Flicker (2012) Poster

(2012)

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6/10
Oddball Swedish comedy-drama
Red-Barracuda24 June 2012
A blackout in a small northern Swedish town sets off a chain of events that alters the lives of a group of employees of a telecommunications company.

Flicker is a comedy-drama that focuses on a well-drawn cast of characters. The centre point is Ted Danson lookalike Kenneth who is responsible for the company's financial reports, which are hopelessly complicated and impenetrable. He forms an unlikely relationship with the cleaner who has a severe case of arachnophobia, made even more traumatic seeing as the power-failure occurred mid therapy session with a tarantula, leaving her in a darkened room with the beast, hilariously named Sauron. The telecoms company, meanwhile, are trying to re-brand themselves in a modern way. Out goes their amazingly inappropriate Bergmanesque gloomy adverts that hint at domestic violence, and in comes a Swedish superhero. While in the background a group of anarchists, who believe in conspiracies surrounding the dangers of electromagnetic rays, plan destructive acts against the power company.

Perhaps Flicker loads most of its laugh-out-loud funny moments at the beginning. It doesn't quite live up to the expectations of some of its hilarious opening moments. In actual fact Flicker mixes some serious drama in amongst the comedy. It's not always an easy mix. Nevertheless, it remains an engaging oddball comedy with a heart. The slightly surreal goings on in this small northern town are well handled by a good cast of actors.
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1/10
One of the worst movies I've ever seen
gurrah-655-9443629 April 2013
If you want something to fall asleep to; perfect cure has been found. Seriously, this movie is the most boring 100 min you will have in your life.

The only reason I finished this movie - (accually I closed it but decided to pick up from where I left it the following day) - is because I like Kjell Bergqvist (as Tord) and Olle Sarri (as Jörgen)

I did not even crack a smile during the whole movie, nice "comedy" The acting is awful (except from Kjell and Olle), the story lacks EVERYTHING, the camera work is bad and the color scheme is even worse.

With a budget of ~2M euro (~20M SEK) I guess all was spent on the casting, because the aesthetics, provisions, gear clearly screamed budget.

Don't watch this garbage.
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10/10
Moving and hilarious
berndporr24 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I saw it yesterday at the Edinburgh International Festival and loved it from the first to the last frame. The film follows a couple of people who work or have some connection to the local telecommunications company Unicom. They all struggle at work and at home (except of the devil-ish IT guys in the basement). The company is threatened by poor sales figures and a group of environmental activists who threaten to sabotage their new 4G system. So far so standard. However, the fun arises from the myriads of surreal, funny and humiliating moments these people go through life. What works so beautifully in this film is the risk taking things into the absurd with even very silly costumes but not turning it into slapstick. It's still all relevant and we are all reminded of our worst day at work or at home. The story could have easily told in a doom and gloom fashion or completely bonkers but the director manages this fine line where we still can connect to the characters. The film is clearly inspired by Roy Anderssons jokes and also his surreal way of storytelling but this is much lighter and hugely entertaining. Also, there are no tableau style shots but instead clever camera movements. In general the film feels very energetic and it never loses its momentum right to the end.
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