Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Charlotte Munck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlotte Munck. Show all posts
The elegant and ominous poster for Simon Staho's Daisy Diamond
QUICK REVIEW:
Anna is a single mother with her baby girl Daisy. She attends auditions, but Daisy disrupts with her screams, and there is no one there to help Anna out. Daisy Diamond is the 4th feature from Danish writer-director Simon Staho (The Miracle/Miraklet (2013)), co-written with Peter Asmussen (Bridgend (2015)). It is a relentlessly gloomy, unpleasant film, which plays with our perception of the narrative's reality more than once at Anna's auditions that mirror her personal misery. It features an impressive ensemble of fine Danish actors headed by Swede Noomi Rapace (The Drop (2014)), who gives herself over to her part and Staho to an impressive degree. The film is wild, daring and uncompromising. Everyone is a bastard, which also comes over a bit one-sided. - The colossal Weltschmerz that drives through Daisy Diamond is somewhat sophomoric, and its seemingly unending close-ups are at times vulgar. Also, the confessional scene with Dejan Cukic (Borgia (2011-14)) doesn't work. Still, Daisy Diamond is an intensely nightmarish, subjectively realistic drama.
Watch a preview for the film with English subtitles here
Cost: Reportedly 1 mil. $ Box office: Unknown = Unknown (but undoubtedly a mega-flop) [Daisy Diamond was released November 23 and runs 99 minutes. It was shot in Brøndby Strand, Denmark. Only 2,337 bought admission to the film in its native country. It has been shown at 6 international film festivals, and Rapace won the two top actress honors in Denmark of the year, the Bodil and Robert awards, for her portrayal of Anna. Trine Dyrholm (The Celebration/Festen (1998)) was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at both functions for her acting in the film. Controversy arose in Sweden due to possible abuse of the babies used as actors in the film, without any response given from Staho or Rapace. Daisy Diamond has been given a 6.1 rating by 829 IMDb-users.] What do you think of Daisy Diamond?
A simple yet powerful image provides the poster for Tobias Lindholm's A War
Krigen [the war] is the third feature from great Danish writer-director Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt/Jagten (2012), writer), by some referred to as the first real Danish war movie ever, because it contains scenes of Danish soldiers at war abroad, although this distinction is certainly up for debate. We follow a Danish commander of a military outfit in Afghanistan's Helmand-province, who is in charge of patrolling and attempting to aid the local populace. - A job that is difficult if not utterly impossible due to, especially, the Taliban's reign of terror over the Afghanis. Lindholm impressively triumphs once again here with A War, which is a very human portrayal of the Danish contribution in the Afghan War. A War is a strong and poignant film that works on several levels and carries its heart, - both for the soldiers as well as their families at home and for the civilian Afghanis affected by the war, - on its sleeve. A War makes it obvious that the mission in Afghanistan was usually one step forward and two steps back. This is disheartening but seems to have been a fact. It showcases different types of soldiers and locals and succeeds in letting them stand out as human beings as opposed to mere character types. A pattern is beginning to show in Lindholm's own films, (he has also scripted for several of the biggest Danish enterprises in film and TV in recent years.) His films, R: Hit First, Hit Hardest/R (2010), A Hijacking/Kapringen (2012) and now A War are all minimalistic portrayals of a Danish man played by Pilou Asbæk (Speed Walking/Kapgang (2014)), who might as well be simply called 'the Dane', because the particulars of his characters aren't all that important. What's important is what he goes through in the different films; a sentence in a Danish prison, a hijacking by Somalian pirates and here, the war in Afghanistan. All three films are tense, lean, realistic and well-crafted drama-thrillers with societal relevance. Lindholm's 'formula' clearly works. I'm all for each of these films. I wonder if perhaps he will venture something more personal to himself in a future film?
Pilou Asbæk, Tuva Novotny and Søren Malling in Tobias Lindholm's A War
A War also works, of course, because of its great performances: Asbæk is once again a commanding, sensitive lead, and Swedish Tuva Novotny (Eat Pray Love (2010)) also deserves praise for her vital, strong performance as his wife. Lindholm regulars Søren Malling (A Hijacking), Dar Salim (Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)) and Dulfi Al-Jabouri (Northwest/Nordvest (2013)) give fine supporting performances, and Charlotte Munck (Shake Your Heart/En Kort En Lang (2001)) is sober and believable SPOILER as prosecutor, as the film turns into a courtroom drama in its second half. This development is quite well-observed and speaks to the consequences and long aftermath of any war. A War is accompanied by sparse, atmospheric music. Several of the soldiers in the film are played by actual Danish Afghanistan veterans, which only heightens the film's realism and integrity. They speak in military code, and much of what they say is unintelligible to the commoner. I also had trouble hearing the dialog in general, and as is often the case I wished that all movies were simply subtitled, so that it was possible to read what can't be heard, even when the language spoken is your own. A War is an honest and strong film, certainly among the best Danish films of the year. I give it a warm recommendation. Related posts: Tobias Lindholm: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
Cost: Unknown Box office: Unknown = Uncertainty [A War was produced by Nordisk Film and DR, with an 8 million DKR grant from the Danish Film Institute, filmed in Denmark, Turkey, Spain and Jordan and premiered at Venice International Film Festival. Its current admissions tally in Denmark stands at just 27k, far from success status.] What do you think of A War?
