Armand

A mother, played by Renate Reinsve, is called to the school because of an incident involving her son Armand and his best friend.

Written and directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the film offers a good premise, one that manages to capture your attention as well as its beginning when we share Elisabeth's intrigue as to what happened with her son. Once in the school, she meets with the other boy's parents and the school personnel, and information is delivered, allowing us to grasp the extent of the dramatic event Armand is accused of.

The problem with the movie is that a theme like this rarely allows for a runtime close to two hours. Sure, as long as the story progresses, it is clear its aspirations go beyond its initial premise. But the execution, the way to tell what it wants, is very ineffective and will keep you anxiously waiting for this yawn-fest to end.

It is full of peculiarities that might strike as funny or strange: people hysterically laughing when the subject being talked about is of a serious matter, people dancing out of nowhere in the school corridors resembling bad performance art, etc.

Renate Reinsve delivers another good performance, as well as the rest of the cast, but besides that and the cinematography, Armand has little to offer other than a regret to go back in time and choose another movie to watch.

This had so much potential and got off to such a solid start. Which was why it was a disappointment when the storytelling went off the rails in the last hour or last third of the film. At about two hours long, the elements that were included in that final hour that made the film go haywire could have been completely removed and the end result would have been a fantastic movie. The first part of Armand was gripping, as the audience watches the main character go through a roller coaster of a day with school administrators after being called in due to an altercation at her son's school. She is alone in trying to advocate for her son as she faced his accusers, poking holes in the claims made against him. The acting was great, and the characters were realistic and interesting. The moments of tension and discomfort were captured in a way that I think most of us could identify with. Where this fell apart for me was when the movie took tangents by including some scenes that felt pretentious to the extreme, making no sense and turning a story and characters that had been believable into something cringe, nonsensical, and plodding. I found myself fast-forward/skipping through those moments, as they added nothing to the story and were too annoying to put up with. I was getting angry by that point. It's unfortunate because this could have been a four-star film for me, but because it veered so wildly off course in the end, it dragged the entire thing down. Huge miss. Video review on my YouTube channel.

From the grandson of Ingmar German and Liv Ullman, Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel has a debut that shows good potential but despite it's ambitious concept and strong moments, it fails to fully hold it's narrative and goes through a limbo.

The psychological drama and themes explored of school system and the battle of wits between people is a good concept, especially not knowing much from the European standpoint. With good camerawork and sound designs, it helps to create the claustrophobic setting and tensions. The performances from the cast, especially Renate Reinsve was great and felt realistic. Unfortunately, what makes the movie not work is the way the narrative is written and how bumpy it feels.

Many of the writing components have good concepts but it's surrealist approach didn't work, which ends up feeling repetitive and muddled as it continues. Making things a bit difficult to really understand or connect with the characters or finding them believable at times. Stories like these are movies I like but I can't really engage with it because of the muddled writing and repetitive nature. The direction from Tøndel is good but at some moments, the direction felt a bit misplaced and lost. Being heavy dialogue, the dialogue is a mix of both good and some not so good.

At it's core, Tøndel has a lot of talent as this movie does show his talents and potential of being a good filmmaker in the future. But there's a lot of work still to be done.

Armand and the other boy, the centre of the story here, are absent. They are rendered psychologically dead by psychologically dead - or insane - parents.

What began as a gritty drama, turned out to be psychological horror. I suppose the Scandinavians are good at living the unconscious, manifesting the darkness. A bleeding nose in one of the characters signals early on that we are to spiral down, nauseated, into the madness of all the "adults". The feeling of vertigo is subtle and perhaps more terrifying than Hitchock in its normalised elusiveness. Empty corridors, staircases, and silent screams. A children's choir where children are voiceless. Two mothers who couldn't be more repulsive. Where does evil begin? "If you look at our image, you'll see only chaos. If you dig deeper, you'll find nothing else."

The film is named after a primary school pupil Armand whose mother Elizabeth is invited to the school with regard to the incident that happened between Armand and another pupil. The other pupil's parents appear as well, and little by little we discover what happened, or, to be more exact, we discover that the whole story is confusing and extremely complex. The genre is dancing between a drama (yes, at times it seems overly dramatic), a thriller, a detective story and even a musical. There are various cinematic ideas used really curiously to show moments of helplessness, confusion or fear. All in all, the film ends leaving us with more questions than answers. I'd definitely recommend this one to everyone who likes experimental cinema.