Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Anders Ølholm

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1/01/2021

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

The Top 6 of the Year

1. Another Round/Druk - Thomas Vinterberg + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 2.43 times + Best Dramedy of the Year

2. Shorta - Frederik Louis Hviid, Anders Ølholm + Best Action Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Fight Scene of the Year: The laundry room fight + Best Poster of the Year

3. The Good Traitor/Vores Mand i Amerika - Christina Rosendahl + Best Biopic of the Year + Best Historical Drama of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.33 times

4. Riders of Justice/Retfærdighedens Ryttere - Anders Thomas Jensen + Best Action Comedy of the Year + Best Revenge Movie of the Year

5. Falling - Viggo Mortensen + Best Drama of the Year

6. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, VOD - Dave Dobkin + Best Comeback of the Year: Will Ferrell + Best Music Movie of the Year

Other good, recommendable movie of the year:

Klovn the Final - Mikkel Nørgaard

The Bottom 1 of the Year

1. Tenet - Christopher Nolan + Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Other failed, poor and/or mediocre movies of the year (in alphabetical order):

Greenland - Ric Roman Waugh

The Mole: Undercover in North Korea/Muldvarpen - Undercover i Nordkorea, documentary miniseries - Mads Brügger

[10 titles in total]

Notes:

The smallest batch of titles ever to make up an annual best and worst edition comes out of the all-around awful year of 2020, in which the China virus pandemic shut down cinemas across the globe and kept most global releases behind bars, locked away awaiting better times. The depressing facts are also evident from the gross numbers, which have never been lower, with not a single one of the titles here registering any profit yet. The losses and calamities of 2020 furthermore threatens to end cinema culture for good, if cinemas are not helped through the lock-down period, before vaccinations may allow normalization. Another toxic pressure point is the collapse of the theatrical window, as Disney and Warner Bros. have bowed out to VOD for their big 2020 releases, and in the case of Warner Bros. have announced that all of their 2021 slate will go to streaming simultaneously with cinemas.

As uncertain and worrying as the situation and prospects for the future of the theatrical movie landscape appear, some terrific films were released during the year. The year's best is Thomas Vinterberg's full-throttle middle age crisis alcohol dramedy Another Round. Silver goes to debuting Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm's testosterone cop chase actioner Shorta, and Christina Rosendahl's intimate, thrilling biopic war drama The Good Traitor takes bronze. Rounding off the Top 6 list are Anders Thomas Jensen's hilarious revenge action-comedy Riders of Justice, Viggo Mortensen's personal dementia drama Falling, and Dave Dobkin's fun music family-comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

The Bottom list only has a single title so far, master filmmaker Christopher Nolan's hugely hyped mystery action tentpole Tenet.

Many more - mostly smaller budgeted - titles of 2020 are naturally going to get reviewed and will make it to future editions of the lists, but the year will go down in history books as something of a black hole in terms of theatrical revenue, which it will take substantial effort to overcome in years to come. That means that you as a movie lover have an individual responsibility to head to the theater for as many titles as you can possibly overcome, as soon as it is possible in your area! Help save cinemas: Please use them as much as possible in 2021!

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing spends and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Tenet - 61.04 mil. $ range

2. Greenland - 14.88 mil. $ range

3. The Good Traitor - 4.88 mil. $ range

4. Riders of Justice - 4.12 mil. $ range

5. Shorta - 1.89 mil. $ range

6. Klovn the Final - 1.78 mil. $ range

7. Another Round - 0.13 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 88.72 mil. $

2020 titles currently on the watch-list:

Wonder Woman 1984, Bad Boys for Life, Wendy, Onward, Greyhound, Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula, Dream Horse, Unhinged, Crazy, Not Insane, Sputnik, The Duke, Hopper/Welles, The Nest, Nomadland, Love and Monsters, Erna i Krig, The Donut King, Madklubben, Minari

Previous annual lists:

2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the lists?
What 2020 titles would make it to your top and bottom lists?
What worthwhile 2020 movies and TV-series are missing on the watch-list?

10/27/2020

Shorta (2020) - Debuting duo Hviid/Ølholm's intense Danish ghetto blast

♥♥♥♥♥

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Action Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Fight Scene of the Year: The laundry room fight + Best Poster of the Year

A heavily equipped cop stands on a vandalized police car during a stylized sundown on this poster for Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm's Shorta

A rookie cop gets partnered up for patrol with a seasoned 'conflict specialist' colleague and against orders the two venture into the tense ghetto neighborhood, where a recent violent arrest has brought tempers up to the boiling point.

Shorta is written and directed by debuting great Danish filmmakers Frederik Louis Hviid (Follow the Money/Bedrag (2019)) and Anders Ølholm (Ækte Vare (2014, writer)).

The story opens with a moment from the arrest that results in the hospitalization of the young man from the ghetto, a scene that seems inspired by the tragic George Floyd arrest and death in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020, - but the scene was written and shot long before that time. What follows is a story of strife, conflict, crime and ghetto problems, racism vs. hatred of authorities and the police especially, a reflection of reality unfortunately, which takes a Danish context and problem and amplifies it.

Hviid and Ølholm do so with clear role-models in Training Day (2001) and John Carpenter movies such as Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and Escape from New York (1981), and the result is a heady brew of testosterone-laced low-budget action full of adrenaline, great dialog and dedicated performances:

Simon Sears (The Exception/Undtagelsen (2019)) is good as the conflicted younger policeman who takes a mostly passive approach to the wrongs of his colleagues but gets pushed to reckon with himself here. Jacob Lohmann (The Rain (2018-19)) goes through a lot in Shorta, which makes good use of his bull-ish physique. Debuting Tarek Zayat impresses as young Amos, a boy who gets arrested for a misdemeanor and becomes a kind of hostage/helper to the two cops as they get lost in enemy territory.

Despite the film's violent action-aspirations, the filmmakers keep it real and related to issues that will be relatable to those living in or near ghetto areas: The unprovoked and demeaning public personal search of a young man; recruitment of children and teenagers to gangs, the struggle against that; the hardening and tribe mentality in both the gang and police cultures; the downwards spiral of a neighborhood; the mother's anxiousness for her children and so on, - Shorta successfully incorporates it all with winning performances all around.

The film ends a bit abruptly, and I would have liked an epilogue fade-out scene from say a week or a month after the events in the film. But this doesn't rock the fact that Shorta is a thrilling and rare feat that shouldn't be missed in the cinema.

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 1 mil. $

= Uncertain

[Shorta premiered 5 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 108 minutes. Hviid and Ølholm began working on the project 6 years before its release. Shooting took place in Denmark. The Svalegården neighborhood portrayed in the film is fictional. The film has sold 87,775 tickets in Denmark in its first nearly 3 weeks, coming to a roughly 1 mil. $ gross. The release is negatively affected by the China Virus pandemic, which is closing down thousands of cinemas in Europe. The film is set to open in film festivals in Lithuania and Sweden in November. Hviid and Ølholm do not have their next project announced yet. Lohmann returns in Retfærdighedens Ryttere (2020); Sears in Shadow and Bone (TV-series, post-production); Zayat does not have another gig yet, (and is studying law in Copenhagen.) 329 IMDb users have given Shorta a 7.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Shorta?

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)

1/01/2021

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

10/27/2020

Shorta (2020) - Debuting duo Hviid/Ølholm's intense Danish ghetto blast

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)

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