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 Sverrir Gudnason. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sverrir Gudnason. Show all posts
Edda Magnason looks dazzling on this glamour-indicating poster for Per Fly's Waltz for Monica
Monica is a telephone operator in a small Swedish community, where her small-minded father keeps her hopes and aspirations down, aspirations of becoming a jazz singer. But she will show him.
Waltz for Monica is written by Peter Birro (Knockout (2000)) and directed by great Danish filmmaker Per Fly (Bænken (2000)), based on the life of Monica Zetterlund.
It is well-acted, well behaved and skillfully shaped - but a deadly bore. Predictable and etched in such well-known thematic terrain (alcoholism, career vs. children etc.) that one almost breaks one's toes cringing from displeasure. Recognition arrives to the very stubborn, Waltz for Monica shows. Alas. What junk.
[Waltz for Monica was released 13 September (Sweden) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place in Sweden, including in Stockholm, and in New York. The film was the 4th highest-grossing in Swedish cinemas in 2013 with a gross of 7.1 mil. $ (78.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Denmark with 1.5 mil. $ (16.7 %) and Norway with 48k $ (0.5 %). In North America it was screened at the Newport Beach International Film Festival. It won 4/11 Guldbagge awards, Sweden's Oscar. Fly returned with Follow the Money/Bedrag (2016, TV-series) and theatrically with Backstabbing for Beginners (2018). Edda Magnason, a previously unknown actress, has only returned in Box 21 (2020, miniseries); Sverrir Gudnason (Falling (2020)) in Gentlemen (2014); and Kjell Bergqvist (Deathly Compulsion (1999)) in Den Fjärde Mannen (2013-14) and theatrically in Prästen i Paradiset (2015). 3,900+ IMDb users have given Waltz for Monica a 6.9/10 average rating.]
A little boy by his father, back from hunting, holding a dead duck in his hands, make up this evocative poster for Viggo Mortensen's Falling
A middle-aged gay man is taking his old father with him from his primitive farm home back to his own in California, because the old man is suffering from dementia and cancer. But the father's enmity strikes up conflict and old memories.
Falling is written and directed by Viggo Mortensen (Ruby Cairo (1992, actor)), one of the best actors of our time, who debuts with it and also co-stars and has composed the film's unnoticeable score. He dedicated the film to his brothers, and it is somewhat based on dynamics and situations from their own family, and his experiences with both of his parents suffering from dementia.
Mortensen is a graceful, incredibly forgiving and patient good son to his difficult father in the film, played with much verve by Lance Henriksen (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz (2012)), a man whose slipping into dementia also finds him forgetting basic social limits to speech and behavior, but especially his speech which is continuously vulgar, unrestrained and offensive. The film confronts us with the fact that certain prejudices may go out of control and out of the mouth of someone with this sad disease, and Falling makes it both grueling and sometimes funny to witness these intense lashing-outs.
Sverrir Gudnason (Borg vs. McEnroe (2017)) is forceful as the younger version of Henriksen, a compelling, masculine man who is nevertheless twice unsuccessful in his major relationships with women. The film indicates this is due to his tyrannical side and unwillingness to compromise and show care, but it doesn't spell out the marriages and their falls for us. Laura Linney (The Nanny Diaries (2007)) shows up in a long, good scene as Mortensen's sister. Terry Chen (Continuum (2012-15)) is good as Mortensen's husband, and Gabby Velis is very sweet as their adopted daughter Monica.
Though a veteran actor and gifted multi-hyphenate, Mortensen is on new ground here as a director, and he charges a layered and difficult drama with personal stakes and admirable guts. Falling is not a plot-driven film; it goes sideways a little here, a little there, but the performances and material, - and the constant feeling of a thoughtful artist behind it all, - makes it compelling still. It is a far cry from the polished feel that made Mortensen's recent turn in super-success Green Book (2018) a global crowd-pleaser. But it grapples with real life and issues with tenacity and boldness, and it feels incredibly authentic. Don't miss it, if it's in a cinema near you.
[Falling premiered 31 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 112 minutes. Mortensen took up co-starring in the film to secure financing. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Ontario, Canada, including Toronto, from February - April 2019. The film has only released gross numbers from Slovenia and Russia so far, which come to tiny 17k $. The film is set to release in 7 more markets in coming months, including the UK and Germany. It does not have a North-American release set yet, and obviously its release is marred considerably by the China Virus pandemic. Mortensen does not have another project announced as a filmmaker, but he is starring in two projects that are in pre-production. Henriksen returned in 3 TV-series prior to his theatrical return in The Unhealer (2020). Falling is fresh at 65 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
