The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier (9/10)

This movie was so fucking good!!!! Can't decide if it or Drive My Car was my favorite from 2021 now, but I think honestly it might be this one. Cinematography was on 100 - so fucking beautifully shot. I had to shazam four times because the soundtrack was so good. It's really bizarre and weird and kind of early 2000's indie cult film esque in the aesthetic choices and surrealism but also felt very contemporary 2020's in terms of content (there are masks in the epilogue similar to Drive My Car). Narratively there is a prologue, twelve chapters, and an epilogue, which was really fucking cool as a lit person (and also appealed to my Capricorn side which likes to know where in the narrative we are) and made the movie feel like a bunch of shorts. Renate Reinsve is also so fucking beautiful. The movie explores Julie (Renate) as she navigates her mid-late twenties in terms of both her career, her love life, and motherhood. The crux of the film is the question of balancing one's own desires and independence with the desires of loved ones which really struck a chord with me as someone who has struggled with choosing myself over those I love countless times. It also deals with death and life and the pursuit of art as documentation/archive/memory in the digital era -- questions I think about a lot. I honestly was going to give it a 10/10 but feel ethically wrong about giving a movie about white straight womanhood that score (even if it resonates with me on many levels). If she was gay or a POC, would definitely be a 10/10 -- but, I guess it would also be a different movie. I haven't seen a movie by Trier before, but the movie was so weird and really unique (which is what I love in a director), almost Almodovarian at times but very different from him as well. I'm absolutely going to do a deep dive into his work; this is the third movie in Trier's Oslo trilogy all exploring mid-twenties ennui in Oslo, so want to watch the other two. So fucking good and smart and very funny at times. Please go watch. (although bella didn't like it as much as I did )