Les Belles Créatures

Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson film from 2022.

Many artists and writers present to us the pain of adolescence, the effects of which they still cannot get rid of in their works. This is one of the most important sources that literature and art have been fed since their existence.

Guðmundsson, born in 1982, I think, has conveyed the pain of adolescence to the audience in a unique and disturbing reality, like a fist in the stomach, as in the films Ártún (2014) / Hjartasteinn (2016).

Guðmundsson's 'storytelling' skill that goes beyond scriptwriting, and the ability to deliver the resulting work to adolescent actors whom no one has given / known before, and always getting good results as a result of this risk, I think, stems from his ability to explain himself to his actors.

Berdreymi, who made its second screening in the world at the Istanbul Film Festival, is once again a Guðmundsson classic and easily stands out from the 2022 films with the closed nature of Iceland and its character reflecting it.

Our character Baldur (Hjartasteinn's young actor's name is a nice detail) was a father figure to all of his friends when he was a wounded child, but he never left his childhood, all the child actors hurt the audience's hearts with their characters, Kristian Eidnes Andersen's great compositions and with camera moves that take the movie to another dimension Thanks to Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, Guðmundsson has outdone herself in her art.

Just as he discovered Baldur Einarsson in the movie Hjartasteinn, he brought Birgir Dagur Bjarkason to the cinema in this movie as well, who will be a great actor with the right direction.

Long story short, Berdreymi is a masterpiece that should be watched not only for those who love northern cinema or 'Coming-Age' movies, but also for anyone who defines himself as a cinephile.

It's been a while ago since I've seen this one, but I still remember how well I liked it. It's hard to find movies like this, ones which don't feel like movies, where a bunch of life stuff happens which feels believable, and you're just along for the ride.

The directing was really good. The scenery was immersive. The acting from what I could tell (not my native language) seemed pretty great. All of the people felt like they fit their role. In other words, the one who was supposed to be the tough one looked the part. The one who played the wimp, looked like the biggest dork. The father, especially. The mother, and even the sister. Even the boys they fought felt like they genuinely fit the part. The fight scenes felt like real stuff that could happen. I didn't feel myself thinking, "yeah right". Pretty much everything felt believable, and like I was watching more of a documentary than a movie.

Now, this is my kind of movie. I like movies which don't feel like a movie. I like that "being there" vibe. I want to feel like a fly on the wall. This film delivers that, and I don't think there was one scene I didn't feel that way in. It doesn't try to hype up a bunch of fluff, or influence you to feel a certain way about it. It just presents some scenes where the sequence of events tell the story. Even when some extreme events occur, it fits the context, and feels believable.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. So, if you're looking for larger than life caricatures, epic worlds, elaborate costumes, distorted reality, exciting stunts or scary monsters, then you'll likely miss the whole point.

Some other things I remember being interesting:

I found myself wondering what happened to that boy's face, and they didn't tell us straight away. The way it was finally revealed was woven into the narrative in a way which felt natural. It didn't feel like they were showing you this so you would know. It felt like I was one of the boys in the scene, and just as curious as they were. When they reacted to the story, it mirrored how I felt inside.

I also like the way the drug scenes felt. The actors didn't act like they were trying to act high. It just felt like they were high, and behaving the way that high people act.

There was a tragic scene at the end where something was done to one of the boys, and it actually felt believable. The way that the boy was shaken by it felt genuine.

The weakest part of the film was the revenge scene with the father. Although, it wasn't bad at all. It made sense in context, and didn't feel too predictable. I managed to feel a bit surprised by it, and not in a way where it just felt like that because it didn't fit. The fallout afterwards made me feel upset.

The ending wasn't what I'd hoped, and felt a little short, but it didn't disappoint. The circumstances which led to it were, but not the acting or storyline. It worked, and was a nice way to finish the sequence of events.

On a more personal note, I like that it had some really attractive actors in it. Somehow, that always makes the characters feel more believable. I feel more engaged in the sequence of events, as well as immersed in that world. Probably, because I actually want to be there, and with them. It helps me to connect. Plus, I really don't care to stare at ugly boys acting stupid. Having attractive actors makes even the dumbest stuff they do seem more interesting. I mean, even the wimpy boy is sorta cute, in an awkward way. It helps me feel sorry for him, and want things to turn out OK. However, it's also fun to watch him suffer. There's nothing fun about watching an ugly freak suffer. It's almost too much.

There don't seem to be enough movies like this. That's tragic, because I could get lost in stories like this all day long. Afterwards, I feel like I lived that experience, and those are my memories. It's the sort of memories I've experienced in my own real life. It makes my life feel like it's been even more interesting and memorable. It deepens my experience of being human, and a guy. It makes me miss the good ole days, when I was wild like that. It makes me want to go and do some more guy things, and get into even more hijinks.

I hope they make more good movies which feel like memories and not movies.

