kickeeen

Hong Sang-soo's Right Now, Wrong Then is a quiet marvel of simplicity and repetition. A filmmaker meets a woman in a small town (twice!) and through these mirrored encounters, Hong turns the smallest human gestures into profound variations on truth and regret.

The film's two halves replay the same day with subtle emotional shifts: one awkward and self-conscious, the other tender and honest. In this repetition, Hong reveals how sincerity (or the lack of it) reshapes everything we say and feel.

Stylistically, it carries splashes of Wong Kar-Wai, Woody Allen, Celine Song, and Joachim Trier, but most of all he stays true to himself. There's longing, irony, restraint, and intimacy, all filtered through Hong's unmistakably static yet alive camera.

By the end, nothing dramatic has happened, yet everything has changed. It's a film about human frailty, second chances, and the beauty of imperfection, proof that repetition can be revelation.

I want to be honest with all of you before you delve into this review. Joachim Trier has been one of my favourite directors since a while, so I might be a bit biased, but please don't skip it as I strongly wish to put into words why this movie is worthy of all its accolades.

There's few directors out there who manages to capture the modern Scandinavian melancholy as effortlessly and brilliantly as Joachim Trier does. When this flic was about to come out, I won't lie telling y'all that I was more than excited. Due to this, I had also amassed big expectations, which is not a good idea as you often set yourself up to be disappointed. However, I can assure you that Trier and his just as brilliant collaborators (Eskil Vogt, Ola Fløttum, Anders Danielsen Lie to name a few) have pulled it off once again with just another deeply touching film, which is sure to leave your thoughts wandering a long time after the ending titles have run their course.

The movie is centered around Julie, a woman presumably in her early thirties, who like most people around such an age, is trying to come to terms with what she really wants from life. When this question is talked about in general terms, people often tend to navigate towards professions, but this movie depicts why this is a question of so much more. In the kind of an equation in which you are trying to find your place in universe, what kind of profession you choose to pursue is just a small fraction of the so many layers of life.

We observe Julie (amazing performance by Renate Reinsve, well deserved of her Cannes award) handling some of life's most complex, yet natural, emotions while she herself is experiencing the above-mentioned journey. Love, emptiness, joy, soul-searching, agony, pain, happiness, melancholy and many more - all to a vibrant and aesthetically pleasing backdrop of modern day Oslo. This movie is guaranteed to make you laugh as many times it will make you shed tears, and therein lies the beauty of this film: a coming of ager, a romantic comedy and an existential melodrama all in one.

To sum it all up, film as an art format is at its best when it successfully manages to transfer the layers of feelings it portrays: when a human being is able to transcend into a physical object such as a cinema or TV screen, becoming a quiet observer in a place where time and space stands still. If you're longing for such an experience, look no further than "The Worst Person In The World". It won't let you down.

Putting miscarriage of justice on screen is no easy task. Bureaucracy and law is usually not as entertaining as shooting gangsters, wars or superheroes. However, Mikael Håfström pulls this off in a very good manner with help from two well-crafted acting performances from David Dencik and Jonas Karlsson. It's, without a doubt, Håfström's best achievement since his Oscar nominated Evil (2003).

The movie portrays how Thomas Quick was manipulated into confessing over 30 murders; thereafter convicted for eight of them. Even though the focus of the film is on Quick, it's not an understatement to say that the film manages to display how essential journalism is in modern day society. Had it not been for Hannes Råstam, an investigative journalist with a brilliant mind, this story might have never seen the light of day. It is also a reminder of why it's important that we hold people working for the justice system, police force and health care to very high standards. If one is interested in law, psychology, human behaviour and/or journalism - this is a must watch.

The uncovering of this drama has led to numerous documentaries and books being written about the case. It is a legal scandal without comparison in Swedish judicial history; a case which should interest people outside of its borders. Watch it, now.