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Copernicus Sees THE INVISIBLE!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

Neat trick, eh?

Leave it to our old friend Copernicus, who’s at Cinequest right now, scoping out films in the hopes that he can give you early word on something cool... something... well... like this:

At one point in THE INVISIBLE, the characters shout “Skol!” and all take a drink. I nearly blacked out by Pavlovian conditioning. The last time I heard that I was at a Swedish party in Berkeley right before those arctic devils filled me with some mysterious intoxicant. The next thing I remember is waking up on a pile of blondes wearing some strange bikini and a lizard tail. But an introduction to bits of Swedish culture is only the tiniest reason you must see THE INVISIBLE.

THE INVISIBLE is without a doubt the best movie that I saw at Cinequest this year. There was near-unanimous agreement about its brilliance – people were talking about it everywhere. At the opening night party, I was told I had to see it. The only problem was getting into the movie. The first time I tried, it was sold out. Even though I arrived early, I was one of the last people let into the last screening. The film didn’t go unnoticed at the awards ceremony either – THE INVISIBLE received a special jury award for Best Directorial Debut for its directors Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist.

The movie follows Nicklas (Thomas Hedengran), a high school student that seems to have everything – great looks, friends, a promising future as a writer. On the night he is set to leave for a writing program in London, he runs into Anneli (Tuva Novotny) and her gang. With the help of her gang, Anneli beats the hell out of Nicklas and leaves him for dead.

The next day at school Nicklas finds that no one will talk to him. My fellow geeks, I don't mean just the girls (which is typical), I mean no one! No one can see him or hear him – he is condemned to only watch the world he once affected. But there is an ingenious twist: Nicklas is not a typical ghost. When he runs into someone they fall down. Yet when he looks away and looks back at them it is as if he never touched them – they are walking on the same course as if they never fell.

Finally! Now this is the good shit! For years I have had to endure aboninations where the ghost can, say climb stairs, but can't touch a person. And don't even get me started on Star Trek, where when people become incorporeal (it happens all the time) they can are still affected by the ship's artificial gravity. To my delight, THE INVISIBLE is "Ghost with Physics." And you know what that means? Oh yeah! Somebody's gonna get thrown off a building!

Oh yes, Nicklas does give a certain bad person a quick trip down 20 stories or so. But when Nicklas looks away the person reappears like Nicklas was never there. Excellent!

The audience gets what it wants - characters accelerating at one g towards concrete - and doesn't have to wait until the appropriate time in the story arc for it to happen. Violence, yet the conflict is still intact! In fact, there is even more conflict, because now how is he going to deal with the situation? Now Nicklas must solve problems in a more subtle way, and explore the lives of everyone affected by his death.

Nicklas follows his killer Anneli, but comes to find out that she is no one-dimensional psychopath. She’s a multidimensional psychopath! Well, let’s call her one messed up chick who has a small problem with beating people to death. It turns out she is just as invisible as he is, albeit metaphorically so - a teen trapped in her own reality of uncaring adults. In fact, the whole movie is a metaphor for teen alienation. It deals with their struggles to shape their lives amidst their growing understanding of their own capabilities and place in the world. But it deals with the subject in such a complex, mature way that it never feels forced or clichéd. On the contrary, the movie is full of more fresh ideas than 99% of Hollywood studio releases.

Despite the teen focus, there is plenty for adults to enjoy. First, the characters are so fully realized out that they bear virtually no resemblance to the ridiculous caricatures of teens from most American movies. And as is true in the best writing, you would be hard pressed to predict what the characters are going to do next, but somehow it always just seems right.

The best part of the movie, though, is the direction. Shots start out as one thing, and are revealed to be something completely different as the camera moves. As much as this is refreshing in its own right, it serves several themes of the movie – all things transform and things are not at first what they seem. The cinematography is beautiful as well. Maybe this is not so surprising when you learn that the directors served as their own cinematographers.

Don’t let the fact that this is a Swedish movie stop you from seeing it! It seems like an American movie in its pacing, production values, and drama. The only things that are not very Hollywood about it are that it has fresh ideas, complexity, and willingness to take risks. I am looking forward to a bright future for Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist – two guys who will make Swedish cinema anything but invisible to American audiences.

--Copernicus

Thanks so much, man. Always good to hear from you.

"Moriarty" out.





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