Critics reviews

Other films celebrate cities... but few manage to be both in awe of the city and aware of its destructive power. Oslo, August 31st sees both sides, and it’s an all-around amazing, emotionally resonant, and intellectually potent film: a masterpiece.

Oslo, August 31st is too penetrating to shrug off as the latest piece of miserablism from the festival circuit. It’s that rare downer that leaves you wide awake, with all synapses firing.

[Oslo, August 31] is not a comfortable film to live with, but its doubts over life’s purpose are as current as ever, and Trier has rendered them with simple and unstressed beauty.

The film simultaneously elongates and condenses time (clocking in at only a hour and a half), emphasizing Anders' warped frame of mind. Unlike the edgy, often controversial films of the director's distant cousin Lars Von Trier whose work tends to concern societal dysfunction, OLSO, AUGUST 31 is an intimate meditation on the loneliness and isolation of one man.

[Oslo, August 31st] transpires mostly in quiet, engrossing dialogue scenes, and its austere style shares a good deal in common with the protagonist, who seems both opaque and completely exposed.

"Oslo, August 31st" is quietly, profoundly, one of the most observant and sympathetic films I've seen.

The first third or so—scenes between Anders and his writer pal—cross over into [one] of my least favorite "genres": the therapy movie, which finds the characters talking openly and earnestly about their feelings in a way that's inimical to drama.

The impressive thing that "Oslo, August 31st" does is that it somehow relates what Anders is going through to the city of Oslo in general. Anders is not a metaphor for Oslo... Rather, he is just one more story in the naked city.

The way [Trier] sheds the barriers of time — transcending them with a poetic harmony — is unique and always bursting with emotion... [The film's] first-glance impact is nothing less than powerful, punctuated by a confidently observant camera that captures each puff of Anders’ cigarettes, and each reflective gaze of his weakened, hollowed-out face.

An outstanding film... Trier’s compassion for what it takes to survive, mixed with the love he bestows on Oslo, is rewardingly profound.

“Oslo, August 31st” has the satisfying gravity of specific experience, and also, true to its title, a prickly sense of place. Oslo is Anders’s home, the scene of his happiest and most dreadful experiences, and the film, chilly as it is, is warmed by a love for the city that the filmmaker and the character clearly share.

[Oslo, August 31] is less audacious and less unexpected than [Trier's] Reprise, and thus ultimately less compelling. Yet it offers some startling moments... and a deep, unfussy performance by Danielson Lie.