Movie Reviews
‘Armand’ Review: Ingmar Bergman’s Grandson Directs Renate Reinsve as a Mother Defending Her Son in Ambitious School-Set Drama
Norwegian writer-director Halfdan Ullmann Tondel takes some big swings with his first feature Armand, not all of which connect, but the ambition and risk-taking are largely impressive.
A single-setting drama that unfolds in an echo-filled elementary school after hours, it stars Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) as local celebrity Elisabeth, the mother of never-met Armand, a first-grade boy who is accused by his classmate Jon, also never seen, of sexual abuse.
Armand
The Bottom Line
Works hard, but not quite top of the class.
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard)
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Oystein Roger, Vera Veijovic
Director/screenwriter: Halfdan Ullmannn Tondel
1 hour 57 minutes
When the boys’ teacher and key school staffers call a meeting with parents to decide the next steps, Elisabeth clashes with Jon’s parents, Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and Anders (Endre Hellestveit), although not all is as it seems. The basic setup recalls, among other stories about accusations, Roman Polanski’s adaptation of stage play Carnage, but Armand gets much weirder as it goes on, with choreographed dance sequences and melodramatic revelations that feel contrived and tacked on to make the film more arthouse and less issues-driven-middlebrow.
Reception in Cannes has been largely warm following its debut in the Un Certain Regard strand, and Armand has racked up some offshore sales.
Bit by bit, Ullmann Tondel’s screenplay reveals that Elisabeth and Sarah have more history than shared playdates for their kids. They’ve known each other since they were children at this very same school, and Elisabeth was married to Sarah’s brother, who is now dead, possibly from suicide after a tempestuous relationship with Elisabeth. Reinsve plays her character here as a woman trying to live as normal a life as possible and be the best mother she can be, even though she’s well aware how her fame changes the dynamic in every room she enters — though egalitarian-minded Norwegians often try to seem unimpressed.
That’s certainly the case with the boys’ classroom teacher Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen), who, although she looks young, is trying to appear as professional as possible and handle the whole situation by the book. The school’s principal, Jarle (Oystein Roger), is mostly concerned with covering his back and avoiding any escalation that would get him in trouble. School safeguarding lead Ajsa (Vera Veijovic) is there to back him up with policy advice, but when she keeps getting uncontrollable nose bleeds the constant interruptions to the meeting only serve to escalate the tension.
The atmosphere could be cut with a popsicle stick from the start already, with prissy, judgy-faced Sarah ready to call the cops at any second and keen to put all the blame on Elisabeth. But Elisabeth is not to be trifled with, and she defends her son vigorously, pointing out that it’s only one kid’s word against another and questioning whether or not what was said was misinterpreted.
Back and forth the bickering goes until Ullmann Tondel starts to throw strange shapes into the drama. In the press notes he talks about the influence of films by Luis Buñuel, especially The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, and that’s felt in the increasingly surreal touches, as when Elisabeth suddenly gets an uncontrollable fit of giggles — a scene that goes on uncomfortably long. While that feels closer to Buñuel’s taste for shock moves and absurdist mystery, the sequences of Elisabeth suddenly breaking into a choreographed pas de deux with the school janitor (Patrice Demoniere) and later an almost orgiastic ensemble dance with a larger cast just seem self-indulgent and silly.
Some may find themselves straining to find artistic traces here of the work of Ullmann Tondel’s grandparents, Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, but millennial-generation Ullmann Tondel’s directing style feels more of a piece with contemporary Nordic cinema, with its flights of fancy and quirky humor, than the high style of his progenitors. His screenwriting here, however, feels like it’s lost its way when it tries to tidy everything up in the final scene, even if the staging strains to maintain a sense of mystery by drowning out the dialogue with thrashing rain.
