Customer Reviews

101 Reykjavík [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

2000 Icelandic not-rated movie. Also known as "101 ehf. kynnir" Caution: full nudity (including male, and female (and brief nudity of and older woman)), and drug use. Something of a strange love-triangle movie.

DVD Features: Contains the film (oddly, the DVD does not specific what language the film is in, though it offers English subtitles), and special features. There are three special features: 1: filmographies; 2: "Trailers from the Wellspring Libraries" (7 trailers, "Irma Vep," "Un Air De Famille," "Clockwatchers," "A Couch in New York," "Hugo Pool," "Stolen Kisses," and "Venus Beauty Institute"; and 3: "Weblinks" (2 links: 1: a website that contains an interview with the movie's director, and 2: the Wellspring website address).

Credits: The movie stars Hilmir Snær Guðnason (Hlynur Bjorn Hafsteinsson; "The Sea"), Victoria Abril (Lola Milagros, from Spain; "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" (1990), "Robin and Marian" (1976), Hanna María Karlsdóttir (Berglind; "Agnes"), Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir (Hófí; "No Trace"), Baltasar Kormákur (Þröstur; "Stormy Weather"), and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Marri; "Fiasco"). The writer and director is Baltasar Kormakur ("A Little Trip to Heaven") based on the novel by Hallgrimur Helgason.

Plot: Hlynur Bjorn Hafsteinsson is a adult slacker that still lives at home and is very disinterested with moving on with his life. Despite this dispirited drifting through life, he is able to have something of a relationship with a woman named Hofi, but even here he is a slacker and doesn't really care about the relationship. Things change when his mother's friend drops by (Lola; a lesbian, actually she is bi).

Review: The movie opens with a close up of the main actor's face while he is having some fun with a blonde (Hofi). Based on an early monologue, the main guy seems to be fatalistic ("dead before I was born . . . life is an interruption"; a lot of talk of death in the movie; NOTE: it is slightly harder to tell when an actor is talking in his head when you only read subtitles). The includes beautiful shots of Icelandic landscape. Odd, once the Spanish woman arrives, they begin speaking English with her (I don't mean that the rest of the movie is in English; Abril has been around since the `70s, and still looks great (even at around 41), even wandering around her friends apartment nude).

An interesting look at Iceland, if this movie had occurred anywhere except Iceland, it might have been a little boring, but the exotic nature of the locale kept it interesting though a rather slow movie. Interesting music, good for the bleak snowbound world of Reykjavik. Good acting, something of a slice of life plot, some attractive women (not all; though some are quite beautiful), some of the men are jerks (probably just the characters in the movie; apparently, the drunk father and welfare society are the main character's excuses for being a slacker). There are some humorous moments in the film. Overall, I would give the movie 3.85 stars, mostly due to the exotic nature of the locale.

I mean, a movie set in Reykjavik, Iceland???
Well, it's terrific, and filled with some of the most hilarious, memorable lines ever to come from the screen. My personal favorite was: But I've never cheated on my mother before!
101 Reykjavik focuses on the life of a chronic welfare recipient who lives his depressed life with his mother in a small apartment where the bathtub is 3 feet from the kitchen table. Enter: another woman, but both mother and son want her. Sit back, laugh, and enjoy this film of urban angst and aimlessness.

The coolest movie of the year. Great soundtrack, hilarious black-comedy storyline. A birds-eye view into that little place on earth called Reykjavik, Iceland...

The anti-hero protagonist is the King of Slackers who is about to have his lazy/habitual way of life disrupted, with hilarious results! This film is destined to become a sort of cult classic for disaffected youth, who somewhere inside them have the seed for a great future... and it could grow... even in a cold, cold place... check this movie out, you won't be disappointed.

"101 Reykjavik" is easily one of the best movies I have seen in quite a while. Based on a novel, the film deftly weaves formulaic comedic conventions with smart existential exploration. Typically Scandinavian humor and serious philosophical ideas (look a bit beyond the overtly "pop" nihilism and you'll find the tenderly absurd story rather enlightening) really make this film a fun way to think about life.

