Post by PhantomKnight on Jun 18, 2022 16:18:15 GMT -5
Slightly more honed mini review:
My relationship with writer/director Robert Eggers thus far has mostly been one of "Admirable, but not really for me." And I was beginning to think that would just be my blanket opinion of the rest of his movies. But then along comes this movie, The Northman, and lo and behold -- a Robert Eggers film I can finally get fully onboard with!
The Northman has been described as Eggers' most accessible film to date, and that's pretty true. Or, at least, as accessible as a Robert Eggers movie can be. A big part of that is because this feels like the one that has the most compelling story. At its core, The Northman is another take on the classic Hamlet story, just with Vikings this time, but that's a big check in its favor. This film having more of a structure than Eggers' previous films just helps enhance the strength of the storytelling here, as well as Eggers' own unique style, to the point where they both combine in a very complimentary fashion. The First Act is the most heavily Eggers-y stuff in the film and had me a little nervous, but once the narrative jumps ahead and gets into the revenge plotline, everything got incredibly gripping. This is the kind of movie I needed to see from Eggers to help me get onboard more with his style. His sense of weirdness, this time, feels more entwined with the mythological roots of the story and that leads to a more interesting and engaging experience.
But the awesomeness of The Northman doesn't end at just the style, it also has to do with the performances and simply how gripping the plot and character journeys are. This is most definitely a straightforward revenge story when you boil it down, but it doesn't play out the way you might expect. Robert Eggers is using this story as an opportunity to really dig into the idea of revenge itself, and thus show how it's not something as idealized as a lot of other stories make it out to be. Eggers also plays around with the perception of certain central figures in this story to further hammer that point home, and that adds layers to the story and characterizations. That, and the performances in and of themselves are fantastic.
And that goes for the film as a whole. Given my past reactions to the works of Robert Eggers, The Northman is a truly pleasant surprise and unquestionably his best work so far as far as I'm concerned. It's also one of the year's best so far.
****/****
My relationship with writer/director Robert Eggers thus far has mostly been one of "Admirable, but not really for me." And I was beginning to think that would just be my blanket opinion of the rest of his movies. But then along comes this movie, The Northman, and lo and behold -- a Robert Eggers film I can finally get fully onboard with!
The Northman has been described as Eggers' most accessible film to date, and that's pretty true. Or, at least, as accessible as a Robert Eggers movie can be. A big part of that is because this feels like the one that has the most compelling story. At its core, The Northman is another take on the classic Hamlet story, just with Vikings this time, but that's a big check in its favor. This film having more of a structure than Eggers' previous films just helps enhance the strength of the storytelling here, as well as Eggers' own unique style, to the point where they both combine in a very complimentary fashion. The First Act is the most heavily Eggers-y stuff in the film and had me a little nervous, but once the narrative jumps ahead and gets into the revenge plotline, everything got incredibly gripping. This is the kind of movie I needed to see from Eggers to help me get onboard more with his style. His sense of weirdness, this time, feels more entwined with the mythological roots of the story and that leads to a more interesting and engaging experience.
But the awesomeness of The Northman doesn't end at just the style, it also has to do with the performances and simply how gripping the plot and character journeys are. This is most definitely a straightforward revenge story when you boil it down, but it doesn't play out the way you might expect. Robert Eggers is using this story as an opportunity to really dig into the idea of revenge itself, and thus show how it's not something as idealized as a lot of other stories make it out to be. Eggers also plays around with the perception of certain central figures in this story to further hammer that point home, and that adds layers to the story and characterizations. That, and the performances in and of themselves are fantastic.
And that goes for the film as a whole. Given my past reactions to the works of Robert Eggers, The Northman is a truly pleasant surprise and unquestionably his best work so far as far as I'm concerned. It's also one of the year's best so far.
****/****
