Oslo, August 31st (2011)

bitter, cold, gray, powerful. pictures of disillusion. search of yourself in a strange world. desire of new beginning. close doors. out sense meetings. pain and drops of hope. the life has unique sense. the past can not be present or future. the force source of story is its universal value. Anders may be everybody. his trip to a little sense of existence or only for a realistic form of consolation is part of each man or woman. maybe, not so painful. he can be one of Dostoievsky characters. or only a Tchekov page silhouette. but he is more. he is a hero of our time. a kind of Sisif. or only his remains. few beautiful images. a magnificent performance of Anders Danielsen Lie. and a town as skin of fall. nothing else. only a room, a piano, a lake and last day of summer - perfect scene for last step.

Fmovies: The opening and closing minutes of Oslo, August 31rst are peerless filmmaking, a simultaneously nostalgic and disturbing slideshow of images from the titular city, which appears as some kind of larger supernatural entity with a will of its own. The film that they bracket is pretty decent too. It's a quiet slice of cinema verite about Anders, a recovering drug addict.

This isn't your standard AA-approved narrative of redemption, and that's what makes it good. Anders discovers that the world outside is frosty, ambivalent towards him, and most of all banal and meaningless. Of course, the difficulty is portraying banality without being banal yourself, and Trier doesn't entirely succeed here. But it does provide, on top of the more philosophical statement, a great representation of the difficulty of getting back into society after leaving it. Oslo, August 31rst is smart enough to see the social barriers that make the standard addiction narrative so deceitful.

Other than the immediately striking opening, there's nothing overtly impressive about this film. It has its flaws, such as the ending, which seems contrived compared to everything that's come before. But it's a quietly solid picture that certainly deserves a little of your time.

After seeing Reprise some years ago I had been eagerly awaiting for Joachim Trier's next film. Loosely based on the same novel Louis Malle's Le Feu Follet is based on by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Oslo, August 31st retells this story for the new age. By no means this movie happens to be a remake. The movie happens to have some similar basic elements here and there, as well as different encounters for the main character played this time out by Anders Danielsen Lie who was also happened to be one of the leads in Reprise who this time around plays a wonderful role on his own .

This is a story about a 34 year old recovering drug addict who has screwed up his life due to excessive partying, doing heavy drugs and alienating his loved ones that at his age he finds himself stuck and unable to move forward in his life. As he's about to finish his rehab stint, he's allowed to go into town for a job interview and in the process he decides to use this opportunity to visit old friends and relatives which in a way ends up making matters much worse for him. With all his old friends now married with children and successful careers he feels completely useless and overwhelmed. As he's end up being given the sympathetic pep talks, or being lectured at by unsympathetic characters who are trying to protect themselves throughout the day he finds himself challenging their personal views head on while struggling to convey his frustrations that no one seems to fully understand yet take personally.

In my opinion there's not much to compare Oslo, August 31st to Le Feu Follet. Louis Malle's version (1963) which I am a huge fan of is one of those cinematic gems that story-wise packs a punch. Le Feu Follet also stands next to other classic black and white pictures like Fellini's 8 ½ as one of the best looking black and white movies ever made and I highly recommend everyone to see it.

Oslo, August 31st in itself has an entirely different approach and has a more melancholic feel throughout the film. With almost 50 year gap difference from Le Feu Follet to be told as a modern day tale this story depicts modern day tactlessness that society potentially sees these situations as almost insignificant when dealing with recovering addicts. Sure, maybe some people will try to try and understand but the world is also more likely to let a person deal with his/her own demons for they can't be bothered and even distance themselves for they have their own problems to deal with no matter how much a friend or a loved one really needs their help to get through life.

Oslo, August 31st has been called a "Devastating and Heartbreaking" Film by some, and I agree. If you're expecting to see another Reprise this might probably not be it, but it could be just as great of a film depending on the person. I will even go as far as to say this can be a total "hit and miss" for some viewers. To me this is still a beautiful film that really moved me and made me feel sad watching it. I will definitely be on the lookout for the DVD when it finally comes out for sale. Overall, make sure to watch this movie with an open mind then make your own opinion. 7 out of 10.

Oslo, August 31st fmovies. I think I learned about this film when I searched for the highest rated films on Rotten Tomatoes. I saw it had earned nearly universal high marks, so I decided to check it out.

It follows a recovering addict named Anders who is granted a leave from the rehab clinic where he is currently residing to go into Oslo for a job interview. While in Oslo, which he has not visited in some time since going to the clinic, he meets a number of old friends, attempts to reconnect with a former girlfriend, and visits some old haunts.

