Ruben Östlund's sophisticated, wickedly funny, and intriguing dissection of masculinity, gender roles, marriage, and relationships is irresistibly alive, uncomfortable, yet absolutely clever. Östlund's psychodrama follows a couple and their kids in a ski vacation somewhere in France, but the couple's relationship is severely tested by an avalanche that will trigger their inner demons, as well examine their moral dilemmas.

It's like Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with special participation of Haneke's cold precision. Ostlund creates a very warm, emotionally explosive atmosphere even if it's set in a cold, snowy setting. You can't help but squirm and laugh with the characters as well as question your own morals when watching the film. The actors are…

TIFF 2014 Film #3

Reason for pick : Peter Strauss recommendation based on buzz at Cannes.

Guys … we’ve all been there before. You make one ‘teensy’ and she never lets you forget it. Alas, sometimes, well, most times .. ok, all the time we deserve it.

Swedish director Ruben Östlund takes a look the topic of gender roles, reflexes, instinct, honor, and what society expects of us in the face of a sudden crisis. What makes Force Majeure special is how Östlund shifts between tragic and hilarious with such ease, constantly keeping you off balance. Just when you think you’re catching a break, a swift punch to the gut is delivered.

The comedy is blacker than black, and the…

63/100

A movie for anyone whose response to The Loneliest Planet was "But why don't they just talk about it?" Here's the answer: Because that's much less interesting—which is not to say uninteresting, by any means. Very sharp on masculinity, plausibly positing that the man's natural instinct would be staunch denial (until confronted with evidence); the presence of the children complicates matters as well, though some of their behavior rang false to me. Thought Östlund had devised a superb ending, implying an act of compassionate self-sacrifice on Mom's part to restore order, but was then flummoxed by the actual ending, which seems to undo that manufactured balance with an explicit turning of the tables. Also, the most interesting aspect for…

Absolutely brilliant.

Force Majeure deals with angst, reversal and imbalance in an imperfect familial equation; in a family where the bratty kids seem to run the show, where the father is dishonest and rather pathetic and where the mother wants to escape. This family is confronted with a symbol of their faulted state of being that sees the father fail to be the man he is expected to be and who he knows he should be. And the film blossoms from here, not necessarily analysing this symbol, but observing how the interpretation and confrontation of this symbol effects the family dynamic. In turn, we are made to question the validity and purpose of the symbolic event with all the arguments…