Sophia Coppola's and Gus van Sant's movies have made a great impression on me. What their work have in common is a particular sensitivity towards atmospheres. They never make difficult films, but their work usually (van Sant has some Hollywood failures on his conscience) stay clear of easy solutions in terms of describing situations and persons. (OK, perhaps I tend to be too uncritical; Lost in Translation was perhaps wallowing in the bleak regarding the encounter between the bored wife who has yet to decide what to do in life and the world-weary actor - but then again, I don't know.)
I watched Farväl Falkenberg a moment ago and even though my expectations were quite exaggerated I wasn't disappointed. It was relieving to watch a film of which could be given the description "a buddy movie" which actually resists such labelling. The film shared very little with the typical ways of depicting "male friendship": there was no "proving to be a heterosexual man", the difference between love and friendship was not emphasized - the opposite was rather the case, there were no such limits. Relationships between parents and young adults were described quite negatively, but I didn't think they were trading in stereotypes here at all. We've seen the small town angst a thousand times, of course, but here it was dealt with more delicately than what at least I am used to.
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