Full credits
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard)
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Oystein Roger, Vera Veijovic, Assad Siddique, Patrice Demoniere
Production companies: Eye Eye Pictures, Keplerfilm, One Two Films, Prolaps Produktion, Film I Vast
Director/screenwriter: Halfdan Ullmannn Tondel
Producers: Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Executive producers: Dyveke Bjorkly Graver, Harald Fagerheim Bugge, Renate Reinsve
Co-producers: Koji Nelissen, Derk-Jan Warrink, Fred Burle, Sol Bondy, Alicia Hansen, Stina Eriksson, Kristina Borjeson, Magnus Thomassen
Directors of photography: Pal Ulvik Rokseth
Production designer: Mirjam Veske
Costume designer: Alva Brosten
Editor: Robert Krantz
Sound designer: Mats Lid Stoten
Music: Ella van der Woude
Casting: Jannicke Stendal Hansen
Sales: Charades
1 hour 57 minutes
Movie Reviews
Sundance 2025: all the latest movie reviews and updates from the festival
A new year means a new Sundance Film Festival, and a fresh crop of promising original features that could go on to become awards season darlings in a few months. It might be hard to top last year’s festival where Dìdi, A Different Man, and I Saw the TV Glow all made strong showings. But with films like Atropia, Bubble & Squeak, and Didn’t Die on the roster, this year’s Sundance might just do the trick.
Naturally, The Verge is going to be taking in as much of Sundance as we can and posting bite-sized reviews of everything we see. We’ll also be posting longer reviews and sharing trailers, and you can follow along here to keep up with all of the news out of the festival.
Movie Reviews
Bobby Canipe Jr’s ‘GRANDMA’ (2024) – Movie Review – PopHorror
I not very familiar with Shot On Video Horror, only recently being introduced to it through the films of Brewce Longo. My latest foray into SOV horror is Bobby Canipe Jr’s Grandma.
Synopsis
Dive into the blood-soaked nostalgia of ’90s shot-on-video horror with Grandma, Directed by Bobby Canipe Jr. This terrifying retro tale follows a young woman who inherits a countryside bed-and-breakfast with a chilling secret. The original owner, known only as “Grandma,” was a deranged serial killer (Josh Allman) who transformed her unfortunate guests into gruesome meals. As renovations unfold, the house’s horrific past reawakens, and the new owner (Anna Clary) and her friends (Angel Bradford, Kelsey Baker) must face the grisly return of Grandma’s deadly legacy.
Grandma was written and directed by Bobby Canipe Jr (Amityville Ripper). The film stars Anna Clary (Coffintooth), Angel Bradford (Crackcoon), Kelsey Baker (Red Light District Shark Attack), Ryan Carpenter, Hunter Redfern (Jeffrey’s Hell), Ryan Martel (Bad Girls), Cagney Larkin (Karate Ghost), Bartley Bess, and Josh Allman (Amityville Ripper).
What Worked For Me
I really enjoyed the cast here. Anna Clary, Angel Bradford and Kelsey Baker made the core trio of characters likable and it made me want to root for them. In addition to the core trio, I really enjoyed Ryan Martel and Cagney Larkin as the redneck fruit sellers. Their characters added a lot of humor to their scenes. I also enjoyed Hunter Redfern, who plays a redneck who has a habit of showing up at the B&B the girls are fixing up.
The film kind of feels like a modern gore centered take on Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There was one kill scene in particular that felt like it was directly influenced by a kill from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The killer, Grandma, was a really unsettling character. Her mannerisms and vocalizations were pretty creepy. The kills are pretty sadistic in nature, with one in particular being incredibly gruesome with a twisted sense of humor.
What Didn’t Work For Me
I would have liked to have a little more backstory on Grandma and her family. It felt like we were given just enough to move the story along and I personally would have liked a little more development. I also wasn’t a big fan of the ending, though that has more to do with my personal preferences.
Final Thoughts
Grandma is a solid shot on video indie slasher film with a great cast and some gruesome kills. Recommended.
Movie Reviews
‘Sally’ Review: A Refreshingly Clear-Eyed Documentary Weaves Together the Professional and Personal Lives of NASA Pioneer Sally Ride
When Sally Ride died in 2012, she was praised as the first American woman in space, but there was much more to the story. Her obituaries let the world know a secret she had long held, that she and a woman named Tam O’Shaughnessy had been life partners for 27 years. Those same obituaries often ignored or minimized the jaw-dropping sexism Ride faced when she entered the first class of NASA astronauts to include women in 1978.
In the richly detailed Sally, Cristina Costantini reveals both personal and professional aspects of Ride’s life, showing how they were intertwined. With O’Shaughnessy as the central narrator, the documentary includes eye-opening interviews with family members and former astronauts and archival video of Ride herself, to create an engaging, socially relevant portrait of an American heroine and of the culture.
