Vinterbrødre (2017) Reviews

• Dark, Surreal and Wacky; Kafka Would Smile

  Raven-19692017-10-04

  Everyone has a little darkness inside, they just may be too boring to know it. While brothers Emil and Johan are accustomed to the constant roar of rock crushing machines, relentless and filthy mining work, bone chilling cold and foul air, they have different coping mechanisms. Johan merely shrugs off the bleakness and monotony. Emil goofs off and routinely slips into a moonshine induced fantasy world revolving around their pretty neighbor Anna, rifle skill training videos and stealing chemicals to make moonshine. As the brothers argue about who has a better grip on reality, unexpected events threaten to loosen the hold that either of them have upon the truth. This dark, surreal and wacky film alters and toys with our senses and perceptions of reality. Churning machines, explosions and blaring alarms, for instance, remove us from the comfortable cocoon of sounds that we are used to and transport us into an alternate universe. The experience is jolting, yet also enriching. It would make Kafka smile. This is what stories are supposed to do. Film actors are up to the task. While the limited setting gets tedious after a while and the dialogue could be improved, the film is intriguing and refreshing. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival.

• Quirky in an arty way

  euroGary2017-10-19

  I saw this at the 2017 London Film Festival, and indeed it is the kind of film you only ever see at festivals: slow-moving, not a lot happening, weird characters in bizarre situations... you know the drill. The plot: immature Emil lives with his slightly more sensible brother Johan in a grotty house somewhere in Scandinavia. Emil has the hots for a comely neighbour, but it is the better-looking Johan who gets into her knickers. There's a mad old hoarder man as well. Both brothers work in a mine. They supplement their income by selling the alcoholic drink Emil brews at home, but when a colleague falls seriously ill as a result of the drink, Emil is ostracised. Perhaps he can take refuge in his soldier fantasies? There is a definite atmosphere to this film: it is all very bleak and wintry, with washed-out colours and snowy landscapes, as well as long sequences with no dialogue. (An exception to the bleakness is the wrestling scene between the two brothers: one completely naked, the other clad only in ugly underpants. That probably was not *supposed* to be funny, but it is.) In this type of film it is hard to judge the acting, but Elliott Crosset Hove as Emil, who is in almost every scene, has a quirky charisma. This is the kind of film you have to be in the right mood to see; I liked it.

• Darkly Dark

  westsideschl2019-01-06

  Negative: Just an approximation, but close to half the movie was headlamp lit views (well, what could be viewed) of a few limestone miners under ground. The other half is them not doing anything but standing above ground looking limestoney in their limestone dust environment, and them not doing much in their prefab housing. Finally, a few minutes allocated to a couple of minor issues of homemade booze, and who gets to have sex w/the only female around. Positive: Good view of a job nobody wants.

• Dark atmospheric Icelandic ambient

  crownofsprats2019-01-07

  The Northmen are a quiet and broody folk - but not devoid of a particular brand of occasional and subtle humor. This is especially true if they work in a desolate wintry wasteland, mining some sort of featureless chalky rock. It's hard being a weirdo here...and it's even harder if you're in love with what seems to be one and only available girl in your mining village. Amidst the frozen drudgery of mining routine, conflict and tragedy is liable to erupt any moment from such a setup. Emil's the weird one - quirky and creative, but harboring an aggressive darkness that his more straight-laced brother acknowledges but is incapable of really understanding. The rest of the mining community will tolerate Emil's antics as long as he keeps bringing that homebrew he brews out of industrial solvents he steals from the mine with his brother's help...and as long as the swill doesn't land one of them in the hospital to slowly die. It's hard to review such an inscrutable film. Though the two brothers give fine performances, the ambient landscape is the real star of the show here, given sonic depth by the equally austere soundtrack and sound design choices. For the rest of the cast - including the woman - we are left with only threadbare clues as to the nature of their characters. Though masculinity is on full frontal display (quite often in a very literal sense), I would argue that there is much more going on here than just the study of its destructive manifestations. Emil is more than just a beta male descending into a miserable spiral of jealousy and hatred. He is a dreamer and an outsider - don't give up on him, because there is some redemptive hope that the choices he makes will not lead to his ruin. Sure, the girl he loves may not be his "girlfriend" as he claims to the boss during a particularly harrowing "performance review" - but when he steals her panties through her window and runs away to the forest to sniff them with childlike glee, she mirthfully laughs instead of being horrified and angry. It may not be much to go on, but it does stand in stark contrast to the actual sex that she has later, when she relents and lets her actual lover have his way with her sleepy body after telling him no like five times. And even though the brotherly relationship is far from perfect, his brother does love him dearly. So will Emil slip further and further into his dreams, only to unleash a final wave of fury against everyone who slighted him using a semi-automatic assault rifle he bargained from some hoarder in exchange for his toxic hooch? You'll just have to watch to find out!

• Obstinate young adult do crazy things.

  zolizolidus-357342018-02-01

  Emil is a very dark and aggressiv young adult that work at a limestone mine on the Danish island Zeeland. He dont respect autority and his careless behavour ends up causing harm to his co workers. His attitude take his down a very dark path and this is his story told. This is not a movie that will leave you feeling good so if you have bad day and want a movie that will cheer you up, stay away from this one. The acting is very good so its an absolute worth watch movie. From what I understand the title winter comes from the limestone dust that makes everything around it white year around.