2. The Worst Person in the World, dir. Joachim Trier
A movie that topped many 2021 Best Of lists, The Worst Person in the World did not release in the US until February. Sorry, Norway, I'm the last person in the world to talk about how great The Worst Person in the World is.
The Worst Person in the World is a coming-of-age drama, only does anybody ever come of age anymore? Adolescent angst in our modern times seems to stretch forever. Our heroine, Julie (Renate Reinsve) is quickly running out of her twenties and coming to an awful realization: that first digit of her age turning over is not going to suddenly shower her life with meaning and happiness. She never really settled on a degree in college, never found a husband, and never accomplished much of anything in the way of a career. Ultimately though, it is decisions themselves that she is terrified of. Julie goes through two relationships in her movie with two men that love her and she loves back. But when the moment comes to take the next step, to have her life defined by whatever this is, she runs away. "I feel like a spectator in my own life. Like I'm playing a supporting role...", she tells her older cartoonist boyfriend, Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie).
That is a telling line, speaking of Julie's anxieties and fears, while ironically making a decision that will only exasperate them. But it is also a load of bullshit. The truth is, there's another man, Elivind (Herbert Nordrum), a younger, less serious person. With Elivind, she will be free of a life of older married friends and the expectation to fill her body with children. She can waste more time, do some mushrooms, have mindless fun and screw around. There's a freedom in being nobody with no goals, no tasks, just a bookshop job and a hot doofus at home. The Worst Person in the World is different from so many other romantic comedies where falling in love solves everything. Actually, in real life, falling in love might solve nothing at all. Julie comes dangerously close to an irreversible life choice with Elivind, and then at the last minute, she's given one final escape. Nothing achieved, yet, maybe not nothing learned.
The title is interesting. Julie is by no means a terrible person. Sure, she cheats on Aksel and probably is using Elivind. Sure she's a layabout in Oslo refusing to pursue her many talents. (She writes a feminist piece on oral sex that gets published online and is very successful, then never publishes anything again.) She crashes a wedding just for fun and gets into an argument with a loud lady just to troll her. This is never arch-villainy. "The Worst Person in the World" is this dramatic statement, which feels like a young person's view of themselves. It speaks to a time when your ego is so fragile you must either be one hyperbole or another. Julie never speaks these words out loud and is never called this, but she's definitely feeling it.
But The Worst Person in the World is also about not feeling that way. About how life is not time wasted or decisions not taken, but simply the moments we've had. There's brutal existential questions that are never quite answered. However, maybe they just do not matter anymore. Maybe growing up is not the responsibilities we take or reject, it is just learning to love ourselves. Aksel, despite having ten years on Julie, seems like he never really found these answers, and in a heartbreaking turn, it may be too late for him.
The standout thing about The Worst Person in the World is its soundtrack. This feels like the kind of cool selections of old Seventies pop hits that would have decorated an indie hit back in the 2000s. The needle drops are full of guys like Art Garfunkle and Harry Nilsson. I do not think this is the kind of soundtrack that Julie would pick her own life, this sort of ultra-hipster deep-cut cred feels more like stuff that would be in Aksel's record collection. But every song hits just right, and it rules, I fell badly in love with the ending song, which is absolutely perfect for this movie's message. The Worst Person in the World's soundtrack is something that a kid could find and decide to make their entire personality for three years. It is as dangerous as Garden State or Juno. (Or in my case, Drive.) All these sensitive men with feelings gives the movie an interesting texture. It's as iconic as the warm summery air of Oslo's modernist landscape which dominates so much of the frame.
I'm thirty-two now. The Worst Person in the World speaks a lot to me at the time of writing. (Forgive me, I usually only get introspective with I hit Movie of the Year.) I'm not married, have no kids. I never found the important job or the big platform that ever turned this into a brand or even paid a single bill. I should feel terrible, like I let an eighth of my life pass by since college without real success. The Worst Person in the World makes me feel better. Because fuck it, I did plenty of cool things in my Twenties, I'm gonna do more cool things in my Thirties. I like myself, I think I'm better at what I do now than I was last year, and life is not about some triumph you win ten minutes before the end credits.
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