Scandinavian cinema has evolved a lot in the last thirty years. I don't want to describe myself as an expert on the development and the root causes, but the internet and the Dogme 95 manifesto seemed to at least help in creating a lust for creativeness.
Ruben Östlund is a kind of unlikely star director, developing his style from mostly directing skiing movies in his early days, before getting an academic education as such. The explosion of viral YouTube videos also seem to have had some influence on him, sprinkled with a good chunk of modern arthouse from the likes of Haneke. So you are certainly in for something rather different, but still artistically cohesive with Östlund.
The basic structure, since it would be a stretch to call it a plot, is a series of smaller stories or situations, with the same theme. As the title indicates, it wrestles with the notion of group think or group pressure, but not in an expressive but rather impressive way.
The trademark camera work of the director is to use very long still shots where the only movement is whatever movement is out there "in reality". This serves two purposes. First, that the director tries to remove himself as much as possible from enforcing his prejudice on the viewer. Secondly, to give the viewer a sense of being in a "group" situation they cannot escape, but have to care about in some way or another. The feeling of being unable to get away is exactly the underlying theme of the movie.
The viewer is very present, even slightly stalker-like, in most shots. At first I felt that the style was a little cheap excuse for making artsy movies. But as the movie went own and each of the cut up sub-stories, melted together in the overall individual stories, I was quite impressed at how clever and well thought out each of the scenes were.
I do have my bullshit detector up and running whenever I watch a movie, but in this case I "turned it off", after half an hour as I felt I was in good and unpretentious hands. There are so many little stories within each of the separate stories, since the cinematography and often claustrophobic setting forces you to start thinking and relate to the situations.
The screenshots seen here, will not by themselves convince you of anything I say, because the story mostly goes on in your head as you inevitably search yourself for relating to the same kinds of experiences in your own life. personally I could relate to all of them, from the obnoxious bus driver, the stupid drunk ill behaving uncle at the party, the stupid man-children in a cottage and so on. These are so common "every day" experiences and situations, that I am quite surprised that Östlund manages to engage me so much.
The key is, that they are all prime examples of when people start to behave strangely when they are in a group. Then they either feel like super beings who can behave as they please, letting the inner asshole out, because the "victim" is fixated in this "group think", by invisible chains or they let someone else control their behaviour just out of fear of not fitting in. Everyone experiences this everyday more or less, but it is so hard to visualise. That feeling of wanting to get out, but being unable to out of fear of the other "elements" in the group, is hard to convey without being too expressive.
This is the only movie that I can think of that deals so intelligently with this notion. And it is not easy as it is all something that goes on in peoples minds, not something you can show in physical form in a film shot. This is the reason why this particular kind of cinematography works so well here because it is literally the only way to give the viewer the experience with out actually experiencing it in reality.
There are no bells and whistles here and no sentimentality. I love that, it is so refreshing not having a feeling of being force-fed ideas but being able to let yourself build everything. I would say, that it takes a bit of an arthouse fan, to get to this movie and it certainly may not be for everyone, very much not so if you need to get bombarded with explanations all the time.
I really enjoyed this movie and I could relate so much to it, even if I was a bit lukewarm at the beginning. This one really grows on you. Or I should say, if it gets to you, it really grows on you. The camera "work" is at times, so annoyingly absent that the feel of being alone and unsure if you should keep watching is all the more strong, and it creates an overall sensation that can rival with the best that arthouse can muster.
I will give this one my highest recommendation as I have never had quite the experience with another movie before. I will warn you though that it may well be one of these hit or miss ones, where you either find it absorbing or ridiculous.
10/10
