QUEEN OF HEARTS: Trine Dyrholm stars in Denmark's entry into the BFLF sweeps

If you'll recall, the QUEEN OF HEARTS -- at least in the famous Lewis Carroll tale which the three leading characters in this eponymously-named film take turns reading to a set of pretty young twins -- is perhaps most remembered for constantly shouting "Off with his head!" This is worth noting, since that romantic-sounding title might put you in mind of various rom-coms you've seen over the years. That this film, directed and co-written by May el-Toukhy (shown below), is Scandinavian, however, might re-direct you into darker territory.

And though we are not talking an Ingmar Bergman-level of serious filmmaking here, the movie is perhaps the darkest example of the lives of the Scandinavian haute bourgeoisie to be seen in quite some time. Queen of Hearts is Denmark's entry into the newly titled Best International Feature Film category (formerly called the Best Foreign Language Film), and as such would be expected to deliver some prestige goods. It does -- and then some.

TrustMovies would be pleased to see the film arrive on the Academy's shortlist of nine movies considered for this award, perhaps even rising to become one of the five nominees. Yet it is such an incredibly dark film that I rather think an embrace by the entire Academy may prove difficult.

Queen of Hearts deals with an older woman's affair with her husband's son from a former marriage, and if your mind, as did mine when I heard this plot hook, moved into Phaedra territory or that of any number of melodramatic movies made around this theme, think again. That the older woman is played by one of the Denmark's finest actresses, Trine Dyrholm (shown above and below, and recently seen here in Becoming Astrid and Nico, 1988), only makes the movie even more of a must-see, and Ms Dyrholm plays each moment to its max without ever overdoing.

There is a single unnecessary scene of tears -- that perhaps indicates some sort of repentance but comes across as too easy -- meant to humanize our non-heroine; otherwise the movie is spot-on emotionally and psychologically. It is at its finest at the very moment when other films would take that melodramatic/soap-operatic turn. Instead this one offers up a gut punch unlike any we've experienced.

The other two leading roles -- Magnus Krepper (above, left, as the husband/father and Gustav Lindh (below) as the son -- are equally fine, the former caring but distant, the latter caring and all too present. Likewise the supporting roles all add to the specificity and believability of the scenario.

I can't go into more of the plot maneuvering without giving away genuine spoilers. Suffice it to say that this unusual character study takes you places you have not been and may not care to go. Once you've made the trip, however, it'll burn itself onto your memory.

Distributed via Breaking Glass Pictures, in Danish and Swedish with English subtitles and running 123 minutes, Queen of Hearts opens theatrically this Friday, November 1 -- in New York City at the Cinema Village and in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Glendale. 

Niels Arden Oplev's marvelous SPEED WALKING: coming-of-age in 1970s Denmark

Who'd have imagined a movie about a death could be so full of life? Those Scandinavians who have read the novel, Kapgang, will already know this, of course. The rest of us will have to view the movie version to discover the delights of this tale of a 14-year-old boy whose mother has just died suddenly, and the loss and grief he and his family are thrown into, along with his also suddenly burgeoning sexuality which finds an object in both female and male classmates.

SPEED WALKING is alternately humorous, hot and heart-breaking, and the manner in which director Niels Arden Oplev (shown below) has brought all this together is quite splendid indeed.

Because the movie takes place in Denmark, the culture and attitudes we see will undoubtedly pull some American viewers up short. How can the adults on view be so cavalier about their own sexuality, let alone that of their children? That the movie takes place in the mid-1970s only points out how backward so much of America was then, and is perhaps even more so now.

Even though the Danes, not to mention the Swedes, were more open and embracing of sexuality, this does not mean that their society did not have its own problems, then or now. As shown here, there were still bullies and big-mouths at school, gossip was rife in the community, and the GLBT population were still seen to a large extent as outsiders.

As adapted for the screen by Bo Hr. Hansen from the novel by actor/writer Morten Kirkskov, the movie hops easily from scene to scene -- school and the speedwalking of the title to a funeral, religious confirmation, sexual exploration and more -- all tied nicely together by the director's skills (Oplev also made the original Girl With the Dragon Tatoo film) and the lead performance from a young newcomer named Villads Bøye (shown above and below, left), who it is difficult to imagine could have given a better performance.

