Involuntary (2008)
1/10
Pretentious
10 November 2011
Ruben Östlund must be one of the most self important directors working in Sweden today. He is angry on Hollywood for making films people are entertained by. He wonders why his film don't speak to as many people as films about cowboys and aliens when his films are about everyday life. The answer is quite simple. Most people goes to the cinema to be entertained and Ruben Östlund's film douse not entertain. Entertainment can be achieved by many emotions, happiness, horror, sadness, thrills, chills and joy. The one emotion a director is never allowed to evoke in his audience is boredom. To bore an audience is the worst crime an entertainer can commit and Östlund commits this crime.

The scenes in this film is made up mostly of single shots showing scenes in the life of a teacher, two teenyboppers, an old man, a group of drunks and a bus party. All of them fall victim to the mechanisms of the group. This would have been interesting concept but Ruben Östlund's own pretentious ideas comes in the way. Like his moronic camera angels.

The camera angels are often filming really strange stuff like peoples feet or a car door. I hate to be the first to bring this up to you Östlund, but you are not Roy Andersson.

The psychology of a group is an interesting subject, but you can't make a movie with just that. You need context. Come up with a story to use as backdrop to your theme. The first two X-Men movies did a great job with this.

There is no plot nor character development. A film can make up for this in by brining up other stuff, like an interesting story but this is not the case of this film. Ruben Östlund summarizes the worst kind of filmmakers alive; those who don't care for their audience. Others like him are Micheal Bay, Uwe Boll and Kristian Petri to name a few.

Avoid this guy, because he deserves not attention,
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