The first of a three-part series which detail intersecting characters selling drugs on the streets of Denmark. At least I’m pretty sure it’s from Denmark. (They make fun of Swedes.) We follow Frank, a generally unlikable low-level thug with hints that he might have some residual humanity, as he moves through one week–and follow at the most literal level, at times the camera jostling along right over his shoulder as he pushes his way through rave crowds, into bars, and in physical confrontations. (By confrontation I mean something a bit more extravagantly, ‘though never exuberantly, violent.)
I was impressed. The film can be quite funny but never self-consciously, ironically, never with the kind of smart-ass wit playing at tough guy patter–but real nasty guy patter. And its bleak, fairly vicious tone resembles Richard Stark’s Parker novels (captured in the great Point Blank) more than Elmore Leonard or Tarantino. Reviews claim parts 2 and 3 get even better, and the cumulative effect is even stronger. I’ll let you know.
By the by, the new Bond villain (Mads Mikkelsen) turns up as Tonny, a cheese-eating bald punk hanger-on, who takes some vicious beatings here (and, I hear, in the next film). He’s damn good. Hell, everyone is very good.