Critics reviews

The squirm factor is high in this dark comedy of social awkwardness from Sweden, ruthlessly directed by first-time feature director Ernst De Geer to maximise audience discomfort.

De Geer understands the premise would fall flat if the quirkier presence was overexposed within the drama, and thus carefully uses the moments of disruption to set off an anxiety within its other lead. He builds an atmosphere with the lingering threat that things could go off-script at any second... it never becomes a one-note movie.

Constantly walking a tightrope to keep it real, first-time director Ernst de Geer, working from the screenplay he wrote with Mads Stegger, shows true flair... Every awkward moment, every squirmy social stab, is framed against the background of ordinary expectations and tiny, scaleable rebellions.

De Geer’s film at least goes into the gray areas of human behavior and like both the Triers (Joachim and Lars Von) makes poking holes in kind of obvious middle-class mores an unexpectedly enjoyable spectator sport.

It's an honest and hilarious look at the human condition, even if it makes a few missteps along the way... Above everything else, it deserves praise for standing in favor of a life that's less performative and more attentive to one's desires.

Executing some toe-curling displays of social faux pas played straight that would make Michael Haneke blush, August and Nordrum are a winning pair of leads, who gamely lean into the absurdity that Ernst De Geer and Mads Steggen’s script asks of them.

“The Hypnosis” — a witty, incisive satire on the modern obsession with self-actualization, which is also, to those of us with heightened sensitivity to social awkwardness, 98 masochistic minutes of second-hand squirm.

The Hypnosis... offers knowing satirical commentary on conformity and relationships that benefits from razor-sharp comic dialogue and superb performances by its two leads.