Zingo

Björn Kjellman is, as always solid, in the title role. But what really lift this film is the supporting cast. Newcomer Tommy Andersson is a find as the aggressive Jocke. Thomas Hellberg plays the former star Ken Karlsson. Hellberg does something of a the performance of his career. The underrated Per Morberg is fabulous as the struggling director Mos. All three gives Guldbagge worthy performances. Unfortunately it disappeared in the shadow of many other successful Swedish films 1998.

Mos makes porn films for producer Benno (played by Hans Henriksson, who's a lot of fun). But Mos dreams of something else. He wants to do a serious film out of script he's been writing for five year called Den bruna filmen (The Brown Film). Benno isn't interested, but his cousin Zingo - who wants to leave his wild days behind him a live a normal life - is. With Zingo producing they decide to make Den bruna filmen. But Benno and his German partner who are financing it, think they are doing a trailer for a porno called Kingsize starring Ken Karlsson and a moose. (Zingo got to do the trailer to get more money for the real film, but Ken doesn't know anything about it).

The films lowest assets is the character of Puda (Jarmo Mäkinen), the drug-dealing biker and cineast. It's a character we recognize from many American films from this decade. I think that the serious scenes between Zingo and his father feels misplaced. The films foremost assets is its supporting cast and the dialogue (see the quotes, which I contributed). Wegner's direction is fine and the shape of Zingo works well, the editing with jump cuts suits. The photography is medium flashy, but with too much strobe in some scenes for my taste.