Beautiful Beings (2022) User Reviews

A good authentic true-to-life movie

[Void-Horizon · 8/10 · 15 February 2024]

It's been a while ago since I've seen this one, but I still remember how well I liked it. It's hard to find movies like this, ones which don't feel like movies, where a bunch of life stuff happens which feels believable, and you're just along for the ride.

The directing was really good. The scenery was immersive. The acting from what I could tell (not my native language) seemed pretty great. All of the people felt like they fit their role. In other words, the one who was supposed to be the tough one looked the part. The one who played the wimp, looked like the biggest dork. The father, especially. The mother, and even the sister. Even the boys they fought felt like they genuinely fit the part. The fight scenes felt like real stuff that could happen. I didn't feel myself thinking, "yeah right". Pretty much everything felt believable, and like I was watching more of a documentary than a movie.

Now, this is my kind of movie. I like movies which don't feel like a movie. I like that "being there" vibe. I want to feel like a fly on the wall. This film delivers that, and I don't think there was one scene I didn't feel that way in. It doesn't try to hype up a bunch of fluff, or influence you to feel a certain way about it. It just presents some scenes where the sequence of events tell the story. Even when some extreme events occur, it fits the context, and feels believable.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. So, if you're looking for larger than life caricatures, epic worlds, elaborate costumes, distorted reality, exciting stunts or scary monsters, then you'll likely miss the whole point.

Some other things I remember being interesting:

I found myself wondering what happened to that boy's face, and they didn't tell us straight away. The way it was finally revealed was woven into the narrative in a way which felt natural. It didn't feel like they were showing you this so you would know. It felt like I was one of the boys in the scene, and just as curious as they were. When they reacted to the story, it mirrored how I felt inside.

I also like the way the drug scenes felt. The actors didn't act like they were trying to act high. It just felt like they were high, and behaving the way that high people act.

There was a tragic scene at the end where something was done to one of the boys, and it actually felt believable. The way that the boy was shaken by it felt genuine.

The weakest part of the film was the revenge scene with the father. Although, it wasn't bad at all. It made sense in context, and didn't feel too predictable. I managed to feel a bit surprised by it, and not in a way where it just felt like that because it didn't fit. The fallout afterwards made me feel upset.

The ending wasn't what I'd hoped, and felt a little short, but it didn't disappoint. The circumstances which led to it were, but not the acting or storyline. It worked, and was a nice way to finish the sequence of events.

On a more personal note, I like that it had some really attractive actors in it. Somehow, that always makes the characters feel more believable. I feel more engaged in the sequence of events, as well as immersed in that world. Probably, because I actually want to be there, and with them. It helps me to connect. Plus, I really don't care to stare at ugly boys acting stupid. Having attractive actors makes even the dumbest stuff they do seem more interesting. I mean, even the wimpy boy is sorta cute, in a weird way. It helps me feel sorry for him, and want things to turn out OK. However, it's also fun to watch him suffer. There's nothing fun about watching an ugly freak suffer. It's almost too much.

There don't seem to be enough movies like this. That's tragic, because I could get lost in stories like this all day long. Afterwards, I feel like I lived that experience, and those are my memories. It's the sort of memories I've experienced in my own real life. It makes my life feel like it's been even more interesting and memorable. It deepens my experience of being human, and a guy. It makes me miss the good ole days, when I was wild like that. It makes me want to go and do some more guy things, and get into even more hijinks.

I hope they make more good movies which feel like memories and not movies.

Incredible cast

[mauramartindale · 7/10 · 13 February 2024]

The young cast was incredible in this. There were a lot of nuance to their acting, and they brought a lot of depth to their characters. This isn't an easy topic to tackle, and to be able to potray something so raw and real at such a young age really shows how talanted the actors are in this. The story is both beautiful and heartbreaking. I understand the ending, but damn, if I didn't wish for it not to end like that. I guess that's where my disappointment comes in. I understand and respect the ending, but it was also predictable and I just wanted more for the characters, but life doesn't always unfold the way we want. I absolutley loved the first half, the second half became a bit to repetitive, and too brutal for my liking which combined with ending made me wishing for more. I don't know, it felt like there was more to the story than where, and how, it ended.

