Swacs-Man

Extremely gripping and very well acted Danish film is no easy watch as it's cutting no corners. Jesper Christensen is sublime and proves that he's not only one of the best Danish actors, but one of the best, period. It's a film about overcoming illness, staying together as a family and about giving up hopes and dreams to support your loved ones.

Normally, I'm not overly fond of the kitchen-sink approach that most Danish films tend to use, but when it's this well acted, with a tight script, it's hard not to be touched.

Pernille Fischer Christensen is a very talented director and she orchestrates the film beautifully and sure-footed. If you can handle a tough, no-holds-barred drama, A Family delivers and stays with you afterwards.

Bille August's first film in Danish, since he won the Academy Award for best foreign language film in '89 for Pelle the Conqueror, is a lackluster affair. On the plus side it's very picturesque and the two leads (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and Søren Sætter-Lassen) are quite good (especially Hjort Sørensen in the titular role) but we never really get under the skin of the characters.

What could've been a great exploration of one of Denmark's most famous painters, an examination of turn-of-the-century marital problems, a fine period piece or even a decent love story, is neither. It's a sub-par script with no development and, frankly, a quite boring film. Unless you're really interested in Danish painting and beautiful scenery, I'd stay clear of this one.

I generally love horror anthologies but this one is rarely worth your time. Only one of the five segments deserves mention, the longest one, Clowned. The other four, while not really terrible given the films very low budget, doesn't really stand out and are almost never scary or original.

Usually, these types of films comes with a wrap-around sequence which makes the whole mess coherent, but this one opted not to give us that satisfaction.

I'll still watch any horror anthology I can get my hands on, because if one of the segments aren't satisfying, it's pretty fast on to the next one. Same goes here, where, besides aforementioned Clowned, no segment is longer than 15 minutes. And I'm glad they weren't.

Danish director Ole Christian Madsen must have felt the need for a change of pace and setting from his usual style. While his other films are tight, well-composed dramas, SuperClásico benefits from a loose, more free flowing construction and as the film plays out you realize that style and mood are a perfect match.

This film is in no way groundbreaking, nor is it meant to be. The title is a comment on the film itself, and the characters are all acting as they're supposed to be in a dramedy of this kind.

However, you can't help but to be engaged in the story, mainly because of some great performances and the beautiful Argentinian settings. All the supporting actors work well, without ever being more than 2-dimensional, as the character development is reserved for the main players. Especially Anders W. Berthelsen does a great job at conveying a man who's nearly given up on life until he is introduced to a change of scenery.

SuperClásico is recommended if you're looking for a sweet film with just the right amount of sentimentalism and temperament. It will in no way rock your world, but it's damn charming with very few weak moments. It recalls the feeling from Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Lost in Translation a little bit.

The newest Ole Bornedal film is a continued exploration of styles, themes and content not normally associated with Danish cinema. Following the awesome meta-film noir 'Just Another Love Story' and the great children's horror/sci-fi 'The Substitute', 'Deliver Us from Evil' is like no Scandinavian film you've ever seen before. Not to say that this is a wholly original work of art, it's not, however, the combination of all the elements makes it unique as a Danish movie.

In the story, not too dissimilar to Straw dogs, we're in hillbilly territory, where one man tries to do the right thing and has to defend himself and his family against outsiders. Everyone accept the main family acts extremely over the top in a wonderful dramatic way but still strangely rooted in Danish society. You are in disbelief but still you feel that these obnoxious, unpleasant characters could be quite real.

The cinematography by Danish legend Dan Lausten is nothing short of brilliant and all actors shine, even though most of them are cast against type or comes from different backgrounds than movies. 'Deliver Us from Evil' is so well made on all accounts that it can only be described as a Danish masterpiece. It wouldn't necessarily be a masterpiece had it been made in the US, but perfecting the western genre, flirting with horror, making social comments, all grounded in a Danish setting with thrills and kills, this is as good as it's going to get. And Ole Bornedal, once the great talent, has through recent years, enriched Danish film more than anyone, except maybe Von Trier.

Hilarious Danish stop-motion about a guy and a cow.

In between his social comment trilogy, beginning with Bænken, Per Fly has directed this funny little kid-flick. The animation is nicely done and the film brings a lot of laughs. Mainly, this is for the youngest children but the fast paced innocent story and the somewhat smooth stop-motion technique appealed to me. All right, I'm a sucker for stop-motion, and this isn't exactly the Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's sweet, fun and well put together.

Any kid should love this, and some parents will appreciate the absurdness in some of the scenes.

Overall: (8/10)