nyanbatcat

If you know Eggers work, you know how he visually presents movies. I actually think this is one of his best looking movies, but this is the only that stands out positively. It also kind of works against it:

The northman presents itself like a lost, epic viking Saga. One that encapsulates everything we commonly associate with their culture now. A Saga that gets supernatural every now and then, but is mostly based in our world. Poetic speeches phrased in riddles, extreme personalities (mostly needlessly cruel/violent), weird rituals, talk of fates and prophecies, spiritual characters that seem to know more than the characters or the viewers and so on.

So far this sounds great, but there are also shortcomings and the good things actually make them worse. The Plot is a very basic hero revenge story, which makes it easy to compare to many other movies. Such as King Arthur or Boy Kills world. They both also feel like Epic Sagas, are both about fate, they start with a young protagonist that falls, has to hide, grows up secluded. But they feel more comfortable with what they are, they feel more like they succeeded at their intents (Like them or not). Why is that?

First of all they dont take place in our world, so many things dont stick out the way they do here. They also dont try to be this serious, gritty and poetic. They are more honest about what they are: a spectacle.

The northman breaks apart because of this Split between how it presents itself and how basic the plot is, how overblown and theatrical some characters act, how the dialects are all over the place, how cliche some aspects are. It seems like it wants to be taken really seriously when it feels more like it was written by a edgy 16-year old and then a bunch of talented people tried to make it look deep.

Dreamlike, abstract, jazzy, mysterious, non-linear storytelling, the dualitynof people and many more qualities would destribe this movie. But I think they are best summed up as lynchian.

Right from the beginning amazingly utilized camerawork, editing and sound editing pulled me in. Especially The protagonist, John, often speaks poetically.

The mystery starts right away and keeps unfolding quite steadily.

I do admit, it can feel tedious If you cant tell whats real, If the viewers trust is betrayed over and over. But Secret Friends managed to hold my interest the entire time. The trick is, that even imagined scenes add context, flesh Out the characters, progress the story. I know, seems obvious, but apparently it really isnt (im looking at you "Oculus"). Even If you might not be sure what is currently happening, you still understand the overall Story and how things match up. You just get handed more and more pieces. It will however require attention, as many things take time to connect or pay off. This attentive and intuition-driven Viewing experiences also reminded me a lot of Lynch's movies.

Alan Bates delivers a fantastic Performance, but Gina Bellmann knocks it out of the park.

I cant believe the bad ratings this has and I also cant believe how little attention this movie receives.

Only in the third act, there are a few scenes that made my interest waver a bit. There are still more pieces to the puzzle being added, when i wished the story would simply use the pieces already in play. What I mean is, that foreshadowing and a satifying Setup+Playoffs need time. And not every aspect got the time it deserved.

Plotwise there isnt that much here. It feels like a good episode of a crime investigation show, with a little dip in the supernatural. But it doesnt go much beyond that.

What makes this a unique and recommendable experience, are the shots and the sound. Many creepy shots, locked off, still, wide lense. Together with the framing, blocking and the sound, they create a fear of missing a tiny movement, somewhere in the distance. Filming wide, yet invoking claustrophobia isnt easy. I also love the color grading and cinematography. Many dark mushed colors, but always offers enough contrast to not become ugly or takes you out because it seems too artificial. Sometimes punctuated by some brighter colors (usually red). You can see, that a lot of attention went into how the Images are presented.

The Last third, the supposed climax, falls completely flat for me. All the tension of the movie stems from the mystery and the unknown. But after a slow build up, we suddenly get slapped with ALL the details as to what is/was going on. The tension is lost, the plot mostly predictable from that point onwards. A sad ending to an otherwise great movie.