Young master Bøye gets each moment right; he'll move you, surprise you and make you laugh -- sometimes simultaneously. As his best friend and possible lover, Kim, Frederik Winther Rasmussen (above, right, and below, left) is as blond, beautiful and handsome as you could want, while remaining just slightly out of reach -- except for an occasional hand job.

The adults are portrayed by some of Scandinavia's finest actors -- including Borgen's Sidse Babett Knudsen and Pilou Asbæk, David Dencik and Anders W. Berthelsen (shown at bottom).

The movie reveals how terribly "public" everything can be in a small-town environment at the same time as it shows us how kind and caring these townspeople can often be. Martin's journey toward adulthood, during which he must suddenly act as the only real adult in his family is a difficult one, but it is leavened with so much humor, incident and genuine feeling that I don't think that you'll regret, for even one moment, accompanying him on that journey.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running a just-right 108 minutes, Speed Walking makes its home video debut this coming Tuesday, August 7, on DVD and VOD -- for purchase and/or rental.

Back to the 70s in Thomas Vinterberg's surprising period piece, THE COMMUNE

If you are expecting here -- because Thomas Vinterberg's new film, THE COMMUNE, takes place in and around one of those experiments in communal living that were popular in Scandinavia back in the 1970s -- something akin to another internationally popular Scandinavian movie about "community," Lucas Moodysson's Together,  better reset your sites. That earlier (2001) and quite funny/charming film was much more a rom-com-dramedy that this new effort. Oh, there are some laughs, all right, and romance (of sorts), too. But this is altogether a darker, deeper and more unsettling -- as we've come to expect from Mr. Vinterberg, who earlier gave us The Hunt and The Celebration -- look at the, ummm, "joys" of communal life.

The filmmaker, pictured at left, who co-wrote (with Tobias Lindholm) and directed the movie, wants to explore, as he always does, things like motive, need, and in this case especially, marriage and the male prerogative as middle age occurs.

While The Commune is indeed an ensemble film, that ensemble is clearly led by the couple -- played very well indeed by two fine Danish actors, Trine Dyrholm (shown below) and Ulrich Thomsen (two photos down). In fact, the movie mostly belongs to Ms Dyrholm's wife, Anna, who initially pushes her husband, Erik, into this new communal living and then lives to regret it.

As a dissection of marriage of a couple entering middle age -- exploring everything from their respective careers to their lovemaking and the psychology of their various behaviors -- the movie is first-rate, pulling no punches nor sugar-coating a thing.

Set in the 70s, when both feminism and greater sexual freedom for all were coming into vogue, the movie still makes quite clear the ways in which men act and women adapt. The new commune is born mostly because Erik feels that he, Anna and their teenage daughter, Freja (a terrific performance from newcomer, Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen, below, who, if she wants to continue this career should probably shorten that name a tad) cannot afford to live in the large "family" house he has just inherited.

As the commune grows, we get a nice mixture of characters and types, the arrival of whom provides the movie with much of its humor, and then some surprise and unexpected drama. Leading the little group is an actor of whom TrustMovies grows increasingly fond: Fares Fares (at left, below), who did such a fine job playing second fiddle in the recent Department Q trilogy and made worthwhile appearances in two of the Easy Money movies.

Other members include the initial couple's best friend, along with a sweet, trouble pair and their little son, who turns out to not be quite as healthy as we earlier imagined, and finally a newcomer (Helene Reingaard Neumann, below, right) who can perhaps be called a "marriage destroyer." Or maybe not.

Because of Vinterberg's astute handling of everything from psychology and sexual roles to guilt and responsibility, this marriage, as we discover, has most likely long been in trouble. As with so many of our lives, it simply takes some shaking up to bring out the truth of things.

From Magnolia Pictures, running 111 minutes, and in Danish with English subtitles, The Commune opens this coming Friday, May 19, in Los Angeles area (at Laemmle's Royal, Noho 7 and Playhouse 7) and New York City (at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Landmark's Sunshine) and will spread out to another dozen cities in the weeks to come. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.

