Review of Oslo, August 31st (2011) by Andrew H — 25 Nov 2012

I thought this was okay. It had some nice shots here and there, and quality performances, but it didn't say anything new, and it didn't say something old in a new way. Someone's gotta tell the director that just cause he's related to Lars Von Trier and is foreign and indie doesn't mean he can make yet another aimless drug addiction movie that doesn't pull you in.

Some of the conversations were very well written, but for the most part it feels like your watching from the outside. It was predictable, you knew exactly what was going to happen. He hasn't had alcohol in nine months, now he's having some, oops, now he's gonna buy heroin, now he'll do the heroin.

No one didn't see that coming. Movies like Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream, they bring you into this environment of vibrant characters and dare to show you how much these characters love drugs.

Trainspotting's aimless, because it has to be, but stuff is constantly happening, and it's always urgent, because these characters need heroin now. Even when Mark Renton's quitting heroin, it's a very urgent, calculated thing.

He HAS to. That's what separates those brilliant movies from this: urgency. I'm totally fine with a slow movie, a movie that takes its time, provided there's something worth waiting for, hopefully something new.

Drive, Shame, those were slow, but they had every right to be, because they were doing something new. This movie's like waiting in a really long line to get to a ride, and when you finally think you're about to get on, you realize the line WAS the ride.