The Northman

Official Australian release date: 21/4/22.
Viewed: 21/4/22.
Director: Robert Eggers
Actors: Alexander Skarsgard, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: MA

‘The Northman’ is a viking film with a hint of Shakespeare thrown in. It follows the journey of Amleth (Skarsgard), his mother Gudrun (Kidman), his father King Aurvandil (Hawke) and uncle Fjolnir (Bang). Olga (Taylor-Joy) comes along later as the love interest. When the king is killed, Amleth vows to avenge him, setting up the plot. I wish there was more of Hawke & Dafoe, but they have fun with the screentime they get.

Skarsgard’s traps almost outshine some of his acting, with him being extremely buff for this role. The scenery of Iceland (and lots of Ireland standing in for other Nordic regions) looks amazing, but isn’t always used as much as it could be. The score’s OK – lots of guttural chanting and drumming. Trying to be somewhat faithful to the period, being set in ~900AD, there’s plenty of violence and gore, but it’s not incessant and there’s no large battles. Still, some is pretty graphic.

At it’s heart, it’s that age old tale of love or hate – you can only ever really choose one. This is an easy answer for Amleth for most of the film, being driven purely by revenge – until it’s not. I really liked the night scenes when Eggers make it a silver-ish black & white, but I just felt there was something missing to make this a great film.
 
Overall: Good viking revenge action film, if not quite perfect
 
Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Official Australian release date: 14/4/22.
Viewed: 16/4/22.
Directors: Dan Kwan & Daniel Schinert
Actors: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis
Genre: Action / Comedy
Rating: MA

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is a simple story about a family’s search for meaning. It also happens to be a mind-bending, multiple-universe, kung-fu, sci-fi epic! Evelyn (Yeoh) and her husband Waymond (Quan – Short Round from ‘Temple of Doom’!) run a laundromat and have some issues with their marriage, their daughter Joy (Hsu) and Evelyn’s father, Gong Gong (Hong). What starts out as a family drama doesn’t take long to turn into a fight to save the multiverse when another Waymond shows up to enlist Evelyn’s help.

From the directors of ‘Swiss Army Man’, “the Daniels” sure know how to do surreal well, but make sure there’s plenty of laughs and idiosyncratic comedy. The alternate realities are explained quickly and simply – no time is wasted and the plot and action is always moving along. Yeoh, Hsu and Quan are all great, as is Jamie Lee Curtis in her role(s). Yeoh should get extra credit both for the stunts/fights at her age (it is 20 years since ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’!), as well as pulling off both a martial arts expert and boring housewife at once.

While there’s plenty of bonkers thing going on – Hsu’s costumes are excellent, some hilarious sex jokes, great/unexpected use of “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)”– the heart of the film is the relationship between Evelyn & Joy and Evelyn & Waymond. There’s some sad moments and some beautiful ones, especially the quiet desert scenes, but we’re left with a great underlying message of love and kindness giving the world meaning.
 
Overall: Poignant, unique, fun, interesting, heartfelt – a must-see!
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.