{"id":2381,"date":"2010-09-11T20:54:46","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T20:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2381"},"modified":"2015-03-30T13:02:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T13:02:09","slug":"tiff-insubstantial-swedish-tale-of-%e2%80%9970s-idealism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2381","title":{"rendered":"TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘Behind Blue Skies’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Behind<\/a>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2013 Swedish filmmaker Hannes Holm turns a jaundiced eye on 1970s idealism and nostalgia in \u201cBehind Blue Skies\u201d but its discordant elements leave it not as funny and penetrating as it was no doubt intended to be.<\/p>\n

Satirical pokes at Swedish society at the time are unlikely to strike too many chords overseas and while there are some appealing performances, the picture seems bound for a cloudy time beyond home territory.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that a brief and needless but jolting hard-core image at the start of the film gives a false impression since it is not repeated and nothing like it. Bill Skarsgard (pictured), fresh-faced, tall and engaging, is Martin, a young man eager to take a summer job with his best friend Micke (Adam Palsson) not least to get away from his drunken and abusive father.<\/p>\n

The job offer from Micke\u2019s father, however, involves grunt work at a posh yacht club at an island resort which the manager, Gosta (Peter Dalle) runs like boot camp. Bluff and confident, Gosta holds a morning inspection in which he sniffs every young face for traces of booze from the previous night and dismisses anyone who breaks his rules.<\/p>\n

When Martin helps another worker steal some beer for a party, he\u2019s the only one to confess in the morning. He is fired, but Gosta admires his honesty and promptly offers him a different line of work.<\/p>\n

Na\u00efve and eager to please, the boy fails to realize that his boss is in the drug-dealing business even when he demonstrates that he has interests in a brothel and a strip club. Not even when the man\u2019s henchman beats him up does Martin appear twig that he\u2019s in the middle of a criminal enterprise.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an undercover sting operation involved and a love affair with a young woman played with unadorned simplicity by a very pretty blonde named Josefin Ljungman.<\/p>\n

The writer\/director\u2019s wish to wrap up everything in a tidy package, however, undermines the satire, and a scene toward the end that signals deeper corruption seems merely half-hearted.<\/p>\n

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Nordisk Film);\u00a0Production company: Fladen Film; Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Peter Dalle, Josefin Ljungman; Director, screenwriter: Hannes Holm; Producer: Patrick Ryborn; Director of photography: Goran Hallberg; Editor: Frederik Morheden; No rating, running time 110 minutes.<\/p>\n

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett TORONTO \u2013 Swedish filmmaker Hannes Holm turns a jaundiced eye on 1970s idealism and nostalgia in \u201cBehind Blue Skies\u201d but its discordant elements leave it not as funny and penetrating as it was no doubt intended to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,1770],"tags":[1301,1300,1299,1302,1192],"class_list":["post-2381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-reviews","category-tiff-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-adam-palsson","tag-bill-skarsgard","tag-hannes-holm","tag-josefin-ljungman","tag-toronto-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6615,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions\/6615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}