A heartwarming story of teenage self-destruction and graphic violence. No, really.

I can't stop thinking about this film. On the face of it, it's about four teenage boys from variously broken homes who smoke, fight and swagger around 1990s Reykjavik causing trouble and doing fairly horrendous things.

But they are friends, and that's what this really is. It's a film about friendship, enduring friendship through the extremes. Sticking up for your mates (even when you should know better). Having your mates stick up for you.

These boys only have each other. Balli has no one to start with - bullied at school, ignored at home, he lives a filthy, pathetic life until Addi takes him into the gang (with the animalistic Konni and weirdo Siggi) after taking pity on him.

We follow the boys on a series of misadventures of teenage impetuousness which build - or sink - in horrifying ways towards the film's conclusion. Konni fights. Addi grows. Balli lives. Siggi pulls bogies out of his nose and chases people with them, but that's not the point.

There's a mildly supernatural aspect to it all as Addi experiences premonitions about what may unfold - they may be real but equally may just be him maturing and seeing the consequences (while doing too many mushrooms).

It's rare to see such fully formed, three-dimensional characters, but by the end of the film you know these kids, you're rooting for them (in spite of yourself). You're one of the gang.

Sturla Brandth Grøvlen's camerawork is divine, director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson's story is moving and believable, the performances are perfect (especially Birgir Dagur Bjarkason, Áskell Einar Pálmason, Viktor Benóný Benediktsson and Snorri Rafn Frímannsson as the kids), the soundtrack is addictive. It's the whole package.

(In Game of Thrones, they spent a fortune working on making the dragon fire realistic, on the basis that if you believe the fire, you'll believe the dragon. Fake VFX would have ruined it. Here, it's the fight scenes. Believe the violence and you'll believe the teenagers, and I don't know if there's an Oscar for best fight choreography but Jón Viðar Arnþórsson and Imma Helga Arnþórsdóttir who did these scenes should win it. As the last reviewer said, this really does look like kids beating each other up - and RIP the extra who gets a door smashed full in her face, I assume she just died in real life.)

I can't stop thinking about this film. And I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Rewatch: Such fantastic details that are too easily missed... The boy Konni trips up in the playground at the start is the same boy who hits Balli in the tunnel. It's just cyclic violence passed on and Konni/Addi are never aware they triggered it all. Such attention to detail, it's magnificent, there's not a wasted second in the film.

A captivating, often brutal dip into the lives of four 14-year-old boys in roughly 2000-era Iceland. Addi, the one with a conscience, takes badly bullied Balli into his group of friends after feeling a twinge of compassion at seeing him being mistreated. The acting from the four first-time protagonists is exceptional. Award-worthy. I can easily see them being named joint best actors at festivals (I saw it twice in Berlin).

Áskell Einar Pálmason as Balli delivers an understated masterclass in nervous glances, twitches and despair. It's all the more impressive to see how, as the character eases into life with his first friends, his body language changes, almost imperceptibly.

Birgir Dagur Bjarkason may well take the plaudits with his turn as Addi, he carries the film on his young shoulders and doesn't put a foot wrong, whether joining in the violence or experiencing the dreamlike (often nightmarish) visions that give the film its Icelandic name.

Snorri Rafn Frímannsson has less to do as Siggi than the others but has charisma and backs the others up as his character does on screen.

But for me it is Viktor Benóný Benediktsson, as Konni, who delivers the star turn. A thug known as The Animal, his Konni is able to deliver the aggression needed to make his character believable, punching and swinging wildly through the film in an often terrifying manner. But one by one the layers are stripped away to reveal - not that he would admit it - the scared boy trapped in the young man's body. Such a broad performance would test actors twice his age but he aces it. They all do.

A note on the fight scenes, which through a combination of beautiful camera work and expert, almost balletic choreography come across as some of the most realistic I can remember. This isn't filmic violence, these are kids kicking lumps out of each other. Harsh, cold, real, shocking.

One criticism comes in the pacing at the end and an inclusion of possibly too many story strands that don't really have chance to justify their place in the final film. It feels a bit like a 2h30 film that a producer has demanded becomes 2hrs. If that's the case I hope a director's cut will follow - I would gladly spend all day in the company of the fascinating characters that director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has so expertly and lovingly brought to the screen.

The young cast was incredible in this. There were a lot of nuance to their acting, and they brought a lot of depth to their characters. This isn't an easy topic to tackle, and to be able to potray something so raw and real at such a young age really shows how talanted the actors are in this. The story is both beautiful and heartbreaking. I understand the ending, but damn, if I didn't wish for it not to end like that. I guess that's where my disappointment comes in. I understand and respect the ending, but it was also predictable and I just wanted more for the characters, but life doesn't always unfold the way we want. I absolutley loved the first half, the second half became a bit to repetitive, and too brutal for my liking which combined with ending made me wishing for more. I don't know, it felt like there was more to the story than where, and how, it ended.