One more way to act like we don't know "what's going on with our kids"

[b_velkova · 7/10 · 19 February 2023]

I imagined it's going to be like Gummo and Kids and in a way it is but it fails in one very important aspect: showing the kids' own corruption. See, Harmony Korine's beautiful beings are tragic because the conflict is within themselves. A conflict with the environment like in here is just romantic and unfortunately, rings false. These boys are practically the four musketeers. And I don't like it because it's just one more way to act like we don't know "what's going on with our kids".

P. S. The clairvoyant mother is a very unnecessary detail and the final conflict from the sister's appearance onwards is badly developed.

Something very special

[ts-83422 · 10/10 · 20 February 2022]

A heartwarming story of teenage self-destruction and graphic violence. No, really.

I can't stop thinking about this film. On the face of it, it's about four teenage boys from variously broken homes who smoke, fight and swagger around 1990s Reykjavik causing trouble and doing fairly horrendous things.

But they are friends, and that's what this really is. It's a film about friendship, enduring friendship through the extremes. Sticking up for your mates (even when you should know better). Having your mates stick up for you.

These boys only have each other. Balli has no one to start with - bullied at school, ignored at home, he lives a filthy, pathetic life until Addi takes him into the gang (with the animalistic Konni and weirdo Siggi) after taking pity on him.

We follow the boys on a series of misadventures of teenage impetuousness which build - or sink - in horrifying ways towards the film's conclusion. Konni fights. Addi grows. Balli lives. Siggi pulls bogies out of his nose and chases people with them, but that's not the point.

There's a mildly supernatural aspect to it all as Addi experiences premonitions about what may unfold - they may be real but equally may just be him maturing and seeing the consequences (while doing too many mushrooms).

It's rare to see such fully formed, three-dimensional characters, but by the end of the film you know these kids, you're rooting for them (in spite of yourself). You're one of the gang.

Sturla Brandth Grøvlen's camerawork is divine, director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson's story is moving and believable, the performances are perfect (especially Birgir Dagur Bjarkason, Áskell Einar Pálmason, Viktor Benóný Benediktsson and Snorri Rafn Frímannsson as the kids), the soundtrack is addictive. It's the whole package.

(In Game of Thrones, they spent a fortune working on making the dragon fire realistic, on the basis that if you believe the fire, you'll believe the dragon. Fake VFX would have ruined it. Here, it's the fight scenes. Believe the violence and you'll believe the teenagers, and I don't know if there's an Oscar for best fight choreography but Jón Viðar Arnþórsson and Imma Helga Arnþórsdóttir who did these scenes should win it. As the last reviewer said, this really does look like kids beating each other up - and RIP the extra who gets a door smashed full in her face, I assume she just died in real life.)

I can't stop thinking about this film. And I can't recommend it highly enough.

---

Rewatch: Such fantastic details that are too easily missed... The boy Konni trips up in the playground at the start is the same boy who hits Balli in the tunnel. It's just cyclic violence passed on and Konni/Addi are never aware they triggered it all. Such attention to detail, it's magnificent, there's not a wasted second in the film.

Mesmerising performances from one of the great young casts

[login-01358 · 9/10 · 16 February 2022]

A captivating, often brutal dip into the lives of four 14-year-old boys in roughly 2000-era Iceland. Addi, the one with a conscience, takes badly bullied Balli into his group of friends after feeling a twinge of compassion at seeing him being mistreated. The acting from the four first-time protagonists is exceptional. Award-worthy. I can easily see them being named joint best actors at festivals (I saw it twice in Berlin).

Áskell Einar Pálmason as Balli delivers an understated masterclass in nervous glances, twitches and despair. It's all the more impressive to see how, as the character eases into life with his first friends, his body language changes, almost imperceptibly.

Birgir Dagur Bjarkason may well take the plaudits with his turn as Addi, he carries the film on his young shoulders and doesn't put a foot wrong, whether joining in the violence or experiencing the dreamlike (often nightmarish) visions that give the film its Icelandic name.