THE DEPARTMENT Q TRILOGY: Jussi Adler-Olsen and Nikolaj Arcel's top-notch Danish police procedurals hit home video

Better by some distance than the much-vaunted and hugely-successful Scandinavian behemoth, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, the three full-length films that comprise the current DEPARTMENT Q series (named for a newly organized "cold case" division of a Danish Police Department) are tighter, more focused, less florid and bizarre than that popular Lizbeth Salander trilogy. (Of course, those very negatives are seen as attributes by those of us who love Ms Lizbeth.)

As adapted from the novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen by Nikolaj Arcel (shown at right, who also wrote the original Dragon Tattoo film, as well as directing and co-writing the Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair), the trilogy has two directors: Mikkel Nørgaard (who helmed the first two films) and Hans Petter Moland (the last of them). So dark and driven are all three, however, that I don't think viewers will notice much difference in style. Molan's movie takes longer to click into gear. From there onwards, it moves like a house afire.

Each tale told by each film is complete unto itself, but I would suggest beginning with the first, THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES (Kvinden i buret), as it introduces us to the characters and to this new bureau, Department Q, and to its first "case" -- looking into what was ruled a suicide but now begins to looks more like a "missing person." Here, as in each of the films, motive is as important as all else, and as we learn details of the characters of each of the antagonists, it is difficult not to feel some sympathy for them, even if we cannot excuse their actions.

In "Keeper," we also learn of the problematic victim and her history, as our two protagonists, Carl (a terrific job by Nikolaj Lie Kaas as the troubled, driven and socially awkward  detective) and his new assistant, Assad (the fine Fares Fares, of the Easy Money series, who can quietly handle some of the team's toughest problems). These two are not your usual police procedural protagonists. Carl is heroic, all right, but he is as apt to get beaten up and thoroughly shamed as anything else. But he endures and drives forward.

Movie two is titled THE ABSENT ONE (Fasandræberne), and it is the longest and, for me, the best of the three. Dealing with bullying and entitlement and how these can grow into horrific behavior if not blocked early on, the movie watches as high-school-age kids go from beating their peers to worse, until one of them can no longer handle it all. She, Kimmie, is at the heart of this tale, and Danica Curcic (below) brings her character to splendid, dark life.

We are allowed much less empathy for the villains this time around -- Borgen's Pilou Asbæk  and Men & Chicken's David Dencik -- for they are upper-class nasties who seem not to have learned a thing from any of this, except to push harder, stronger and longer into death/destruction. The plotting is twisty, the investigation smart but believable, and the outcome awful, moving, and with a keen, deep sense of justice for all.

A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH (Flaskepost fra P), the final film in the trilogy, makes a good capper, as it delves into the subject of religious faith -- the belief in which sets off the terrible tale told here, while also making it possible for this film's villain (himself an abused product of faith gone haywire) to do and even get away with his awful deeds. This theme also gives us a chance to observe Assad's Muslim heritage, as well as Carl's complete lack of religious faith. (The dark ironies ever-present in these films shine through with an icy light.)

That villain -- played with stunningly cold reserve and sharp, surprising strength by Pål Sverre Hagen (above, right, of the Kon-Tiki remake) -- proves a formidable character, a man apparently unfettered by most of the feelings that might trouble the rest of us.

The scene of the disappearances -- children have gone missing -- is a countryside community of some visual beauty (unusual for this series), but what we learn of those children and their religiously stifled parents is enough to put us off "god" for good. Though this final film is slow to reach blast-off, once it does, you will be as breathless, frightened and maybe a tad hopeful as you were with the preceding installments.

For folk who love police procedurals, I would consider Department Q a "must." And if you've been somewhat disappointed with many of the other procedurals you've already seen, give Carl, Assad and these dark, Danish movies a shot. They're likely to be habit-forming.

From Sundance Selects/IFC Films, after a very limited theatrical release, the series hits DVD (with each film on a separate disc but in a single package) this coming Tuesday, December 20, for purchase and/or (individually) for rental. The three films can also be seen currently (in high def!) via Netflix streaming.

