Kim Magnusson Movies
- 2009
Charlotte Sachs-Bostrup directed this family-oriented mystery that attained enormous popularity in its native Denmark, especially among young audiences. At the time of its release, it represented one of several Western European efforts about teen and pre-teen characters playing amateur sleuth. Elena Arndt-Jensen and Nanna Finding Koppel star, respectively, as Karla and Katrine, two girls caught up in the tumult of early adolescence. Karla, hoping that she and Katrine might forge a closer friendship, invites Katrine to spend the holidays with her. Katrine obliges, but nothing quite turns out as they expect. Karla soon falls in love for the first time, with Jonas (Joshua Marc Berman) a young boy close to her age. This is all well and good, of course, but Karla becomes so wrapped up in the new romance that she neglects her friendship with Katrine. These concerns take a back seat, however (and the girls must set aside their conflicts) when a gang of local thieves begins to strike repeatedly, and Jonas and the girls team up to solve the mystery. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elena Arndt-Jensen, Nanna Finding Koppel, (more)
A young girl from the provinces inadvertently unleashes a ghost that takes advantage of its newfound freedom by targeting the bullies in her dormitory for a series of gruesome supernatural attacks. Katrine was looking to start a new life when she decided to move to Copenhagen and enroll in the university. But naïve Katrine was clueless to the social hierarchy on campus. When Katrine starts dating Sanne's ex-boyfriend, jealousy gives way to anger as Sanne convinces her friends to drive the newly arrived student out of the dorms for good. Little did the girls realize that the same urban legend they used to try and scare Katrine would eventually come back to haunt them in the end. Now Katrine has accidentally set the ghost free, and the students in the dorm are running for their lives. Katrine knows exactly what will happen should she fail to stop the ghost, and when suspicions fall on her, she seeks out a former resident named Rolf who knows a secret or two about this murderous specter. But Katrine and Rolf will have to act fast if they want to save the students who have yet to stare death in the eyes, because this ghost has a taste for killing and the slaughter has only just begun ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2008
A portly 16-year-old finds his reigning position as the local Ping-Pong champion unexpectedly compromised when a series of long buried family secrets set him on an emotional collision course with his feisty younger brother. His home life may be fractured by divorce and his love life decidedly non-existent, yet moody teen Rille still does his best to endure with grace and dignity. Rille's mother is currently dating a middle-aged nerd, and the rare times that the boy is able to speak with his father -- a professional diver -- the old man is usually drunk. Though finding a sense of purpose through either his family or his studies has thus far proven a futile effort, Rille is at least able to take solace in the fact that he is the most accomplished Ping-Pong player in town. The founder of a community-based ping pong program for kids, Rille is admired by the young players and presides over his subjects with the zeal of jovial royalty. The delicate balance of Rille's life is suddenly thrown for a loop, however, when family secrets surface and immediately threaten to send the lives of both himself and his younger sibling Eric into an irreversible tailspin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Johansson, Hampus Johansson, (more)
- 2008
A handful of idealistic twenty-somethings discover love and trust isn't always enough in this period drama from writer and director Gudny Halldorsdottir. It's the early Seventies, and law student Selma (Tinna Hrafnsdottir) wants to do more than simply defend people in court; she's eager to make a difference in the lives of others, and when her boyfriend Bloffi (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) joins the staff of Vedramot, a home for delinquent teenagers with emotional issues, she leaves school to work beside him. Selma, Bloffi and their friends believe that an open environment where the young inmates have the opportunity to discuss their feelings and the circumstances that led them into a life of crime will do more good than traditional disciplinary techniques. However, not all the youngsters at Vedramot respond to this laid-back approach, and Disa (Hera Hilmarsdottir), a product of a severely abusive home, openly encourages the other teens to flout the few rules they're asked to follow. In time, conflicts between the staff and the students escalate into violence, leading to tragedy and bloodshed. Vedramot (aka The Quiet Storm) was inspired in part by Halldorsdottir's own experiences working at a home for underage offenders in the Seventies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tinna Hrafnsdottir, Hilmir Snær Gudnason, (more)
- 2008
A man trying to breathe new life into his career attempts to do the same with his relationship with his son in this drama from Denmark. Born and raised in Copenhagen, Roland (Baard Owe) was a hard-drinking aspiring theatrical director who left his family behind when he moved to Germany in search of work. Years later, he's come back home to direct a production for a local theater company, and in many ways he seems a changed man -- thoughtful, focused, and with a firm control of his appetites. Needing a place to stay in Copenhagen, Roland contacts his son Jakob (Carsten Bjornlund) and asks if he can use his spare room; Jakob, who hasn't heard from his father in years, turns him down and Roland rents a flat instead. Catching a glimpse of Jakob with his wife and children, Roland becomes determined to win back his son's affection, and when Jakob sees his father is dating a local woman, Kirsten (Hanne Hedelund), and is determined to make a fresh start in Copenhagen, he begins reaching out to his dad again. Comeback was the first feature film from writer and director Ulrik Wivel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Baard Owe, Carsten Bjornlund, (more)
