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With the shortlists announced, we now know which of the 93 Best International Feature submissions still have a chance to contend for Oscar gold. AMPAS has selected 15 finalists, a third of which will be honored with an Academy Award nomination come March 15th. Here at The Film Experience, the team has reviewed most of the shortlisted titles. However, four still haven't been analyzed. To start correcting that, here's another trio of capsule reviews. It's time to explore the pictures submitted by Denmark, Hong Kong, and Norway…
ANOTHER ROUND (Denmark)
Written by Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm, Another Round feels like a long-lost short tale of unknown Slavic origin, some philosophical meditation composed by the likes of Tolstoy or Checkov during the matinal battle with a hangover. That's not to say Vinterberg's latest picture reaches the quality of those old master's prose, just that its structure and premise harken back to them, their sensibility, beauty, their artifice too. Puncturing his usual style of modest naturalism and Danish severity with a slash of drunken revelry, the director tells the story of four teachers who decide to try and see if their lives improve when going through them under a constant state of mild intoxication. Not unlike a boozy night escapade, the experiment starts in jubilant euphoria, humor bursting from the actors with ease, and a rapscallion twinkle in their eye. However, as the days go by, joy gives in to a sweaty mess of misery and tremulous despondency. Alcohol acts as a chisel revealing the rocky toxicity in the men's identities and dynamics, carving away at their carapace of respectability until all we see is the raw ugliness of humanity in disarray. As someone who's never been a big fan of Vinterberg's cinema, Another Round emerged as a pleasant surprise, mayhap the filmmaker's best work since the Dogma 95 excess of Festen. Its plunges into the abyss of the characters' rotten souls felt genuine, the superficiality of the initial scenes working as a disarming mechanism, an astute prelude. It all crescendos to a grand finale where Mads Mikkelsen, the putative leading man, does his best Denis Lavant in Beau Travail drag while dancing to the sound of Scarlet Pleasure's What a Life. It's the performance of a lifetime for the Danish thespian, a desperate triumph that twirls on the knife's edge separating tragedy and hope. B+
BETTER DAYS (Hong Kong)
Adapted from a YA novel written by Jiu Yuexi and directed by Derek Tsang, Better Days announces itself as an impassioned cry against the evils of bullying. It starts in a classroom setting, as a teacher tries to explain the difference between the use of "was" and "used to be" in the phrase "this was/used to be our playground". She says the latter denotes a sense of loss and, as she gazes upon a quiet pupil, we go backward in time to the teacher's youth, when she was a student herself. It's difficult to imagine our protagonist feels any loss or yearning regarding her young days, haunted as she was by bullying so persistent it drove one of her friends to commit suicide. Fighting for survival, she befriended another outcast, a small-time criminal, and the pair forged a bond that would come to define their lives. It's an odd sort of romance, one with a broken nose and bloody visage, bruised knees, the stench of fear pervading every moment. Still, I'd be lying if I said it was anything less than moving, its sentimental appeal making itself clear as the miseries pile on, as the love of two lonesome souls is the light in the darkness. It's also a bit excessive in its drama, the violence of the bullies reaching levels of psychotic villainy that threaten to unravel the picture's delicate tonal balance. If it weren't for Zhou Dongyu anchoring lead performance, it might have all toppled into exploitative despondence. Still, despite its indulgences, Better Days is a heartfelt flick, so sincere that one feels as if this is the kind of melodrama a tormented teenager would write about their suffering. Instead of looking down on its subjects, it shapes itself to their emotions. For better and for worse, the movie lives within its character's mental state, their folly, and their passion. B-
HOPE (Norway)
The week between Christmas and New Year's Eve is a no man's land, a void between joyous celebrations that often feels like a temporal limbo, existing out of time. It's during that period that the protagonists of Maria Sødahl's Hope must face one of the greatest challenges of their shared life. When Anja is diagnosed with brain cancer, her relationship with Thomas starts to disintegrate but the implosion is subtler than this description may suggest. Observed by a perceptive camera attuned to the particularities of human behavior, this portrait of love gone wrong (or right) pays incredible attention to the unsaid words that exist in aborted gestures, silent expressions, charged looks. Shooting with an unassuming style, the director knows when to step back and let her actors take over, when to frame them in theatrical compositions that allow us to see how each person reacts. Each cut is precise and economical, purposefully deployed so we can better see the complexities of these lovers' bond, how it mutates under the threat of death, under the weight of old resentments and past crimes that may never be fully forgiven. To say that Andrea Bræin Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård are great as Anja and Thomas is an understatement. Without ever falling into the error of histrionics, each performer telegraphs their character's thoughts, often playing off each other in disharmonious friction, occasionally becoming one in joined feeling only to distance themselves once more. There's a pair of nuptial closeups that I won't soon forget, a masterpiece of acting that recalls the ending of The Graduate, a tour-de-force of directorial discipline that demands applause. Simplicity in form isn't always a fault, not when the sentimental undercurrents defining each shot are so complicated as in Hope. It's a film about human behavior that feels painfully authentic, searing, and oddly comforting too. In the end, there may still be hope, both for the body and for the heart, the soul. B+
Another Round is the clear frontrunner at this point in the race. It would be incredibly shocking if it weren't nominated and I'd risk calling it a lock for a nod. Better Days and Hope have bigger hurdles to overcome on their path to a nomination. Despite the polish of its execution and the urgency of the message, Better Days' focus on teenage angst feels a bit outside of Oscar's wheelhouse. The Norwegian flick, on the other hand, could surprise come nomination morning. If there's one thing AMPAS loves to honor in this category almost as much as world War II narratives, it's an acting showcase such as Hope. It could be a surprise come nomination morning.