Based on the Danish young adult novel by Janne Teller, Nothing may be the best movie I saw at Fantastic Fest and was definitely the darkest.
A young boy named Pierre Anthon (Harald Kaiser Hermann) has seen the inherent purposelessness of life and decided to climb a tree and stay up there like Zacchaeus or a prepubescent Simon of the Desert. His friends are concerned about him and try to get him to climb down. Some throw rocks. He stays there.
Led by Agnes (Vivelill Søgaard Holm), the schoolchildren still want to prove him wrong, so they gather a heap of meaning, each offering sacrifices with deep personal meaning. It starts with typical teenage things but soon the sacrifices grow dark and even murderous.
Much like Kids or Peanuts -- truly the only time both have been used in a comparison -- parents aren't there. It's these kids building a monument to something, anything, facing the idea we all must that the world is not safe and no one can protect us.
Directed by Trine Piil Christensen -- who also wrote this movie -- and Seamus McNally, Nothing makes me wonder how much I really want kids because when they get this old, how will I talk them out of doing something like this? I figure my kid will be the one up in the tree, but let's be serious. He, she or they will be the one down in the basement watching slashers with us.
A young boy named Pierre Anthon (Harald Kaiser Hermann) has seen the inherent purposelessness of life and decided to climb a tree and stay up there like Zacchaeus or a prepubescent Simon of the Desert. His friends are concerned about him and try to get him to climb down. Some throw rocks. He stays there.
Led by Agnes (Vivelill Søgaard Holm), the schoolchildren still want to prove him wrong, so they gather a heap of meaning, each offering sacrifices with deep personal meaning. It starts with typical teenage things but soon the sacrifices grow dark and even murderous.
Much like Kids or Peanuts -- truly the only time both have been used in a comparison -- parents aren't there. It's these kids building a monument to something, anything, facing the idea we all must that the world is not safe and no one can protect us.
Directed by Trine Piil Christensen -- who also wrote this movie -- and Seamus McNally, Nothing makes me wonder how much I really want kids because when they get this old, how will I talk them out of doing something like this? I figure my kid will be the one up in the tree, but let's be serious. He, she or they will be the one down in the basement watching slashers with us.