101 Reykjavik (2000)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Hlyner, played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason, is an almost 30 year old man who is unemployed and still living with his mother Berglind played by Hanna María Karlsdóttir, in Iceland. He spends most of his time watching and downloading porn, searching for a job (though not very hard) and at a bar in downtown Reykjavik. His father is an alcoholic and his mother is, as he discovers over the course of the film, a lesbian. In the beginning of the film Hlyner's world is very small, which is probably a metaphor for life in Iceland and the isolation of its inhabitants. Hlyner's existences gets turned upside down with the arrival of his mother's Spanish friend Lola played by the wonderful Victoria Abril. Hlyner and Lola have sex after a drunken night and he later finds out that Lola and his mother are not just friends, they are in fact in love. This fiasco leads to a lot of emotional turmoil for Hlyner which manifests itself in multiple ways including somewhat incestuous dreams involving his mother, which makes sense considering that there is only one degree of separation, that is, Lola, between him having sex with his mom, which must be deeply disturbing. To make matters worse is that during this time his kind-of girlfriends Hofi says that she is pregnant which he agonizes over for months until she gets an abortion and tells him it wasn't his kid anyway. Lola also gets pregnant and this time it is for sure his child. Hlyner does get jealous of his mother and Lola's relationship but he wars with that feeling because he wants to be accepting of his mother coming out of the closet and support her finding someone with whom she can be happy. This movie deals with a lot of serious, deep issues but it also manages to keep a more lighthearted feeling overall. There are some really funny scenes, especially the one where he goes to the suburbs to have dinner with the extended family and he imagines shooting them all with a shotgun as they sit down to watch a video of the last years family dinner. I think this scene speaks to the tedium felt by many Icelandic youths, who maybe have a hard time finding things to do with themselves, to keep entertained. Though it might be a darker, graphic scene it's not something we take too seriously because I think at some point most people have fantasized about offing family members. I know I have. So when the scene switches back to the alive relatives asking what he's thinking his response about liking the couch is just hysterical in contrast to the previous scene and his outburst. I also really enjoyed the music of the film and the way the song "Lola" by Ray Davies played in the background. It's actually one of my favorite songs, and I think that it had to be a part of the movie as it added an extra layer of depth just through the song. The song itself is about a young man who meets a transvestite in a club in Soho, London. I think it ties really well into the film because the man in "Lola" is kind of confused and uncertain in his relationship with Lola, just as Hlyner is with his Lola in 101 Reykjavik. There's also a lot of great character development in this film. Hlyner really grows up over the course of the film. I think he's definitely more mature and happy than he ever was in the beginning of the movie. It has a really great life lesson in that. Though things seem really bad for Hlyner for a while when he takes a step back he realizes that everything really is going to be okay, and that life actually is not all that bad. The birth of Lola's child really catapulted this realization onto Hlyner and the baby represents Hlyners own awakening to the outside world. This is a character who has a lot to come to terms with; his mother being a lesbian, having an affair with his mother's lover, his incestuous dreams resulting from said affair, the pregnancy and abortion of his other lover, the pregnancy of Lola and the birth of her child. But at the end of the day Hlyner realizes that everything isn't as bad as it all seems and in fact, his life is going to be okay and he might actually be happy.