Snorri Rafn Frímannsson has less to do as Siggi than the others but has charisma and backs the others up as his character does on screen.

But for me it is Viktor Benóný Benediktsson, as Konni, who delivers the star turn. A thug known as The Animal, his Konni is able to deliver the aggression needed to make his character believable, punching and swinging wildly through the film in an often terrifying manner. But one by one the layers are stripped away to reveal - not that he would admit it - the scared boy trapped in the young man's body. Such a broad performance would test actors twice his age but he aces it. They all do.

A note on the fight scenes, which through a combination of beautiful camera work and expert, almost balletic choreography come across as some of the most realistic I can remember. This isn't filmic violence, these are kids kicking lumps out of each other. Harsh, cold, real, shocking.

One criticism comes in the pacing at the end and an inclusion of possibly too many story strands that don't really have chance to justify their place in the final film. It feels a bit like a 2h30 film that a producer has demanded becomes 2hrs. If that's the case I hope a director's cut will follow - I would gladly spend all day in the company of the fascinating characters that director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has so expertly and lovingly brought to the screen.

That space between Stand By Me and Train Spoting.

[TrueWouve · 9/10 · 24 September 2022]

Beautiful Beings is a masterfully told story of the struggles of being a teen in an imperfect world full of imperfect families and imperfect situations. It is a raw and yet at times heart warming look in to the lives of four teen boys navigating a train wreck of circumstances. Its dark plot is skillfully developed with subtle misdirection and haunting foreshadowing. The clever pacing captures the intensity and destructiveness of these damaged lives all while offering reprieves of humor and cathartic tenderness.

At the root of it the story has been told countless times. An outsider is brought into a circle of friends, harsh teen cruelties and outright disdain slowly melt into new dynamics and personal growth. It is The Breakfast Club but with a much more unpretentious group of troubled youth. A sort of Stranger Things but with very non-paranormal dangers. And with the highest praise one could say it is retelling this narrative with the honesty and insight of films like The Perks of Being a Wallflower or the original Let the Right Ones In. This film triumphs in is brutal honesty and is mesmerizing in its depiction of life in a weathered blue-collar Reykjavík suburb. Its characters and dialogue hit masterfully again and again with very uniquely Icelandic circumstances and yet it remains universal in its observation of struggling families.

Part of what I love most about what writer-Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson has done so well with this film is its wonderful casting. The characters are so awkwardly enjoyable to discover. And very careful consideration to the physical size of the characters helps build the narrative. The smallest are the most vulnerable the largest the most menacing. And the performances he has inspired from everyone, in particularly the young leads, is truly award worthy. These actors deliver strong consistently motivated characters who you quickly fell you have known for a lifetime. Each actor clearly understood the purpose of their character and delivers the needed dynamics with a clarity one would expect from a fly on the wall documentary.

There is one one particularly refreshing aspect of the modern teen depicted in this film that I don't think I have seen done so well before. These teens, with all their troubles (and boy do they have troubles) have grown up in a world that is starting to address toxic masculinity. They really struggle with catching themselves being outright jerks. Being teens that make impulsive choices with little thought of how profoundly their actions could impact those around them or being drawn to responding to insult with escalations of violence. All this is happening while they also trying to influence better of themselves and their piers. And by shining a light on their own actions, by coming to the defense of those who are being shamed for exposing personal vulnerabilities or with unexpected selfless actions they enable changes. Now to be clear these teens are still brutally crude, and groose, quick to anger and cruel but they've grown up at least in a system that has taught them to question this. It's characters in this kind of shifting world that I haven't seen depicted before so thoughtfully.

Beautiful Beings continues the growing trend of more honest and therefore often darker looks into the coming of age narrative. It needs to be said this film depicts and addresses social poverty, teen cruelty, violence, self harm, teen sexuality, mental illness, drug use and even rape with brutal honesty. And it is a more perfect movie having depicted these realities honestly. It is a wonderfully crafted, hauntingly acted modern look at teens struggling in a brutally imperfect world to discover for the first time or retain what makes them Beautiful Beings.

Masterpiece

[yusufpiskin · 9/10 · 10 November 2022]

Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson film from 2022.

