Joachim Trier

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: funny, poignant, original and profoundly authentic

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Photo caption: Renate Reinsve in THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. Courtesy of NEON.

One of the very Best Movies of 2022 is finally available to watch at home. In writer-director Joachim Trier’s masterpiece The Worst Person in the World, Julie (Renate Reinsve) is roaring through her life like a locomotive in search of tracks. She’s a medical student until she isn’t, having decided that her passion is psychology instead. Then, she’s convinced her avocation is photography. Each career plunge is accompanied by a new hairstyle and a new boyfriend. She’s charming and talented – and completely restless and unreliable. Surely she can’t keep up this pace of self-reinvention forever, can she?

Julie falls in love with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) a graphic novelist in his forties, and settles into a dead end retail job in a bookstore and a role as the young companion of a literary figure. Rocking a black cocktail dress for an event celebrating Aksel, she sneaks out and crashes another party. There, she meets the barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), and they flirt, after deciding not to cheat on their partners.

Is Julie going to dump Aksel and break up Eivind’s relationship? Real life is more complicated than that, and so is The Worst Person in the World, which maintains a profound authenticity through its moments of silliness, sexiness and poignancy.

I’ve been a huge fan of Trier, since his first feature Reprise, which I named the 4th best movie of 2005. I didn’t care for his well-crafted follow-up Oslo, August 31. But I’ve been strongly recommending his under-appreciated Louder Than Bombs. Reprise is available to stream on Amazon, and you can find the other two on many streaming platforms.

Famed director Howard Hawks said that a great movie has “three great scenes and no bad scenes.” There are no bad scenes in The Worst Person in the World, and Trier hits Hawk’s mark with the moments when:

  • Julie, on her 30th birthday, reflects on what her mother, grandmother and other female ancestors were doing when they were 30.
  • Julie and Eivind meet and share nonsexual intimacies – which is smolderingly sexy.
  • Time stands still for the rest of Oslo when Julie has the impulse to find Eivind again.

The title of the film does not refer to Julie; it’s a self-deprecating joke by another character, who is a good person himself.

Renate Reinsve is relentlessly appealing as Julie; Reinsve won the best actress award at Cannes. Lie (who starred in Reprise and Oslo, August 31) and Nordrum are also superb.

Technically, The Worst Person in the World is a romantic comedy, but it’s so smart, so authentic and so original, I can’t bring myself to describe it as such. The Worst Person in the World is Oscar-nominated both for Trier’s screenplay and for best international feature film. After an extremely limited year-end Oscar qualifying run and a couple of weeks in theaters in February, The Worst Person in the World can now be streamed from Amazon, Apple, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: funny, poignant, original and profoundly authentic

by
Photo caption: Renate Reinsve in THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. Courtesy of NEON.

In writer-director Joachim Trier’s masterpiece The Worst Person in the World, Julie (Renate Reinsve) is roaring through her life like a locomotive in search of tracks. She’s a medical student until she isn’t, having decided that her passion is psychology instead. Then, she’s convinced her avocation is photography. Each career plunge is accompanied by a new hairstyle and a new boyfriend. She’s charming and talented – and completely restless and unreliable. Surely she can’t keep up this pace of self-invention forever, can she?

Julie falls in love with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) a graphic novelist in his forties, and settles into a dead end retail job in a bookstore and a role as the young companion of a literary figure. Rocking a black cocktail dress for an event celebrating Aksel, she sneaks out and crashes another party. There, she meets the barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), and they flirt, after deciding not to cheat on their partners.

Is Julie going to dump Aksel and break up Eivind’s relationship? Real life is more complicated than that, and so is The Worst Person in the World, which maintains a profound authenticity through its moments of silliness, sexiness and poignancy.

I’ve been a huge fan of Trier, since his first feature Reprise, which I named the 4th best movie of 2005. I didn’t care for his well-crafted follow-up Oslo, August 31. But I’ve been strongly recommending his under appreciated Louder Than Bombs. Reprise is available to stream on Amazon, and you can find the other two on many streaming platforms.

Famed director Howard Hawks said that a great movie has “three great scenes and no bad scenes.” There are no bad scenes in The Worst Person in the World, and Trier hits Hawk’s mark with the moments when:

  • Julie, on her 30th birthday, reflects on what her mother, grandmother and other female ancestors were doing when they were 30.
  • Julie and Eivind meet and share nonsexual intimacies – which is smolderingly sexy.
  • Time stands still for the rest of Oslo when Julie has the impulse to find Eivind again.

The title of the film does not refer to Julie; it’s a self-deprecating joke by another character, who is a good person himself.

Renate Reinsve is relentlessly appealing as Julie; Reinsve won the best actress award at Cannes. Lie (who starred in Reprise and Oslo, August 31) and Nordrum are also superb.

Technically, The Worst Person in the World is a romantic comedy, but it’s so smart, so authentic and so original, I can’t bring myself to describe it as such. This is one of the best movies of 2022. The Worst Person in the World is Oscar-nominated both for Trier’s screenplay and for best international feature film.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS – an intricately constructed family drama

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Devin Druid in LOUDER THAN BOMBS
Devin Druid in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

Here’s an overlooked and intricately constructed family drama – Louder Than Bombs from 2015.  All of Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier’s work (with his writing partner Eskil Vogt) focuses on the psychological, and Louder Than Bombs is plenty psychological.