- 2008
A girl is torn between her faith and her feelings in this coming of age drama from Denmark. Sara Dahl (Rosalinde Mynster) is seventeen years old and has been raised in a family of strict Jehovah's Witnesses. Sara follows the tenets of the faith and often joins her family to distribute church literature door to door in hopes of attracting new converts. Despite the Dahl family's devotion to their church, there has been a great deal of tension in the household -- her father (Jens Jorn Spottag) has been unfaithful to her mother (Sarah Boberg), and while he's deeply contrite, she's unwilling to forgive him. One night, Sara goes out with some friends from school and they end up at a dance club where she meets a handsome boy named Teis (Pilou Asbaek). The two feel an immediate attraction to one another, and as Sara falls for Teis, she begins to encounter a world and ideas she's never considered before, and starts to question the doctrine that she's been taught since childhood. However, Sara's parents are uncomfortable with her relationship with Teis, and they discuss her new attitudes with John (Anders W. Berthelsen), the pastor at their church, and he confronts her both privately and publicly about the morality of her new love. To Verdener (aka Worlds Apart) was screened in competition at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalinde Mynster, Pilou Asbæk, (more)
With Bruoguminn (AKA White Night Wedding), Icelandic cause-célébré director Baltasar Kormákur updates the Chekhov play Ivanov and geographically transports it to the island of Flatey, just off the Icelandic coast. At the outset of the tale, literature professor Jon prepares to wed onetime student Thora, the daughter of the region's most prosperous clan. Sadly, however, disadvantageous circumstances threaten to stand in the way of the couple's happiness, including a fiscal dispute between the family of the bride and the family of the bridegroom, and by Jon's complicated past - a past that involves a prior marriage that gave the young man grave self-doubts and made him feel deeply unworthy. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilmir Snær Gudnason, Margrét Vihjálmsdóttir, (more)
- 2007
Adam's Apples screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen pens director Paprika Steen's darkly comic tale of an opera-obsessed cafeteria manager who works on a financially strapped ferry running between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Cafeteria manager Jan (Lars Brygmann) isn't the most likable of characters. Not only has his fixation on proper procedure isolated him from his co-workers, but even Jan's shrieking wife Anna (Sidse Babett Knudsen) can't find many redeeming qualities in her severely grating spouse. One night, after hiding out in the local opera house, Jan comes home to yet another battle with his embittered bride. The following day, Jan's life takes a wholly unexpected turn when the fed-up captain of the ferry grows tired of Jan's behavior and demands that the obnoxious employee seek professional help. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lars Brygmann, Sidse Babett Knudsen, (more)
- 2007
- NR
In 1974, a young Icelandic girl met a grim fate at the hands of a murderer -- and the crime was never solved. So begins celebrated director Baltasar Kormákur's procedural thriller Jar City (or Mýrin), adapted from Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason's 2000 best-seller, Tainted Blood. In the present day, the jaded and exhausted detective Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) begins to investigate a link between that notorious unsolved crime and the homicide of a local thug, Holberg (Thorsteinn Gunnarsson). Erlendur also struggles in his private life with an overwhelming problem: the drug addiction of his own pregnant daughter, Eva Lind (Agusta Eva Erlendsdottir). Meanwhile, Örn (Atli Rafn Sigurdarson), an employee at a DNA-mapping lab, reels from the death of his own daughter, who suffered from a brain tumor. In time, the two men's lives will intersect in a myriad of ways that neither can even begin to foresee -- and the motivation for Holberg's original crime will become resoundingly clear. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, Agusta Eva Erlendsdottir, (more)
- 2007
An actress tells a little white lie to land a plum role only to find the truth catches up with her in this comedy/drama from Sweden. Bella (Martina Haag) is inching into her forties, and doesn't feel as if she has much to show for it in her personal and professional lives. Bella learns that Ingmar Bergman will be directing a new stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and she decides to take a chance and show up for an open audition. After Bella's reading, one of the members of the production staff asks if she has a background in acrobatics. Eager to land the part, Bella says yes, and to her delight she's cast in a small role while striking up a romance with another member of the troupe (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). However, with each passing day Bella becomes increasingly aware that if she doesn't tell someone that she doesn't know the first thing about acrobatics, her esteemed director will find out the hard way. Underbar Och Alskad Av Alla (aka Wonderful and Loved by All) was based on a novel by Martina Haag, who appears at Bella in this screen adaptation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martina Haag, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, (more)