Somehow, even the spaced out layabouts of Iceland are appealing in this film, set in the dark months of Reykjavik's winter. The main character, Hlynur, lives with his mother, provides the hash, does nothing. "What kind of nothing?" Hlynur's mother's girlfriend asks,and he replies, "The nothing kind."
Nothing much happens in the film either, but it's an interesting nothing, with a good soundtrack and curious images of the bleak winter streets and the bohemian cafes and bars of 101 Reykjavik. If you've been there, it's also fun to spot the places you know.
Mostly it's subtitles, but quite a bit of the film is in English. The sound quality seemed particularly good to me.

What do you get in a coming-of-age movie when the leading character is 30 years old?
Lets just say you get an excellent movie, where the comedy is driven by the way of life of a slacker in the small and cold town of reykjavik, iceland's biggest city. The drama and motif in the characters rise when Hilmir finds out he's just gone to bed with his mom's partner.
It's a great funny story of similar to films brought by Spanish director Almodovar, without the dramatic gloom and heavy atmosphere.

And to top it off it features and excellent music soundtrack, by Damon Albarn of Blur, which is also a great buy.

All in all, this film is definetively a must see.

Also, if you liked this film, i also recommend looking for "Noi Albinoi" (iceland), and "F***ing Amal" (sweeden).

Wow, I'm lacking of words. This movie is just the best I've seen for a long time. It's a hillarious movie made in a small village on Iceland. While I was watching the movie I think I got the feeling of living in Iceland. It's sort of depressing. Nevertheless because I was feeling it I could really associate with the people there. Everybody should watch this film. All the Islandic actors and acresses and especially Victoria Abril as Lola, the hot, Spanish flamenco dancer make this one of the best movies of the season. I really enjoyed it.

This movie started off really captivating, but by the middle of it I found myself no longer on the protagonist's side. I also noticed that this movie culminated in pretty formulaically, typical of a lot of other Scandinavian films I've seen. The end wasn't rewarding, and the basic plot ups and downs were similar to films like the Norwegian Elling - it was the same type of style, or so it appeared to me, in any case. The soundtrack also became pretty annoying, with more than half the songs being techno versions of the song "Lola".

High points of this film: It is technically very pretty, filmed well, and makes good use of scenery. The plot is straightforward and fun.

I just don't think this film has too much substance in it. It's good to see once but definitely isn't groundbreaking or a favorite of mine. You should give it a try, though, if you're into Iceland.

If you like TV serials, you've got to love this movie. But if you can't believe in serials, then you certainly won't get into this one.It's the material for a serial, condensed, but filmed way better.

On a general tone of comedy, 101 Reykjavik relates the depressing adventures in a depressing circle of acquaintances of a depressing protagonist, Hlynur, a late-twenties committed loafer who gets most of the lines, in the form of an inner voice-over. Despite all this, Hlynur never becomes believable, he's simply not depressed, just adapted to looking that way. He's the classic serial central character to whom all kinds of things happen but who doesn't evolve through it all, except for the requisite happy end.

The same can be said of the other characters (except one), who mainly do walk-on roles. Lola Miracles (Milagros), played by the wonderful Victoria Abril, is not the exception. She just parachutes in as a typical Abril character, unaffected by and unaffecting on the rest of the movie -- just like the other characters, but for once not depressing at all.

A typical serial trait is that we have the obligatory ohmygosh-she's-a-lesbian moment (Lola is Hlynur's mother's lover), and since it's so ohmygosh it's carefully telegraphed ahead. We see it coming but Hlynur of course doesn't.

The one character who is written in a believable way, as if the author really cared about her as a living person, is Hlynur's girlfriend. But that thread of the serial is only five minutes altogether. For the rest, all you get is the serial's linear collection of arbitrary episodes with reactions from people but no inner development.

So, how is this better than a serial in condensed form? The director, Kormakur, has done good work in film school. The framing and cutting are a joy to behold, and they succeed on tough tasks -- most of the film is in tight to ultra-tight interiors (how about 20 people in 100 sq. feet?) and there are also many sex scenes filmed straight-on and imaginatively without an ounce of prurience. ("Everyone's had everybody", as Hlynur comments.) And there's the girlfriend character.

While planning my trip to Iceland this April, I stumbled across a mention of this film and decided to check it out, mostly for the scenery of Reykjavik. However, this ended up being a thoroughly entertaining film. The story line, while somewhat unconventional, made for great comedic highs infused with all the emotion of the complicated relationship between the main characters. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of foreign or independent films.