Nordic Track

Now three movies in, there is no doubt that Robert Eggers is one of the more creative minds working in the film industry today. With The Northman (2022), the co-writer (along with Sjón), director, and producer brings forward his most accessible piece yet... but that doesn’t mean that this is not as creative, intricate, challenging, or authentic as his The VVitch and The Lighthouse. This time taking a deep dive into Norse history and mythology, it might surprise some that the main source they worked from was the story of Amleth... a tale which appears in the “Gesta Danorum” (History of the Danes) – as it is also the main inspiration for William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (it is easier to spot the similarities once you are aware of the connection).

Okay, let’s set the scene: it is the early 1990s, and conflict is afoot in Somalia. The Barre government continues to be in power, but a well armed rebel force is slowly encroaching on the capital city of Mogadishu. It is in this jarring upheaval that both the South and North Korean governments have turned to Somalia for assistance with entry into the United Nations. This is the harrowing subject of the 2021 historical action drama, Escape from Mogadishu. Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, he expertly paints a vivid picture – stunning locales (mostly Morocco – a striking stand-in that feels wholly alive), politically savvy and inexperienced characters, as well as very real civil unrest litter this narrative. The South Korean embassy is led by ambassador Han Shin-sung (Kim Yoon-seok), while its Northern counterparts follow ambassador Rim Yong-su (Joon-ho Huh).

Kenneth Branagh’s most personal film to date, 2021's Belfast, which he writes, directs and produces, is heavily inspired by his own childhood experiences growing up in Northern Ireland – a tumultuous time to say the least. With newcomer Jude Hill playing his childhood stand-in (referred to as Buddy throughout), he is just what you’d expect – a creative dreamer more than willing to battle large dragons and the like, this wide-eyed ragamuffin absorbs every last experience. . . but is most entranced when watching movies on television or in red velvet seat-filled theatres.

How can one define ‘raw’ music? That elusive energy that record executive Richie Finestra was desperately looking for in the sadly short-lived HBO series Vinyl. . . it can be found in the first few seconds of the MC5's “Kick Out the Jams” – the listener immediately learning that they are trying to melt your face right off; or in Jimi Hendrix’s reworking of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” – his inventive, inspirational guitar work seeping into your very bloodstream; anarchy can literally be felt in every single note of The Sex Pistols; while Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” emits a primordial energy that never lets you go. Truly transcendent, it transports you to a different plane of existence. . . a confounding place which finds vexing combinations of pure natural energy diluted with sex and drugs, innocence clashing with the realization that life isn’t fair – it is like living in the gutter of heaven itself. . . still perfection (after all, it is heaven), yet in a way you couldn’t imagine possible in such a place. A combination of youthful exuberance and unbridled energy that captures lightning in a bottle, that raw sound is not something that can be sustained. Coming from a creative and energetic place when youth meets adulthood, where simplicity combines with complexity, two things inevitably happen – you either evolve into something more refined and mainstream, or you burn out/die. An excellent example of this lengthy definition, 2010's The Runaways, written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, depicts the short lived run of the titular band.

A night (or matinee) at the movies isn’t what it used to be. Now, we’re lucky if we see two trailers, the rest of the lengthy pre-show being packed with commercials that frustrate – bringing the atmosphere down several notches. Drawing your attention to what you would have seen circa 1940, you would have experienced a newsreel, followed by a live action short, then an engaging cartoon. . . all of this leading into the main event (the trailers running after the film’s closing. . . if you’ve ever wondered why they are called trailers, now you know). Flashing back to August 1940, air conditioned audiences would have witnessed the visual horrors of the war – specifically, the bombing of Britain (which started in July), these realities then leading into Alice in Movieland – a short depicting the dream machine that is Hollywood leading a girl to fame and glory (a fascinating watch due to its young lead – soon to be star Joan Leslie; How to Marry a Millionaire director Jean Negulesco’s direction [this a much earlier work]; and perhaps more than anything else, a screenplay written by young journalist Ed Sullivan – long before his rise to fame).

Pairing up two of the most iconic actors of this generation. . . no, I am not talking about Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. . . Matt Damon and Christian Bale work together for the first time in the 2019 Best Picture nominee Ford v Ferrari, directed by James Mangold (Logan; Walk the Line). An historical event that I’ve somehow never heard of before, this ‘based on a true story’ tale is set in 1966, and the times, they are a changing. A little over twenty years after the end of World War 2, a whole new generation was born when the soldiers returned home in 1945. . . these now teenagers/early 20 somethings (with more money than any other grouping that came before), are yearning for a new type of car (not their father’s automobile).