The Northerners Reviews

The first thing I enjoyed about this movie was how much van Warmerdam had improved as a director. Indeed, the whole thing looked so much better than ‘Abel’ and, even if it was still nothing amazing visually speaking, it was really well made. The other thing I really enjoyed was the location chosen by van Warmerdam. Indeed, it was staking place in some kind of failed housing development and even though it was built only a few years before, it already looked like a ghost town which was just so surreal. Still, even though the beginning was therefore really promising, I have to admit that, after a while, I had a rather hard time to really connect with the damned thing. I mean, I wasn’t really bothered by the randomness of the whole thing, by now, I’m used to it with this director. Eventually, what bothered more was that, even though it was once again quite hilarious, I thought it was sometimes rather sad and even mean, especially regarding Thomas. Indeed, Thomas was a teenager whose new mysterious girlfriend gets shot by accident, whose mother refuses to eat and becomes some kind of saint and whose father started with a rather healthy libido but then cheats on his wife and finally becomes a rapist. Seriously, I do like black humor but that was a lot to handle. Still, even if it didn’t completely work me, it was still a solid absurd comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.