101 Reykjavík, ein besta mynd okkar íslendinga hefur verið sýnd í nokkrum ríkjum í USA þar á meðal á kvikmyndahátíðinni í Seattle þar sem einn af útsendurum AintItCoolNews.com var á hátiðinni og skrifaði grein á AICN.com og sagði að myndin væri frekar góð!!! (gangrýnin er hér fyrir neðan!)

Greinin er eftir Harold Hellman

“101 Reykjavik” is one of those quirky films that's difficult to summarize, because it's all about character and interaction rather than a clearly defined story. Despite its unconventional structure, it's still marvelously entertaining and very funny, with an endearingly dry and offbeat sense of humor. If it seems to wander around arbitrarily at the end, it's partly because there isn't really a story to wrap up, but it's more that the characters are so real that a cheap, simple solution would ring false. Regardless, it's certainly an amusing ride along the way.

The hero of the film is Hlynur (sounds a little like “LEE-nur”), played by Hilmir Snaer Gudnason. He's an uberslacker of epic laziness: In the neighborhood of thirty years old, he still lives with his mother, sleeping till noon, partying at night, carelessly downloading porn on the computer in the front room while his mother bustles around uncomfortably behind him. He occasionally spends an hour or two in the bed of a woman who might be his girlfriend if he didn't treat her so shabbily, and when he's done with the sex, he slips out without a word. And, of course, he has no job, surviving on disability payments from the government. He isn't obnoxious on purpose; he's just so blissfully self-centered that other people's feelings simply don't occur to him.

Then Lola, played by Almodovar veteran Victoria Abril, arrives. She's beautiful, unfettered, and exotic, and shakes up Hlynur's comfortable lethargy. She's from Spain, and is ostensibly there to teach Hlynur's mother's flamenco class. Hlynur perceives a mutual attraction between himself and Lola, not least because of her habit of walking around the house half-dressed. Before long, though, he realizes she swings the other way – and then his mother says she has something important to tell him.

“101 Reykjavik” is a comedy of shifting relationships, of the subtle changes in interpersonal dynamics as people learn about one another and adjust what they want from each other. Hlynur just wants to live day-to-day, accepting the government's handouts, looking for dirty movies on the television, and drinking and dancing at night. He doesn't really connect with anybody – not his mother, his family, or his sometime girlfriend. His oblivious selfishness would be abrasive if you actually knew him, but the movie gets a lot of comic mileage out of it. When his girlfriend brings over a Christmas present, for example, he leaves her on the porch with barely a thank-you. She's hurt, but the sheer magnitude of his senseless egotism is so great you have to shake your head and laugh.

After Lola's arrival, the film is driven by Hlynur's attempts, usually unsuccessful, to cope with an increasing variety of unwelcome changes. This is done with real wit and originality; in addition to scenes like the one where Hlynur irritates a traffic enforcement official by inserting coins in a line of parking meters, there are hilarious throwaway bits like the kids who shoot bottle rockets at the pizza delivery guy, or the friends who casually careen down an icy road in a rundown car while the driver peers out a tiny hole cleared in the snow on the windshield. The movie also has unique and subtle elements of construction, such as the soundtrack being mostly made up of various arrangements – piano, reggae, Latin, techno – of the Kinks song “Lola.” I'll admit, Hlynur's unquestionably a jerk, but he's the kind of jerk we all have inside of us, so we can relate when, for example, he fantasizes about taking a shotgun to an excruciatingly boring family gathering. And despite his selfishness, he occasionally wakes up enough to treat people with rare grace and warmth.

Okay, I know, it sounds weird and difficult, but trust me: “101 Reykjavik” is a very entertaining human comedy, mixing quiet wisdom with sidesplitting shtick amid the snowy wastes of Iceland. Despite a somewhat unsatisfying final ten minutes, I still loved the movie, and can recommend it without reservation.

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Svo í dag var ég að skoða EmpireOnline.co.uk sem er netsíða kvikmyndatímaritsins Empire Magazine og rakst á gagnrýni þeirra á 101 Reykjavík;

Debutant director Baltasar Kormakur shredded a 400-page novel to arrive at this offbeat offering thatseems to be both a ‘coming out’ and ‘going straight’ kind of comedy. The reformation is undertaken by Hlynur (Gudnason), who has been content enough, until he impregnates both his girlfriend (Thrudur Vilhjálmsdóttir) and Lola (Abril), the Spanish dance teacher who has embarked on a lesbian relationship with his mother (Karlsdottir).
Although it combines Almodóvarian excess with deadpan Icelandic humour, there are also distinctive echoes of Fargo and Gazon Maudit in the way Kormakur depicts the snow-sedated community.
Abril is perfect as the Hispanic spitfire. But it's Gudnason's laconic mommy's boy and Karlsdottir's emancipated house slave who catch the eye.

* * * out of * * * * *
DAVID PARKINSON
Issue 145 July 2001


Persónulega finnst mér myndin helvíti góð og vonast til þess að myndin haldi áfram að fá góða gagnrýni sem vonandi verður til þess að Íslenskar myndir haldi áfram þessari braut og verði meira markaðsettar í útlöndum!

Minn dómur: * * * af * * * *

Með kveðju,
IndyJones