The Northman

The Northman (2022)

Directed by Robert Eggers

Screenplay by Sjón and Robert Eggers

Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Gustav Lindh, Elliott Rose, Olwen Fouéré, Eldar Skar, and Björk

After my lukewarm response to The Lighthouse, I wondered if this movie was going to be the same. Thankfully that is not the case.

It is a classic revenge story. It has been done a million times before the Kill Bills, John Wicks or Gladiators of the world. The same could be said with adapting a million Shakespeare plays. We know what is going to happen.

I believe that director, Robert Eggers made something different. You can see with the trademark of having birds help or spell the doom of a character that he wanted you to be in the shoes of Amleth (Skarsgård) as he exacts his revenge on his uncle, Fjölnir (Bang) for killing his father, Aurvandil (Hawke). He wanted you to feel the hatred burning within him as Amleth makes his odyssey.

The movie is visually breathtaking. Were there things that shocked me in this film? Yes. Eggers wants to make you have visceral experience. It felt like it was almost there with his last outing, but with this you can feel his laser focus vision coming through.

 

Rating: 9/10

 

LAMBs in The Director's Chair Series Spotlight (Lars von Trier): Melancholia

Melancholia (2011)

Written and directed by Lars von Trier

Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Cameron Spurr, Brady Corbet, Alexander Skarsgård,  Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier and Kiefer Sutherland

Seeing as controversial Danish directors is this month's LAMBs Director Chair, I wanted to see a couple of the movies that he has done. I have only seen Antichrist. I heard that his movies have a female protagonist that go through a lot of shit and awful things happened to them. This movie follows the same premise to meager results.

The movie slightly diverts for the von Trier formula by having two female protagonists in crisis. It is broken up in two equal parts. The first part deals with Justine (Dunst), a woman who recently married Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) and is going into her wedding reception. During the course of the evening, she slowly unravels and her behavior becomes erratic. The second part of the story deals with Justine's sister, Claire (Gainsbourg) and her husband, John (Sutherland). She becomes anxious that a planet that was hidden behind the sun, Melancholia would crash into the Earth.

This movie seems like it has every auteur formula down with the slow motion actions, weird imagery, the swelling orchestral music. It was same as his last film. This went on for eight minutes. I mean, come on. Get on with it already. I didn't get the point of the movie. I understand that von Trier's shtick is to torture his female characters. I got the message with Antichrist, but not this movie. I enjoyed the second part of the movie because it dealt with the psychosis of Claire and impending doom. I was left with a lot of questions than answers. I don't want it spelled out to me, but make a clear point about what you have to say.

My Rating