Reprise

79

Miramax Films (105 minutes)
and Joachim Trier
Anders Danielsen Lie , Espen Klouman-Høiner , and Viktoria Winge

Rating: R for sexuality and languag

Summary: Phillip and Erik stand at the mailbox, two cocky, grinning rebels full of 20-year-old verve and dreams, their whole lives hanging in the balance at this singular moment. Each is about to ship off his first novel to publishers, each is hoping to become a wildly influential cult author, each has a vision of a new life of nonstop intensity, brilliance, romance, and nightclubbing. Fast-forward six months. These reveries have crashed, hard, into reality. Phillip, whose novel garnered instant acclaim and turned him into a mini-celebrity, has had a terrifying breakdown and is just about to be released from a psychiatric hospital. Erik, who never sold his novel, is still pecking away, determined to follow in the footsteps of his undying hero, a reclusive but idolized writing genius, no matter what it takes. Reprise explores not just what happens to Phillip and Erik as they pick up the pieces, but what might have happened to them, what they imagine could happen, what they fear will possibly happen, and why they can't see what's actually happening. (Miramax Films)

Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News:
(100) Joachim Trier's energetic, inventive debut takes such a novel approach to well-worn themes that it makes most movies look downright lazy.

Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune:
(100) A kinetic delight, Reprise comes from director Joachim Trier, born in Denmark but raised in Oslo, Norway, and it’s a highlight of the filmgoing year so far.

Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly:
(91) Reprise is kissed with the breath of French New Wave sensibility, sweet with verve and a love of forward movement. The mood of joy in the midst of youthful pain is enhanced by the freshness of the first-time lead actors.

Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun:
(91) The movie has been compared, with some reason, to the French New Wave. But it's like "Jules and Jim" or "Band of Outsiders" blended with "A Hard Day's Night."

Manohla Dargis
The New York Times:
(90) An exuberant, exhilaratingly playful testament to being young and hungry -- for life and meaning and immortality, and for other young and restless bodies -- Reprise is a blast of unadulterated movie pleasure.

Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times:
(90) Norwegian director Joachim Trier's inspiring first feature Reprise joyfully tackles the process of self-creation, as well as the friendships that feed and sustain it. He captures, in a way that's cool and romantic and heady, the moment in life when nothing matters more than ideas, influences and the possibility of shaping one's life into a work of art.

<< Home