStew in Spencer) by Renate. Even if you aren't a fan of Romcoms, you will enjoy this as it is a wonderful character study of someone growing up and taking responsibility of her own life.
Renate Reinsve carries this movie as she embodies the character so well. The character Julia, is fascinating. At first glance she is likeable, incredibly charismatic and she just makes you fall in love with her. But as the movie goes on we get to know her dark side. She really cant take a strong decision which she will stick to, but rather jumps from one place to another, thereby hurting people that love her. So basically the movie is about the responsibility of growing up and having to take decisions knowing full well that these decisions affect people around you too.
But the best thing about the movie, other than Renate's performance, is the atmosphere. It's as if you are in Oslo with those characters which we can attribute to the wonderful production and directing. Add to that there ae two surreal scenes which are probably the best cinematic moments of the year. One is where the world just stops and Julia spends a day with her new lover. The scene is so beautiful and so so sad too. The other scene is when Julia takes mushroom and has a trip where we get to know her character a lot (Similar to the dream scenes in Sopranos), her fears and insecurities. The imagery in that scene is truly magnificent and scary.
But I don't think the movie is flawless. I think the director was afraid of the movie being labelled generic, that he tried too hard to subvert from it. (For example, the ironic use of narration) I thought it was unnecessary as the scenes were so genuine and so well made that it didn't matter it was explored before. I think the director should have just trusted the actors and the plot more and just made it as it is.
In the end, I do think it is one of the best movies of the year, with probably the best performance of the year (along with KStew in Spencer) by Renate. Even if you aren't a fan of Romcoms, you will enjoy this as it is a wonderful character study of someone growing up and taking responsibility of her own life.