101 Reykjavík tells the hilarious "coming of age story" of a thirty year old man dealing with real adult issues for the first time in his life. Baltasar Kormákur's 2000 film follows Hlyner, an unemployed thirty year old who has not grown out of his teenage years. He still lives with his mother, Berglind, in a small apartment in the center of 101 Reykjavík (101 refers to Reykjavík's area code) and spends his days at home relaxing and his nights at the pub partying. He has no passion for anything and avoids working at all costs. His lack of motivation even extends into his personal relationships as he only bonds with people he can party with. Relationships that take work, such as those with family members and with significant others, are too hard for Hlyner, and he does not even try to pursue them. His maturity level is also very low for a grown man. Indeed, his deepest thought in the beginning of the film is to wonder why porn is not shown on TV in the morning. Hlyner does not really live his life; he simply exists while the government and his mother care for him.Hlyner's "perfect" life cannot last forever, though, as one of his mother's close friends, Lola, comes to visit over Christmas. The two surprise themselves by having sex on New Year's Eve while Berglind is away. They act as if nothing happened when Berglind returns home, but the incident is hard to ignore as she and Lola announce their love for each other and their plans to live together. The relationship between Lola and Hlyner becomes more awkward when Lola announces that she is pregnant (presumably with Hlyner's child) and that her and Berglind plan to raise the baby together. While all of this is going on, Hlyner must deal with another girl that claims that he impregnated her. He has slept with her several times but has always rejected her attempts at a real relationship. He must now deal with the prospect of being a father and the responsibilities that go with it. The film centers on how Hlyner deals with these problems and his inability to address them maturely. In the end, he is faced with two options: grow up and take responsibility or give up and remove himself from the lives of everyone he knows.The absolute triumph of this film is its humor. The movie is funny from beginning to end without resorting to slapstick comedy or easy laughs. The humor does not arise from the acting, but from the situations themselves. The way the actors played their characters straight, without making it seem like the characters are winking at the camera telling us "this is funny," allowed the script to take over and create humor. The part of Hlyner was played particularly well. His immaturity and inability to deal with the crazy situations in the film is incredibly funny and drives most of the humor throughout the movie.Another way this film succeeds is how it embeds real social issues into a lighthearted black comedy. Firstly, Hlyner must cope with his mother's coming out as a lesbian. While he initially acts in a politically correct manor, Hlyner does not really know what to think of the situation. He cannot deal with it emotionally and has further problems when he learns that Lola is carrying his son. This confuses him as he does not know how the child will be raised or how his family will be organized. Will he be the boy's brother or father? Can the boy be raised by all three of the apartment's residents? Do Lola and Berglind have the right to decide the boy's future when Hlyner is his biological father? Another issue brought up by the film is the abuse of the welfare state. Hlyner is completely living off of unemployment benefits. He does not even try to find work and takes it for granted that the state will take care of him for his entire life. Lola challenges him on this and encourages him to find a job and do something with his life. Issues like these give the film intelligence and relevance. However, they do not overshadow the film or take away from its comedic values.One last success of the film is Kormákur's use of several non-vocal covers of the song "Lola." Originally about a transvestite, the 1970 song by The Kinks is perfectly used to enhance scenes with Lola and Hlyner. But the real success of the score does not come from the appropriateness of the song; the score succeeds because of how slightly different versions of "Lola" can create completely different emotions in the viewers. It is amazing how one song can follow Hlyner's emotions from his initial joy of having Lola to party with, to his fear after he and Lola sleep together, to his contempt for her as she carries his son. This one song creates a perfect atmosphere for the film as an immature Hlyner deals with the emotional problems that Lola's presence causes.101 Reykjavík does have a few problems. The film is very short (approximately 90 minutes) and would benefit from an influx of more story. The plot seems thin in some places and could be expanded upon. Also, Hlyner's mother had an abnormally small part in the movie for being quite a major person in Hlyner's life. Seeing more of her could have added to the relationships in the film. These complaints, however, are small when compared to the ways that the film works. 101 Reykjavík centers around some serious topics, but these issues are woven into a charming comedy that is incredibly enjoyable to watch.9/10

I stumbled upon this film by mistake in the movie theater and I really enjoyed it. Not only does it give an accurate portrayal of life in Iceland, but it explores the human spirit and soul. The music is absolutely sensational, and writer/director/actor Kormákur's photography is absolutely marvelous. The story itself is bizarre yet entertaining, surreal but pleasant and definitely a fresh alternative to the Hollywood blockbusters. The story digs into human nature, the love for ambition, our way of life, and most importantly, the way apathy rules our lives. It is, if you will, a coming of age film, a film of self discovery, and the outcomes are very much deserved and liked. Everyone with a love for European cinema or good quality cinema will enjoy this film.

I nearly didn't write this review. I mean it's just film isn't it? Writing something involves effort, creativity, thought. I could just get out, get drunk, fall down, sleep around. Wake up and repeat. Would the world be any different if I did. Bleurgh,.The glory of this film is in the world it shows. Reykjavik life for the 20-something. Permanently avoiding, well, something. Not really sure what, but it needs to be ignored. And as this is Reykjavik, it's cold. This world takes place indoors, in small, densely populated space, in warm clothes. Human contact seems to be more for survival and avoiding freezing to death rather than for intimacy. Alcohol blurs the real world and takes off its sharp edges. The nights are long in the cold. No one can see you. You're alone. Insulated from reality. Insular. That's life in Iceland. It's going to be hard to escape. Even Glasgow seems like an exciting, tropical paradise with exotic goods and thrilling times to be had.Going away from that into the realm of plot and character, I get lost. I don't know these people. Are they real? The lead character has so much stuff happening to him and around him. He's so wrapped up inside himself and can't engage with it, let alone articulate his feelings. He hates those around him and yet wants people. He's still a teenager despite being in his mid-20s. It's unfortunate that the actor plays him as mischievous, always with a gleam in the eye. To me that just didn't fit. Is it possible to be playful whilst feeling misery, anger and angst? Maybe the characters feelings were buried so far within his layers of clothing that I couldn't see what was going on. What it comes down to is that I didn't like him, I don't know him and yet his day to day life doesn't seem that unusual. A misshapen character. I'm don't think Reykjavik is that alien.The plot is bordering on farce. Nothing wrong with that, only the comedy often falls flat, and can seem inappropriate. I love black humour, only this wasn't a dark belly laugh, it was more of a greyed-out smirk. It's also incidental to the character development. He's trying to get out, he tries all sorts of things, though in the end, his only way out being to grow up, but only after he's tried to kill himself. Half-heartedly, of course.If you're not in the market for dodgy pig and dog videos, watch this for what your life could be like once you've exhausted all the opportunities your environment offers you. It's not pretty.