Cannes review: The Square (2017)
★★★★☆
Ruben Östlund’s The Square is a chilly satire on the pretensions of art and Sweden’s comfortable society.
Sweden
Festival Review: A Serious Game (2016)
★★☆☆☆
An evocative period drama of forbidden love, Pernilla August’s em>A Serious Game is disappointingly short on characterisation and emotion.
Festival Review: Yarden (2016)
★★★☆☆
Adapted from Kristian Lundberg’s autobiographical novel, Måns Månsson’s Yarden is a parable of entitlement that turns welcomingly political.
Miss Julie (2014)
★★★☆☆
Transporting August Strindberg’s play to colonial Ireland, Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie imbues her underwhelming tale of forbidden love with Swedish style.
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (2014)
★★★☆☆
The closing film in Roy Andersson’s trilogy, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting On Existence offers a blackly humorous look at you, the living.
Force Majeure / Turist (2014)
★★★★☆
Exposing the domestic tensions of a family following a near-avalanche, Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure offers a captivating and wry look at male weakness.
Something Must Break / Nånting måste gå sönder (2014)
★★★☆☆
With a transgender teen searching for her true self, Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break lends a poetic look at the unbecoming state of becoming.
Concerning Violence (2014)
★★★★☆
A visual poem on the sinister violence of colonisation, Göran Olsson’s Concerning Violence appeals for a new kind of future for Africa.
The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared (2013)
★★★☆☆
Forrest Gump meets Zelig in an absurd and ridiculous Swedish farce-cum-road movie about a centenarian’s accidental involvement in major events of 20th century world history and contemporary criminal adventures.
We Are The Best/Vi är bäst! (2013)
★★★☆☆
As three schoolgirls form a punk band in Stockholm in 1982, Lukas Moodysson’s We Are The Best smells like early-teen punk spirit.
Call Girl (2012)
★★★★☆
With its corrupt politics and hustling broads, Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl offers a pleasurably nostalgic vision of teenage girls living in a material world.
Play (2011)
★★★★☆
Through teen scams, Native American song and an ownerless cradle, Ruben Östlund’s Play offers a long hard look at social discomfort at play.
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)
★★★★☆
Apathy and the black fight for civil rights, Göran Hugo Olsson’s Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 scours the Swedish vaults for an all-American independence.
Mammoth / Mammut (2010)
★★★★☆
His first English language film, Swedish director Lukas Moodysson’s Mammoth is a global story of haves and have nots intertwined with complex family relationships.