Many artists and writers present to us the pain of adolescence, the effects of which they still cannot get rid of in their works. This is one of the most important sources that literature and art have been fed since their existence.

Guðmundsson, born in 1982, I think, has conveyed the pain of adolescence to the audience in a unique and disturbing reality, like a fist in the stomach, as in the films Ártún (2014) / Hjartasteinn (2016).

Guðmundsson's 'storytelling' skill that goes beyond scriptwriting, and the ability to deliver the resulting work to adolescent actors whom no one has given / known before, and always getting good results as a result of this risk, I think, stems from his ability to explain himself to his actors.

Berdreymi, who made its second screening in the world at the Istanbul Film Festival, is once again a Guðmundsson classic and easily stands out from the 2022 films with the closed nature of Iceland and its character reflecting it.

Our character Baldur (Hjartasteinn's young actor's name is a nice detail) was a father figure to all of his friends when he was a wounded child, but he never left his childhood, all the child actors hurt the audience's hearts with their characters, Kristian Eidnes Andersen's great compositions and with camera moves that take the movie to another dimension Thanks to Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, Guðmundsson has outdone herself in her art.

Just as he discovered Baldur Einarsson in the movie Hjartasteinn, he brought Birgir Dagur Bjarkason to the cinema in this movie as well, who will be a great actor with the right direction.

Long story short, Berdreymi is a masterpiece that should be watched not only for those who love northern cinema or 'Coming-Age' movies, but also for anyone who defines himself as a cinephile.

A poignant masterpiece

[Groverdox · 9/10 · 30 January 2023]

Baldur has the look that abused kids often have - especially the gentle ones. Totally closed in on himself, hang-dog, afraid to look anyone in the eye. Trying to shrink, trying to go invisible. We are not surprised to see him bullied: his manner is so fearful of attack that he invites it.

We are surprised, however, at how violent the bullying gets when one his classmates smashes him across the face with a wooden post. Suffering a broken nose and fractured skull, Baldur then has to wear a white mask to school, like a bad guy in a pantomime, and this only marginalises him further.

When Baldur's situation and demeanour again attracts unwanted attention from other youths, we expect yet more bullying and at first, we get it. Siggi, Konni and Addi invite themselves into Baldur's life, heedless of his obvious wish to be left alone. They barge their way into his house, and when Konni kicks a hole in the wall, freak out a little bit about what "Balli"'s mother might say. It turns out she doesn't really care, because she's barely around anyway, and the house is squalid and most of the walls and doors are already damaged by Balli's violent stepfather, who also shot out one of the teenager's eyes when he was four, with a BB-gun the stepfather wanted to "find out of it was loaded".

The boys then actually clean Balli's house, and he is more or less a member of their gang of drug-using, vandalising, oft-violent misfits. The other two would have been content with just victimising Baldur, but you see, Addi too has a stepfather, and he knows what it's like.

We know this group is heading for trouble and even greater violence. At first, we empathise only with Baldur, the least-violent and least-trouble causing. The gang seems indistinguishable from the kids that attacked him previously. However we come to know and care for them, especially Addi.

The movie is beautifully shot, which contrasts with the ugly behaviour of its characters. The music is also beautiful at times. Many might find its characters repellent, and it was hard for me to take a lot of the time, but by the time we meet Baldur's stepfather, and realise the connection Baldur and Addi both share, we understand why they are the way they are, and we totally understand why they feel their story needs to take the violent turn it does.

These "beautiful beings" were left behind. They apparently have very little supervision at school - I don't remember any teachers in any of the school scenes - and their parents are absent, either off on drug/alcohol benders or throwing themselves into mysticism like tarot cards when the problems their kids have are urgent and absolutely real.

Young men take what options they have open to them: here they felt there was only one option.

After "Heartstone", I was very interested to see what Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson was going to do next. With "Beautiful Beings", an aching, beautiful small-time masterpiece, he's outdone himself.

Lastly, the performance of Áskell Einar Pálmason in the movie as Baldur/Balli is a masterwork. He is so utterly believable the movie could be a documentary about his life. It's so real that our hearts break, not only for the Balli on the screen, but all the kids in similar situations wherever on earth you find people.

