With a storyline that reminds us the beginning of Glee (the football player that is forced to participate in the high school drama club and that finally finds his vocation), the movie takes the Hollywood stereotype of the teenage love between the popular boy and the outcast girl and refreshes it by adding a subtlety and a realism that will please both adults and teenagers. With a set of lights that perfectly represents the emotional roller-coaster of adolescence, the director knows how to combine the coldness of the landscapes with the warmth of the characters to offer a tale about friendship, perseverance and fist love. Even though the story is predictable, the characters are colourful, well- defined and do not resort to the drama or artificiality typical of other teen movies: we are not shown young people tormented by their past or overwhelmed by family problems, but boys and girls with the worries that are inherent to teen years so the spectator can feel identified with them. Thus, the movie revisits the years in high school with no great pretensions and makes the public tenderly remember the period that marks everybody's lives. Full review on our blog Los Indiscretos : https://losindiscretos.org/english/kiss-me-you-fucking-moron-2013- stian-kristiansen-en/
... View MoreThis is the third feature by Norwegian screenwriter and director Stian Kristiansen. A film which he has co-written together with screenwriters Kamilla Krogsveen and Ravn Lanesskog after an idea by the latter. Kristiansen's two first features was both great. "The man who loved Yngve" and the follow up of the same writer "I travel alone", by Tore Renberg. He is a very talented instructor.Tale is a seventeen year old very talented actress living in a rural area outside a town in Western Norway, which us turned didn't in an audition after being told she is too young. She meets a well known actor named Lars Nykvist, and tries to drag him into their local theater play by play write guru Jon Fosse. This turns out difficult, since he's not interested, but when he eventually agrees it the start of something she didn't bargain for.The film has a teenage audience as target and is a drama with comical elements. Leading actress Eili Harboe is very good, and so is most. But there are some of the actors which simply aren't talented enough. Still I find the film quite enjoyable, though a bit forced and contrived at times. It's basic, natural, and no fuzz, turning out quite sweet. Nice cinematography and lovely use of light and fresh colors depicting the summertime, just like in the Fosse-play.Of course, a film themed like this has lots of meta-acting and is quite talkative. But it's suitable, and charming. But still the film fails to deliver like Kristiansen's two first. The film manages to keep interest, and will manage to hit the target audience quite well. Recommended, but lacks greatness.
... View MoreA romance-dramedy from Norway. This movie did not turn as what I expected. I was deceived by the tempting title. In the end, I found it a very common teen theme. Most of us are usually so familiar with this kinda story, in fact from Hollywood I must say. As per the Norwegian perspective, this movie could be a fresh product and well made.A rebellious teenage boy is forced to do community service after he was bullied his schoolmate. He has to team up with a girl who is exactly opposite to him. His friends tease him, but sometime later he begins to defend her. A little crush between them begin to grow, but the different lifestyle they live in resists it. Yeah, I know it was the story of 'A Walk to Remember' that is what this movie is largely influenced. Same storyline, but the characters and platforms are changed. Although it was not an emotional romance tale, but a heartwarming story of young people.You must not consider both the movies are same from frame to frame. The second half is totally varied and travels different direction. Different language, different people, different accent, different places, all these together gave me a different experience than the title I mentioned in the above paragraph. Probably that is the reason I did not get bored to watch till the end I guess. I believe it won't work for everyone in that way so I put it in an average list.
... View MoreNorwegian screenwriter, actor and director Stian Kristiansen's third feature film which he co-wrote with screenwriters Kamilla Krogsveen and Ravn Lanesskog after an idea by him, premiered in Norway, was shot on locations in Norway and is a Norwegian production which was produced by Norwegian producers Yngve Sæther and Sigve Endresen. It tells the story about a seventeen-year-old theatre actress named Tale who lives in a city in Western Norway and who returns home after having been to an audition where she was told that she was too young. One day when Tale is with her friend named Nora helping out a photographer with his exhibition, he tells her about a renowned Norwegian playwright named Jon Fosse and Nora tells her that the photographer's friend whom is there with him is a revered actor named Lars Nykvist. Inspired by these new encounters, Tale begins reading a play about doubt and love called "Dream of autumn", figures that it might be a good idea to do something new at her home-place and inspires her friends whom she is in a small theatre group with to arrange a stage play. Subtly and finely directed by Norwegian filmmaker Stian Kristiansen, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a gripping and humane portrayal of an inspirited and reasonably ambitious actress whom after convincing a local actor to be her and her friends' instructor, has to act with a soccer player named Vegard whom has no interest whatsoever in theatre. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, fine cinematography by cinematographer Trond Tønder, production design by production designer Arne Bru Haug and use of light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about internal choices and how the understanding of the central theme of a play can bring people closer to their innermost truths, and where interactive communication through literature and performing, however reluctant someone might be to participate, can create and improve human relations, depicts two merging and empathic studies of character and contains a great and timely score by composer Frode Johannessen.This commendably humorous, conversational, mindfully theatrical and atmospheric drama which is set during a summer in Sandnes, Norway in the 21st century and where a woman named Tonje becomes worried when her boyfriend responds to a question regarding whether or not love will survive in the face of everyday life by saying that it will die, the lives of a theatre director and his performers are significantly affected by the story they are acting out and where love is born in a conscientious woman who becomes as important to a 40-year-old man as he to her, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, colorful characters, use of music, scenes between Tale and Lars, comment by Lars Nykvist : "Is it that important, what's true or not?", the charmingly understated acting performance by Norwegian actress Eili Harboe and the fine acting performances by Norwegian actress Johanna Knudsen Rostad and Norwegian actors Øyvind Larsen Runestad and Kristoffer Joner. A reflective, gracefully romantic and heartfelt narrative feature.
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