Five American college students experience a particularly bad trip while vacationing in Ireland and partaking of the local hallucinogenic fungi in director Paddy Breathnach's tripped-out tale of sex, drugs, and slashers. Upon arriving in Ireland to go camping with their old college buddy Jake, Americans Tara, Troy, Holly, Bluto, and Lisa and their host eagerly set out into the wilderness in search of some magic mushrooms. As the trip starts to take hold and the group gathers around the campfire, Tara begins to wonder if she took too strong of a dose after Bluto goes missing, and she feels as if she's somehow witnessed his death. When other members of the group go missing as well, it begins to appear that someone is stalking the group and taking murderous advantage of their altered state. Could it be that this is just a simple case of hallucinogenic panic, or is there an element of truth to Jake's troubling stories of mutilated bodies and unsolved murders in the Irish countryside? The only way to be certain is for Tara to fight for her life and try to maintain her sanity until the morning sun rises and the reality returns. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, (more)
- 2007
Danish director Tomas Villum Jensen's acerbic satire Clash of Egos stars Ulrich Thomsen as Tonny, a husband and father so rage-addled that he got sent to jail for KO'ing a man in public. Tonny's wife, Tanja (Ellen Hillingso), grew humiliated and promptly divorced him, but Tonny luckily managed to swing occasional custody of his two children. On one of their prized afternoons together, Tonny and the kids hearken off to see the new Harry Potter movie, but run headfirst into the discouraging news that the film is sold out. With only one other option available to them at the cinema, the three must endure a thoroughly miserable afternoon at an über-pretentious Danish film called "The Murderer," directed by the snotty artiste director Claus Volter (Nikolaj Lie Kaas in a characterization reportedly inspired by Lars von Trier) . Frustrated, Tonny smashes a window in the cinema lobby (and barely manages to escape re-incarceration for it), then decides to track Volter down to demand a refund on their ticket and concession costs -- little knowing the misery he is about to cause in the life of this revered "film artist." ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, (more)
A man fascinated with the process of ending one's own life meets some rather disturbing kindred spirits in this dark comedy. Erik (Andreas Wilson) is a commercial photographer and would-be screenwriter who has left his native Sweden to come to Hollywood in hopes of selling his latest script. Erik quickly discovers there isn't much of a market for stories about suicide in Tinseltown, and he's looking for new inspiration when he meets Lola (Lolita Davidovich), a beautiful but wildly unpredictable woman who lures him into joining her on a road trip to Las Vegas. As it happens, Lola is drawn to Vegas by the presence of Dr. Bangley (John Larroquette), a psychologist and television chat-show host who is publicizing his latest book in Sin City -- "Stay Alive," a guide for those contemplating suicide. As part of the book launch, Bangley is arranging for a number of his more colorful patients to meet him in Las Vegas, where they'll take part in a television reality show hosted by the doctor. The clients include Katherine (Julie Benz), who has been suffering from depression since losing custody of her son; Geert (Alexander Skarsgård), a troubled cross-dresser; and Ella Toscana (Terry Moore), an elderly former movie star with remarkable mood swings. Bangley also has to deal with his teenage daughter, Sunshine (Skye McCole Bartusiak), who is willing to do anything to get her busy dad's attention. As Erik crosses paths with Bangley's entourage, he's confronted with people who are even more obsessed with killing themselves than the average Swede, and feels as if he fits in until gangster and part-time limo driver Omar (Fares Fares) reveals his sinister side. Kill Your Darlings received its North American premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lolita Davidovich, Andreas Wilson, (more)
- 2006
Compared frequently in the American press to the Coen Brothers comedy Fargo (given its similar blend of brutal crime and comedy-of-errors shenanigans), the Scandinavian picture Baba's Cars opens on the lingering dissatisfaction that ditzy blonde Anso (Laura Malmivaara) projects toward her beau, Jojo (Andreas Wilson). A complete layabout, he sits around all day and never accomplishes anything of significance aside from ice fishing. Anso grows desperate for Jojo to get a job, provided that it doesn't mean collecting a paycheck from her estranged dad, the slickster used-car-salesman (and thief) of the title (Hassan Brijany). The bough threatens to break beneath them when Jojo makes the foolhardy decision to blow his savings on a beaten-up Cadillac, which sends Anso through the roof; to compensate for his newfound pennilessness, he covertly accepts a job working as a gofer for Baba, sans Anso's knowledge. Jojo's first assignment: to snatch an automobile from Eleena, whose boyfriend Ivan (Gyorgi Staykov) , a Russian drug czar, actually owns the vehicle. Without Jojo or Baba's knowledge, Ivan has stuffed a fortune in hard cash under one of the seats. When he discovers that his car is now MIA, he sends three idiotic henchmen - all Finns - out to retrieve it, little realizing that Baba just resold the vehicle to a dippy, garrulous Norwegian (Per Christian Ellefsen) on his way across the border with it at that very moment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andreas Wilson, Sara Sommerfeld, (more)
