Friday, 23 February 2024

VOD: The Worst Person In The World a.k.a. Verdens Verste Menneske (dir: Joachim Trier, 2022)

"Nothing's ever good enough."

In this awards-winner, an unfulfilled woman called Julie, approaching her thirtieth birthday, navigates her academic and emotional life in Oslo in her middle-class white-privilege feminist bubble.  Presented as twelve chapters of varying length over four years, it really feels like the viewer goes on a journey with Julie that is honest and grounded to the character, set against a beautifully-shot Oslo.  Renate Reinsve was a deserving Cannes Best Actress winner, with her clear and unfussy performance ably conveying Julie's ballbreaking disdain and fragile loneliness, like a reined-in Fleabag without the fourth-wall breaking.  The film is essentially about the class 'heart versus head' dilemma and how the different men in her life fulfil different needs, with Reinsve matched by a thoughtful performance by Anders Danielsen Lie as Aksel.  It may be talky and somewhat restrained, but its dissection of adult relationships and reflections on life are raw and fascinating to watch. 



 

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