mikael-ronnback's Reviews

Düsseldorf, Skåne (2024)

8/10

10 February 2024

This movie is not my youth. I did not grow up in the countryside in the eighties, but the concrete gray of Stockholm at that time is close enough.

But, the music is the same, the feelings are the same, and the struggle too. Looking back today I can see things I should have done otherwise, but I didn't at that time. It's easy to see things in retrospective but not so easy there and then.

I think the actors do a great job of portraying how life was growing up in a subculture in Sweden in those days. The highs, the lows, the emotional carousel.

This movie could have been double its length and it would still be great. But it's still great as it is now.

I will watch this movie again.

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Memory of Water (2022)

10/10

A dystopian masterpiece

26 April 2023

Memory of water (Veden Vartija, Minnet av vatten) is what happens when you sneak some in of the high tech from for example movies like Blade Runner or. Hunger Games, mix it with the political oppression of 1984 but refined from 40 years of tyranny, and then place it all in living conditions looking somewhat contemporary to the Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) movies.

Or just everyday countryside for some, except the complete lack of anything living beyond humans. No animals, no plants, no water. Only dust and ash.

Memory of water brings up thoughts and questions on important topics that some of us normally take for granted, like freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and the always available water.

I think this was a great movie. Both in the technical and visual aspects, but most of all of course for the story. Though I did feel it was slightly different from the book, both are great in their own ways, but they are just not the same.

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Atomic Blonde (2017)

9/10

Modern cold war spy thriller

8 July 2018

Atomic Blonde is a great "modern classic" cold war spy thriller mixed with lots of action. There's a lot of effort done in getting the scenes and surroundings to feel like it was 1989 again. And to top it off all of the film music are the great old electronic and industrial classics which brings back nostalgic memories. I loved this movie.

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The Unthinkable (2018)

10/10

Frighteningly plausible

2 July 2018

Warning: Spoilers

Sweden is at war, with an unknown foreign power. Set against this backdrop this is the story of a young man and the woman he used to know when they were kids, and the respective families and relatives, and their struggle to stay out of harms way.

This is a story of multiple personal conflicts and longtime unresolved trauma wounds. It is a scary, ugly and sometimes very personal movie. It is also a story about a war. It is not what I expected, but it is very good.

Without revealing any parts of the story and risk spoiling the suspension, although some of the acting made me frustrated (come on, tell him already!), and parts of the story were hard to take in (why did so many cars auto-accelerate?), I still appreciated the movie very much. But it could have been longer, to give room for more details. Right now neither of the two main themes got enough time.

The figure 199 in the church at the end of the movie is the bible psalm from which the movie takes its name. The theme song plays in the credits, it is beautiful and worth staying to hear.

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