Of parentage, parenting and naughty genetic experimentation: Anders Thomas Jensen's wacky/remarkable MEN & CHICKEN

The poster quote comparing this very odd film to a combination of The Three Stooges and The Island of Dr. Moreau is actually not that far afield. MEN & CHICKEN, the Danish/German co-production written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Adam's Apples, The Green Butchers) offers more proof, if any were needed, that Mr. Jensen's inclination toward the bizarre remains in full swing. In his latest oddball wonder, the filmmaker takes two rather weird brothers, having discovered that their suddenly dead dad is not their biological father, on a road trip to a very un-populated island on which they meet, greet and get to know their whole-lot-weirder extended family.
Further discovery ensues.

Granted that Mr. Jensen, shown at right, has peopled his movie with an array of characters so far from what most of us would call "normal" that it takes some adjustment to weather this movie. The adjustment is worth it, however, for beyond the very dark comedy and search for sexual outlet of the first maybe two-thirds of the film, the final half hour is so increasingly full of surprise, shock, dismay and hope that, should you persevere, you will leave the movie in quite a different state of mind and heart than you found yourself, even a short time earlier.

Much better-liked in England and on the continent than over here in the USA, the movie offers a combination of philosophy, religion, morality and education all wrapped up in black comedy, mystery and family that results in the kind of intellectually horrifying climax (in which the mystery we've been wondering about for most of the movie is finally solved -- but, don't worry, it's not via blood and guts) followed by a denouement that gives new meaning to the idea of "the other," while simultaneously proving almost unbearably moving -- all the more so because it is not "pushed."

The expert cast is led by two fine Danish actors, the peripatetic and versatile Mads Mikkelsen (above, left) and the not-so-well-known but equally fine David Dencik (above, right). The supporting cast of family "brothers" -- Nicolaj Lie Kaas (below, left),  Søren Malling (center, two photos below) and Nicolas Bro (below, right) -- is equally good, though their countenances are obscured by very effective make-up (all our boys here have a tendency toward the hare-lip and other varied deformities).

Because the movie spends a lot of its time on matters related to sex, along with the inability of this family of men to get any, it may strike some viewers as too crass or gross. Again, stick with the film. Its decision to rub our noses in certain things does have a point. (Dad's nickname, it turns out, is "The Sausage of Death," and not without good reason.)

A word must also be said for the Oscar-worthy set design and the amazing location in which much of the movie was filmed. This is a house to remember,  The special effects, too, are first-rate -- often barely there, and just for a moment or two, so that you may find yourself from time to time asking, Did I just see what I think I saw?

TrustMovies missed this film at the time of its theatrical release, as I suspect many of you also did. No matter. You can catch Men & Chicken now, via its Blu-ray/DVD/Digital copy debut from Drafthouse Films.and MVD Entertainment Group. Running 104 minutes and in Danish with English subtitles, the movie hits the street this Tuesday, October 25 -- for purchase and/or rental.

DVDebut: A teen suicide cult forms in a small Wales town in Jeppe Rønde's BRIDGEND

The kids may be suicidal in the small town of Bridgend, Wales, but it's the adults who would appear to be criminally negligent in the 2015 movie, BRIDGEND, that made its DVDebut last month. Beginning with a few moments in the woods that stagger in their simplicity and emotional jolt (this is the boy-and-his-dog scene to end them all), the movie then zeroes in on a father/daughter who are returning to the little town, after years away.

As directed and co-written by Danish filmmaker (best known for documentaries) Jeppe Rønde, shown at left, the movie offers up a generational divide more immense than even usual: the adults here are hypocritical, useless, unfeeling, drunken shits who seem to have no clue about anything. Their kids may be the product of all this, but what in the world has induced them to form this seeming "suicide cult"? After viewing this too-long movie, I suspect that Mr. Rønde hasn't a clue. And neither will you. But he has turned what evidently is a movie based on real events -- as the end credits inform us, there were 79 suicides in this town between 2007 and 2012, with more occurring even now -- into a would-be noirish horror film that defies credibility, common sense and intelligent moviemaking. (The line "Everything is going to be OK" has rarely sounded stupider than it does here.)

The filmmaker does manage to engross us for maybe the first half-hour, as one suicide, then another, occurs and we fear for our heroine. But then she gets sucked into the "cult" far too easily, and we begin to wonder why the townspeople, including the police department (our heroine's father, played by Steven Waddington, above, is even on the force!) are doing little to nothing about all this.