Not feel-good movie, except maybe it was

[eventpix · 9/10 · 14 January 2023]

The poster for this made it out to be a feel-good coming of age movie but the graphic violence at the beginning was enough to nearly walk us out the door. I kept thinking 'there must be some redeeming feature', and by the end I realized there was, though I'm not sure everyone would see it like that. For me it was like a karass in Vonnegut's The Cat's Cradle, defined on google as: "the Bokononist term for a group of people brought together to do God's work-though the purpose of that work is not something they can ever be fully aware of." I thought that was what this movie was about, and Addie was the person who somehow brought it all together. It did have a happy ending of sorts, sort of like The Black Phone. It's not as if Balli's journey from nearly sub-human to happy kid just happened, and it wasn't some cinematic bit of gift wrapping. I guess one might think that it came out of the blue... if one didn't understand the movie at all. The movie also reminded me so much of some Almodóvar films, especially "Habla con ella".(which also had some weird dream sequences) There were miracles in both.

Beautiful

[poson-67948 · 9/10 · 26 June 2023]

By watching this film, you are transported into the lives of these four boys. I mean, the movie is so involving that you feel like you are part of the gang. The actors, especially Áskell Einar Pálmason, Birgir Dagur Bjarkason and Viktor Benóný Benediktsson are exceptional.

The characters aren't one dimensional simpletons. There's a lot of contradictions, transformation and growth throughout the movie and the express everything to perfection. They let you know what the characters are feeling and thinking even when they don't say anything. Áskell Einar Pálmason probably got the hardest role to play, as Balli, the bullied boy who'd never had a friend before. At the end of the movie, Balli looks like a completely different person. He is transformed by the friendship from the other boys.

Probably different people watching this movie will take away different things. The story approaches multiple themes. For me, the biggest and most moving one is "friendship". The way Addi offers his friendship to Balli and how far the four boys are willing to go to stand up for their friends is really moving. I think I will remember this movie for the rest of my life.

I'm giving 9 stars because of the mystical theme, which I was hoping to understand by the end of the movie, but I couldn't. I will probably watch this movie again. Maybe I'll get it the next time around.

Beautiful and lifeaffirming.

[Eiram88 · 10/10 · 14 July 2023]

What a movie. Heartwarming, beautiful, tragic and mystical. I am blown away by all the actors, especially the two main leads Balli and Addi. The range of emotions the were able to play were incredible and heart wrenching.

As a viewer I was transported into these boys life. The film is slow but gripping, as you get sucked in the tragic life of these boys, who stick by each other no matter what. When tragedy strikes you are not surprised, but you still hold out hope that all will work itself out.

Beautiful cinematography. There are lots of shots of The Ocean and smashes up building giving The viewer a good understanding of The enviroment these Boys life in. This movie Will stay with me for a Long time.

what a hidden gem

[angarapasali · 10/10 · 12 November 2023]

What a hidden gem. Such an amazing film. I really enjoyed it . Very nice story , script , acting , directing , the whole 9 yards, the whole shabang . Whatever you are looking for in a film , this film has it. The characters are hundred percent mesmerizing. They are so successful . Looks like the weather sucks in iceland but thats what you get if you live that further up north. One party scene looked like daytime but in fact it was night time party. I am so glad i found this movie on KANOPY , a library streaming service . I read the reviews and decided to give it a shot. Definitely , did not disappoint . If you dont mind the subtitles , you will love this film... enjoy...

Junk food?

[frukuk · 20 December 2023]

There's a chain of frozen food supermarkets in Britain called "Iceland". Their TV adverts (aka commercials) used to use the tagline: "That's why mums go to Iceland". In the context of this film, it seems that "Mums shouldn't go to Iceland", not if they want to provide a nurturing environment in which their children can grow up.

I do wonder how much of the troubling behaviour of the adolescent boys in the film is down to poor diet, leading to poor brain development and poor executive function? Frozen vegetables, like those from "Iceland", can be more nutritious than "fresh" vegetables because they were frozen soon after harvesting. Perhaps Iceland should be less Iceland and more "Iceland"?