THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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Cannes critical favorite slays.

Joachim Trier concludes his Oslo trilogy with a coming-of-adult film tracing four years in the life of Julie (Renate Reinsve), a young woman who bounces between career traps and boyfriends in the age of #MeToo. 

Seamless dialogue and plotting provide a bumpy rollercoaster of seemingly small life lessons that add up to something much bigger for our ethically challenged heroine. 

The truth hits everyone.

Criterion comes calling.

Rated R. 128 mins. 

THELMA — NYFF 55

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Joachim Trier’s paranormal-inflected lesbian coming of age thriller zigs where it should zag.

Eli Harboe plays the title character, a hard-bitten Christian girl from the country who tells her strict father “everything.” Never mind that he once wanted to kill Thelma when she was young. 

Now at college, Thelma experiences bizarre seizures seemingly set off by close proximity to Anja (Kaya Wilkins).

Love at first sight isn’t such a good thing for Thelma who returns home after receiving a series of medical tests to diagnose her condition which has an ill effect on birds.

It turns out that Thelma’s paranormal control of objects and people has a malicious history. Still, Trier never gets specific in a narrative that demands specificity. What exactly are her powers and why does she have them? She doesn't seem to be a moral or ethical person in spite of her religious upbringing. Why does her father want to kill her, and why does she want to kill him? So many questions arise, but answers to not.

The performances are competent, but “Thelma” is a movie of ill-defined genre intentions. It fails as a love story, it fails as a thriller, it fails as social satire, and it fails as horror. What’s left is a two-hour hole where your life was before you watched this unsatisfying film from Norway.

Not Rated. 116 mins. 

DEAD SNOW

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Upstart Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola goes for gory glory in a Nazi zombie slasher pic that steals liberally from the Sam Raimi cannon of horror.

Trouble comes when a group of medical students go for a snowmobile vacation in a remote mountain cabin that happens to be located on the grave site of hundreds of Nazi soldiers waiting for an opportunity to awaken and take back the gold trinkets they stole from local villagers more than a half century ago.

There's plenty of toilet humor and gross-out visuals as our doomed group of victims do battle with an unending stream of zombies whose, make-up is the best thing in the movie.

For young gore-hungry audiences who haven't seen "The Evil Dead" (one and two), "Dead Snow" could work as a stomach-churning thrill ride.

More experienced viewers are better off sticking with a master of the genre like Sam Raimi, whose "Drag Me to Hell" achieves everything the "Dead Snow" filmmakers attempted to do, and more. 

Rated R. 90 mins.