Our girl (played by Hannah Murray, above and on poster, top) is busy all the while with various males in the cult. One tries to kills her, another to rape her, but she has fallen for Jamie (Josh O'Connor, below, rutting), a very problemed cult member who can't seem to decide on much of anything -- or stick with it, once he does.

Mr. Rønde enjoys teasing us with weirdness and some nudity and enough creepy scenes to keep us watching. But eventually the movie begins to feel like nonstop vamping, as the screenwriters search for something, anything, to keep us interested. But even on a rudimentary level the movie begins to make no sense.

The town's adults seem to have zero control over their kids, nor do they appear to have any interest in obtaining it. Events are simply arbitrary, with their consequences practically nil. The townspeople, including the families we see, barely have a nodding acquaintance with each other.

Those notorious Bridgend suicides deserve a better memorial this this -- the biggest piece of crap I've seen all year. From Kimstim and being released to home video by Icarus Films, Bridgend -- in English and running 104 minutes -- is available now for purchase and maybe rental.

Virus-cum-zombies is back: Bo Mikkelsen's classy but derivative WHAT WE BECOME

Here we go again. Though it always seems, while watching a zombie movie, that no one on screen, or anywhere in the world for that matter, has ever before witnessed a movie or TV show about zombies. (Of course not, yet a new one debuts almost weekly.) So here we are getting yet another genre movie about a sudden out-of-nowhere virus wreaking havoc on a town and turning its citizens into -- wait: are you ready for this? -- flesh-eating zombies. Omigod, what an unusual premise! Still, there is something different about WHAT WE BECOME, the movie opening this week: It's in Danish, so you get subtitles with your gore.

TrustMovies is of two minds about What We Become -- written and directed by Bo Mikkelsen (shown at left). On one hand, Mr. Mikkelsen has delivered a rather classy treatment, with decent dialog and direction, plus a first-rate Danish cast, including Mille Dinesen (below, right), who starred in that terrific Danish TV series, Rita. The film offers a good deal of tension and suspense, occasional surprise, and something that approaches the requisite blood-and-gore quotient. (If it goes a bit light on the latter, this is fine by me, considering how many films in the overwrought and way overworked zombie genre we critics have by now been forced to sit through.)

On the other hand, however, this is about as utterly derivative a virus-produces-zombies movie that you could want (or reject). One scene after another echoes stuff we've seen too many times previous -- beginning with the original (and still un-topped) Night of The Living Dead.

The film begins, as so many of these now do, at very nearly its conclusion, which provides a grabber of an opening then flashes back a bit, so that, in passing, we hear the usual TV news story about people growing ill from some yet-to-be-diagnosed malady, which alerts us to just about everything to come. This would include the film's finale, which steals directly from one of the pivotal and best scenes of that famous and seminal George Romero movie.

The government of course gets immediately involved in things, while lying through its teeth, as governments are wont to do. And we get to know a couple of families in the little town of Sorgenfri, (which doubles as the Danish name of this movie) and come to like them just well enough to feel a little sad at their inevitable upcoming demise.

Unlike another, better and also-subtitled zombie movie -- Germany's Rammbock, which conflated the zombie genre with the confined-space movie to produce something more riveting than usual for the walking dead -- What We Become is content to roll out the tried-and-true in a slightly more well-made manner. (There's a scene here involving a baby's crib that is surprisingly restrained.)

The teenage son of one family gets involved with the girl next door (across the street, actually), as mom and dad argue about what might be the best approach to all the oddity going on around them. The film's best and most original scene involves that son, investigating things on his own and discovering more of what's going on, while unfortunately undoing most of the good that the authorities have so far put into place.

Finally the question arises, as it often does in this genre, Haven't the characters pictured here ever seen a zombie movie? If so, they're awfully slow to catch on. If not, this would imply a world in which zombie movies do not exist. Sweet Jesus -- if only!

From IFC Midnight and running a thankfully short 81 minutes, What We Become opens this Friday, May 13, in New York City at the IFC Center (midnight screenings only) and in Los Angeles at Hollywood's Arena Cinema. If you don't live in thee two cultural capitals, worry not: The movie arrives simultaneously across the country on VOD.