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The Worst Person in the World (2021)
In most movie scripts, a protagonist’s choices boil down to some sort of pre-recognizable storytelling logic—a quest, a curse, a generational repetition, the search for true love, a clear response to clear conditions.
The Worst Person in the World, the international rom-com sensation from Norwegian director Joachim Trier (Thelma), dares to present a life less logical. Julie (Renate Reinsve) is a young woman fighting to be guided by her emotions, weaving through relationships, careers and states of self in 2010s Oslo.
Even if you loved the movie when it garnered rave reviews and two Oscar nominations in 2021, you might be momentarily skeptical on rewatch that The Worst Person in the World unfolds in 12 chapters. But they fly past—funny, sexy, cathartic, frustrating—with Reinsve never playing anything but an intelligent, malleable character who’s trying to be the hero of her own story.
Twelve chapters are certainly one way to approximate time hurtling forward, losing track of symmetry and narrative neatness as we go. Each of Julie’s choices generates new possibilities; each choice is irreparable. Tomorrow Theater, April 7.
ALSO PLAYING:
Academy: Airplane! (1980), April 5-11. Shaun of the Dead (2004), April 5-11. Cinema 21: Nostalghia (1983), April 4. Le Samouraï (1967), April 5-7. After Hours (1985), April 6. Cinemagic: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), April 4. The Raid (2011), April 6 and 10. The Raid 2 (2014), April 6 and 11. Clinton: Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse (2013), April 4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), April 6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), April 6. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), April 7. Hollywood: Star Trek: First Contact (1996), April 5. Spellbound (1945), April 6-7. Blood and Black Lace (1964), April 6. Tampopo (1985), April 7. The One Armed Boxer (1972), April 9. Tomorrow Theater: Police Story (1985), April 7.