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+ Best Comeback of the Year: Will Ferrell + Best Music Movie of the Year
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| Two united melodious believers adjoin on this poster for Dave Dobkin's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga |
Lars of Iceland is a middle-aged man living in his publicly shameful father's house. As this arrangement is coming to an end, Lars' dream of going to the Eurovision Song Contest comes to life, performing with his singing partner Sigrit.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is written by Andrew Steele (The Cicada Hunk (2015)) and co-writer/co-producer/co-star Will Ferrell (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)) and directed by Dave Dobkin (52nd St. Serenade (1992)).
Based on the fascinating broadcast phenomenon that is the Eurovision, the world's biggest song contest, which attracts around a couple of hundred million viewers every year, - but is not widely known outside of Europe, - the film has a ball with the outlandish costumes, uncool lyrics and gimmicks that always surround the contestants. The Iceland setting invites more fun, as the Viking-rooted, deeply peaceful and naive residents suddenly have the world's attention, - or at least so they are portrayed here.
Rachel McAdams (The Family Stone (2005)) is funny and does a good impression of the good-natured, comfortable and sweetly naive Scandinavian woman. Will Ferrell (Stranger than Fiction (2006)), who has slumped in countless comedies way under his earlier level in recent years, returns to form here with a very funny performance in a film that is obviously deliberately 'clean' enough for family consumption. (The 'pure' Icelandic protagonists make the absence of foul language and awkward sex scenes auspicious.) Pierce Brosnan (The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson (1996)) is great as Ferrell's hugely disapproving father, an exaggerated type of stock character; their scenes together are among the film's funniest.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, - a title that also matches the awkwardness of the often hilarious Eurovision acts, - also has Dan Stevens (The Guest (2014)) a real delight as the show's popular Russian act, an over-compensating super-macho (but closeted gay) singer of wealth, who tries to lure Sigrit from Lars. Both Stevens and McAdams/Ferrell do quite good accents, and the implicit critique of Russia's anti-gay policies is appreciated much, not least in the (very gay) Eurovision context. The film also has a visiting American quartet of random young tourists, who are effectively set in their place in a few scenes that are also funny because they showcase the rampant anti-Americanism in Europe under President Trump. No doubt much of the inspiration and fun in this film stems from Ferrell's being married to a Swedish woman in real life.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga takes no new ground, and it isn't a nonstop barrage of laughs, but it's a damn good time with a beloved star returning to something with a sweeter edge to it. And then it has songs like Double Trouble, Lion of Love and, yeah, the really memorable: Jaja Ding Dong!
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2020 in films - according to Film Excess
Cost: Unknown
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[Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga premiered 26 June (Netflix) and runs 123 minutes. Ferrell was introduced to the Eurovision by his Swedish wife in 1999. He attended the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal to research for the script. Shooting took place in Iceland, the UK, including London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in Tel Aviv, Israel. 3.6 mil. $ were reportedly spent in Iceland, of which 1 mil. $ was the Icelandic government's contribution in the form of a production incentive. The release, which was to coincide with the 2020 Eurovision in May, was pushed out due to the Corona crisis cancelling the song contest. The film became the top-ranked streaming item in the North-American Netflix service as well as in many other markets. The budget and viewership data are regrettably kept secret by Netflix. Dobkin returned with Resident Alien (2020, TV-series) and is slated to return theatrically with Wedding Crashers 2 (announced). Ferrell has 6 upcoming projects, among them a TV-series, currently 5 of them in pre-production and the last one just announced; McAdams returns in Sherlock Holmes 3 (2021). Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is fresh at 63 % with a 5.78/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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