Sally
The Bottom Line
Affecting and socially relevant.
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)
Director: Cristina Costantini
Screenwriters: Cristina Costantini, Tom Maroney
1 hour 43 minutes
It also displays a refreshing and rare quality for a documentary with such access: Without for a minute undermining Ride’s importance, this clear-eyed film doesn’t sugarcoat her sometimes prickly personality.
Although Sally has already won the Alfred P. Sloan prize for a science-themed movie, announced in advance of its Sundance Film Festival premiere, it doesn’t dwell on the details of space travel. (Costantini previously won the Festival Favorite Award in 2018 for Science Fair, co-directed with Darren Foster.) With a wealth of period video footage, the movie emphasizes the frequently condescending attention Ride and the five other women in her NASA class encountered.
Costantini’s astute choice of clips shines a light on the culture at the time in all its sexism and homophobia. As Ride says, “The only bad moments in our training involved the press.” Kathy Sullivan, who was in Ride’s training class, describes the press posing stereotypical questions about romance, makeup and family to the the groundbreaking women astronauts.
Ride had no patience for such silly questions. Sitting alongside male astronauts at a press conference, she is asked if she plans to be the first mother in space. She just shakes her head and laughs. A female reporter’s voice inquires from offscreen, “Do you think that you are as good as any male astronaut here?” On camera, when a reporter refers to her Miss Ride, she replies that he can address her as either Dr. Ride or Sally, but not “Miss.” And behind the scenes, NASA had no idea what personal hygiene items to pack for a woman in space. “NASA engineers, in their infinite wisdom, designed a makeup kit,” Ride remarks. They also asked her how many tampons she might need for a one-week flight: Would 100 be enough?
John Fabian, another classmate, remembers Ride as unemotional and hard to read, recounting, “Her personality was all business.” Part of that demeanor came naturally and part of it was because she was so closeted. Sally goes a long way toward explaining both. In 1981, while Ride was in the training program, Billie Jean King was sued by a female ex-lover for financial support. Both King, who lost endorsements and had to play huge legal fees, and Ride’s sister, Bear Ride, suggest that King’s experience was a cautionary tale for Ride: She saw that she would pay a huge professional price if she were open about her sexuality.
She was often emotionally closed off in her private life, too. O’Shaughnessy’s comments about Ride are endlessly loving, but even she states, “Some of the very characteristics that made her the woman who could break the highest glass ceiling made her tough to be in a relationship with.” Whether sitting in a chair on an otherwise empty set talking to the camera, or in her house looking at letters and gifts from Sally, O’Shaughnessy is a steady presence, warm but unsentimental as she shares that she was heart-broken that Ride refused to go public with their relationship. Her enduring love gives the film its visceral emotional impact.
Some of Costantini’s most revealing interviews are with those who knew Ride best, as when O’Shaughnessy and Bear Ride discuss the buttoned-down family dynamics Sally grew up with. Ride’s mother, interviewed here, is asked if she knew that Sally and Tam were a couple. “Yes but it wasn’t something we talked about,” she responds curtly. Bear Ride relays that Tam was part of their family, but that Sally never spoke about the partnership, even though Bear herself is gay and out.
Ride was secretive as well with her ex-husband, Steve Hawley, another astronaut in her class whom she married during their training. He affirms that they both went into the marriage “in good faith,” and that up until the time she left five years later, “I suspected but I didn’t know” she was gay. Sullivan recalls that when she heard about the wedding, “One of my first thoughts was, great PR move.”
It was only when Ride was dying of pancreatic cancer that she was able to admit publicly that O’Shaughnessy was her partner. O’Shaughnessy notes that she talked to Ride about what to say about their relationship and Ride left it up to her, so she wrote an obituary acknowledging it.
It’s too bad that that film is marred by visual reenactments throughout. When O’Shaughnessy talks about an intimate dinner, we see two women in a kitchen dining by candlelight. Near the end, there is even a Sally stand-in a hospital bed. There is no dialogue in any of these scenes so they avoid the worst cheesy excesses, but they are distracting and unnecessary.
Sally stands perfectly well without any fussy touches, as an important addition to the record of what we know about a pioneering cultural figure — in all her complexity, ambition and guardedness.
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