- 2006
Co-directors Søren Pilmark and Kim Magnusson's Danish-language short Helmer and Son observes the experience of a young man summoned to visit his father in a rest home, who was recently admitted to that facility. The boy is shocked to discover that his dad has locked himself into an armoire ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
During the embattled final months of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's second term as president of Haiti, Aristide's allies recruited street gangs from the nation's poorest cities to act as strong-arm men, helping to shut down resistance to Aristide and quiet those who opposed him. Called chimères (or "ghosts"), these gang-bangers became a powerful part of Aristide's forces until the president was removed from office by a coup d'etat in 2004. Dutch filmmaker Asger Leth combines mockumentary reenactments with footage shot in the ghettos of Cité Soleil during Aristide's final days in this powerful drama that follows two brothers and chimères, Billy (James Petit Frere) and 2Pac (Winson Jean). Billy dreams of someday leaving behind the gang life and becoming part of Aristide's political machine, while 2Pac has become disillusioned with politics and wants to become a rap star in the manner of his hero and namesake, Tupac Shakur. In a place where political allegiances shift every day and brutal violence is commonplace, Billy and 2Pac's relationship is already a tense one, but matters become even more difficult between them when they both fall in love with the same woman -- Lele (Eleonore Senlis), a French social worker who understands the power these men hold better than they do themselves. Ghosts of Cité Soleil features a musical score by Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, who also appears in the film in a scene in which he discusses music and politics with 2Pac. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
An overly-optimistic preacher with a penchant for taking in lost causes to help around his remote church finds his rose-tinted view of the world challenged by a psychotic neo-Nazi he is trying to reform in this jet black comedy from Green Butchers screenwriter/director Anders Thomas Jensen. Vicar Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen) prides himself on his efforts to help those in need by offering them a variety of odd jobs around the church and spreading the good word. After "adopting" a violent Saudi immigrant and a drunken tennis pro with a history of sexual assault, Ivan is approached by Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) -- a decidedly non-reformed neo-Nazi planning to lie low in the countryside for a spell before returning to the city to once again wreak havoc. When Ivan inquires as to what his new charge's goal will be during his stay in the countryside, the snide hooligan sarcastically states that he would like to bake a cake -- a response which prompts the gullible Ivan to place him in charge of the church's cherished apple tree. As ravens immediately descend upon the tree, Ivan concludes that Satan is attempting to prevent Adam from realizing his true potential. Meanwhile, Adam takes it upon himself to give the cheery clergyman a crash course in the harsh realities of life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, (more)
In the third and final chapter of Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn's acclaimed Pusher trilogy, the focus shifts from disgraced gangster's son Tonny to feared Serbian crime lord Milo. First seen in the original film as a vicious underworld heavy with a thirst for blood and a sadistic mean streak, Milo's violent professional life couldn't stand in starker contrast to his henpecked home life. From catering to the constant demands of his spoiled daughter, Milena, to watching over his shiftless henchmen and cooking his helpers some questionably prepared samosas, Milo's notorious street reputation can't hold a candle to his reputation for being quite a softie around the house. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zlatko Burik, Marinela Dekic, (more)
- 2005
In this look at the CSC cycling team's arduous trek to the 2004 Tour de France, Danish cycle guru Bjarne Riis leads his ragtag brigade of skilled riders on an against-all-odds mission to take the legendary race at any cost. Though Team CSC boasts an impressive array of athletes including noted Italian cyclist Ivan Basso, the challenge to emerge from cycling legend Lance Armstrong's ever-looming shadow forces the team to push their bodies to the very limit of human endurance. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2004
The routines of popular Danish comic Anders Matthesen provided the characters and inspiration for this computer animated feature, which tells humorous tales from the life of one put-upon 11 year old. Terkel's life is complicated enough as he has to deal with his chain-smoking mom, his chronically depressed dad, and annoying little sister, but things really start hitting the skids for him at school as he becomes the target of squirt-gun wielding bullies, mistakenly tattles on his best friend, and accidentally causes the suicide of an obese girl with a crush on him. Anders Matthesen provides the voice of Terkel for Terkel i Knibe, as well as nearly all of the other major characters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anders Matthesen, Kim Matthesen, (more)