Gabriel Byrne plays the father of two sons – a man whose vital wife (Isabelle Huppert) has died suddenly in middle age.  His young adult son (Jesse Eisenberg) is superficially achieving, but it turns out, has some real issues.  But the younger teen son (Devin Druid) is clearly troubled; the dad is trying, but he just can’t get ANY traction with younger son.

The unstable younger son is about to find out that his mother committed suicide, and Louder Than Bombs is a ticking clock, as we wait to see what happens when younger son finds out.   The audience has an ever-present fear that tragedy is going to erupt.

Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

In flashback, Huppert’s character is strong and Sphinx-like, ever dominating the three men she left behind.  The rest of the cast is also excellent: Byrne, Eisenberg, Amy Ryan, Rachel Brosnahan, and David Strathairn.  Young Devin Druid is a revelation as the younger son.

Devin Druid and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS
Devin Druid and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

In Louder Than Bombs  Trier employs flashbacks, dream sequences, and even the same scene replayed from a different point of view a la Rashomon.

Joachim Trier previously made Reprise, a wonderful film about sanity and the creative process in which two young novelists send in their manuscripts at the beginning of the film, just before one suffers a psychotic breakdown. Reprise was #4 on my list of Best Movies of 2008. Trier’s next film was the well-crafted and utterly authentic Oslo August 31, which I didn’t like as much as most critics.  .

The critical response to Louder Than Bombs was mixed – from middling to rhapsodic.  Right after seeing it, I wasn’t sure that I’d recommend it, but the film stayed with me for several days.  Eventually, I realized that this is an excellent film to see and then to mull over.

Louder Than Bombs is available to stream from Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu and YouTube.

Stream of the Week: LOUDER THAN BOMBS – an intricately constructed family drama

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Devin Druid in LOUDER THAN BOMBS
Devin Druid in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier’s new film Thelma is rolling out, so it’s a good time to check in with his recent – and overlooked – American movie Louder Than Bombs.  All of Trier’s work (with his writing partner Eskil Vogt) focuses on the psychological, and Louder Than Bombs is an intricately constructed family drama.

Gabriel Byrne plays the father of two sons – a man whose vital wife (Isabelle Huppert) has died suddenly in middle age.  His young adult son (Jesse Eisenberg) is superficially achieving, but it turns out, has some real issues.  But the younger teen son (Devin Druid) is clearly troubled; the dad is trying, but he just can’t get ANY traction with younger son.

The unstable younger son is about to find out that his mother committed suicide, and Louder Than Bombs is a ticking clock, as we wait to see what happens when younger son finds out.   The audience has an ever-present fear that tragedy is going to erupt.

Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

In flashback, Huppert’s character is strong and Sphinx-like, ever dominating the three men she left behind.  The rest of the cast is also excellent: Byrne, Eisenberg, Amy Ryan, Rachel Brosnahan, and David Strathairn.  Young Devin Druid is a revelation as the younger son.

Devin Druid and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS
Devin Druid and Gabriel Byrne in LOUDER THAN BOMBS

In Louder Than Bombs  Trier employs flashbacks, dream sequences, and even the same scene replayed from a different point of view a la Rashomon.

Joachim Trier previously made Reprise, a wonderful film about sanity and the creative process in which two young novelists send in their manuscripts at the beginning of the film, just before one suffers a psychotic breakdown. Reprise was #4 on my list of Best Movies of 2008. w Trier’s next film was the well-crafted and utterly authentic Oslo August 31, which I didn’t like as much as most critics.  Trier’s newest film, Thelma, opens this fall.

The critical response to Louder Than Bombs has been mixed from middling to rhapsodic.  Right after seeing it, I wasn’t sure that I’d recommend it, but the film stayed with me for several days.  Eventually, I realized that this is an excellent film to see and then mull over.

Louder Than Bombs is now available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.

Oslo August 31: authentic, but why?

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The Norwegian drug addict Anders has been clean and sober after ten months in rehab, and has earned a day pass for a job interview in Oslo.  In rehab, he has had plenty of opportunity to take stock of himself and the impact that his drug habit has wreaked upon his disappointing career and upon his family and friends.  Anders concludes that the best response is to take his own life.  First, he takes advantage of his day pass to seek out his best friend and his own family.

Oslo August 31 is well-crafted and utterly authentic.  But, why was this movie made?  What is its contribution to art or entertainment or our knowledge or our experience?  Where is the payoff for the audience that makes the grim inevitability worth ten bucks and 95 minutes?

There’s one particularly spell-binding scene with superb sound design.  As Anders is waiting for someone in a cafe, he eavesdrops on the other patrons.  As he glances from table to table, we hear the conversation of each set of diners.  It’s very cool.

Unusual for a film about drug addiction, Oslo August 31 depicts only one instance of hard drug use – and that injection is not to get high.

The Danish director Joachim Trier previously made Reprise, a wonderful film about sanity and the creative process in which two young novelists send in their manuscripts at the beginning of the film, just before one suffers a psychotic breakdown.   Reprise was #4 on my list of Best Movies of 2008.