That is essentially all in the way of plot. What makes the film so affecting are the conversations he has with these friends about life, feelings of regret, lost opportunities, etc. The conversations seemed so authentic and realistic; the writers never gave into the temptation of injecting false notes of sentimentality..

Even though Anders is an addict, this isn't really an "addiction movie." His addiction is always there in the background, but the themes that the film explores are far more universal and general. And the lead actor's performance was very poignant and impressive. I definitely recommend this to anybody interested in a strong dialog and character-driven film.

The sober rationality of the young Norwegian intellectual classes provides a perfectly blank canvas on which to paint the conversely complex neuroses of the anti-hero, Anders. Anders is an intelligent and gifted opinionist and writer, but his addiction has left him riddled with insecurity. The film focuses on the most pivotal moment of this young man's life as he's tragically stuck between recovery and regression: that moment is both sprinkled with glimmers of hope and drenched in melancholia. Anders' contradiction is the eternal paradox of the addict, and perhaps Trier is presenting it as an allegory of the modern human condition. Anders Danielsen Lie gives an incredible performance as the enigmatic hero and the acting throughout is consistently authentic, convincing and engrossing. The soft-focus cinematography (Jakob Ihre) works well with a particularly engaging sound design which, along with very conscious direction, editing and general production design, makes for technically masterful cinema with an aesthetic that is both selectively minimal and enjoyably rich. Oslo is a tragedy. Its simple, melancholic tone and metropolitan landscapes make the film undeniably reminiscent of the French New Wave - think Hiroshima Mon Amour in present day Oslo. The film is minimal and stylized, presenting social realism in an artistic form without losing any of its dramatic potency to surrealism. Utterly convincing and captivating: an instant indie classic.

Joachim Trier's brilliant Oslo, August 31st opens with a lovely montage of Oslo, Norway showing its quaint cobblestone streets, sidewalks where children are playing, and a captivating view of a nearby lake. As we watch long shots seen in a car ride from the viewpoint of the passengers, we hear voice-overs talking about their memories and impressions of Oslo. Many recollections are good, some are bad, but all are personal and intimate, the stuff of life, not of movies. Based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's 1931 novel "Le Feu Follet," Oslo, August 31st takes place in a 24-hour period, following recovering drug addict 34-year-old Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) as he takes on his first job interview in years after being given a one-day release from a state-run rehabilitation center.

All is not going well, however. As Anders explains during a group therapy session, he hasn't felt much of anything since becoming sober. Two weeks away from completing his rehab, in the morning of the interview he fills his pockets with stones and jumps into the water of a lake in an attempt to drown himself. Unsuccessful in his attempt, he must confront his job interview that afternoon as an Editorial Assistant for a publishing company. The interview goes well and Anders responses are articulate and quite insightful and the employer seems impressed. When the applicant is asked to fill in the gaps in his resume for the last five years, however, he is unable to do so, admitting that he was a drug addict, using cocaine, heroin, DMT, and also alcohol, providing details not requested by the interviewer.

Anders sets himself up to fail and, without waiting to see how his past has affected his chances for employment he grabs his resume out of the employer's hand and walks away from the interview. Rather than return to the center immediately, he visits old friends and makes an afternoon date with his sister Nina, but, unwilling to confront the pain in their relationship, sends a surrogate instead. One of the most moving segments of the film is Ander's extended conversation with former close friend Thomas (Hans Olav Brenner), now a Professor of Literature and married with a young child. In a conversation that is devastatingly real, Thomas tells Anders that he would be crushed if Anders did anything stupid and asks how he can support him.

He tells Anders, however, that his parents are selling their home because of his financial debts, a fact that, no matter how true, does not support his friend in regaining his self-image. Later in the conversation, the talk shifts to Thomas' lack of joy in his own relationship as he wonders what happened to the promise of his youth, not a reassuring message for the struggling Anders. When Thomas tells him "It will get better. It will work out." Anders looks at him with a knowing smile and says, "Except it won't." Looking like a somewhat hip, almost tough young professional with an open leather jacket, Anders then walks around the town with a detached look on his face, more of an observer than a participant in the world around him.

Sitting in an open air café watching people pass by and listening to other people's conversations, there is a palpable sense of isolation so deep and so penetrating that it can tear right into the heart of any viewer who has experienced feelings of alienation. Night clubs, parties, and raves occupy Anders as he starts to fall back into old habits. Though he tells a young student that he sleeps with after one of the