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…

That man cry was… horrendous. Really horrendous. A couple with two kids is on a winter sports vacation when on the second day of their skying trip, they have settled for a nice meal in an outdoors restaurant and a controlled avalanche is initiated. That controlled avalanche, however, turns out to be less controlled than it was intended and it almost manages to hit the diner place. Of course the family of four is scared as hell, but when the snowy fog has settled, mother notices that daddy has run away with his gloves and mobile phone, leaving them behind at risk. Some would describe it as an act of cowardliness, others as an abandonment of his family and yet…

Force Majeure is a Swedish drama about an avalanche that threatens to rip a family apart when the father reacts in a not-so-desirable way. Beautifully shot, well-acted, and captivating in it's subject matter, Force Majeure is a competent Swedish undertaking that helps shed some commentary on gender roles, masculinity, heroism, marriage, commitment and shame. The film is a beautiful, tragic, and heart-breaking all intermittently, and does a great job tackling it's themes. However, this is a chore of a film to sit through, and is weighed down by an over-ambitious direction, poor pacing, elongated runtime, and the occasional poor writing.

While I don't usually write reviews dominated by a negative POV, but I feel the need to vent what I…

Force Majeure was incredibly uncomfortable. On the surface, the film tells the story of a Swedish family on a skiing holiday in the French Alps - but the black comedy is much more than this. Without giving too much away, the film acts as a character study of a family after a husband abandons his family at the moment an avalanche appears to crash into them. When the snow clears and the husband has to come back and deal with the consequences, the film tackles the fallout head on.

The film had me cringing multiple times and groaning at the way some of the characters conducted themselves. Not because they were questionable, but because they were believable. Nothing in the…