A fresh take on the romantic comedy genre.
Julie, a student from Oslo, changes careers as fast as her hair color, studying surgery first, then psychology, and eventually switching to photography. Her professional identity and relationships with two boyfriends—the arrogant graphic novel artist Aksel and the caring barista Eivind—form the core of Joachim Trier’s latest picture, the final part of his Oslo trilogy (Reprise; Oslo, August 31st). Premiered in 2021 in Cannes, The Worst Person in the World’s star Renate Reinsve took the festival’s Best Actress Award, with the film subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and Trier, together with his regular co-author Eskil Vogt, for Best Original Screenplay.
Following Thelma, a sci-fi thriller about a girl with telekinetic skills, the renowned Norwegian author Joachim Trier resumes experimenting with genres—his latest rom-com, which draws on Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, is both smart and playful. It wittily reflects on eco-activism and the #metoo movement alongside animated comics, time-suspension scenes, and drug trip visualizations. Divided into twelve parts, the film also features a prologue and an epilogue and is accompanied by a female narrator’s commentary summarizing the changes in the world of dating.
The Worst Person in the World reunites Trier with Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, who also starred in the Norwegian director’s breakthrough feature Oslo, August 31st. These characters help him study the transformation of gender roles and sexual relations, age and economic imbalance in heterosexual couples, as well as the tragicomic insecurity of today’s thirtysomethings. Whilst Julie’s female family members already had several children in their thirties, should she follow suit—or reinvent everything on her own?
The film will be screened in Norwegian with Russian subtitles.
The Worst Person in the World
Dir. Joachim Trier
Norway, 2021. 121 min. 18+