This winter, Iceland has its pride up on the big screen in Baltasar Kormákur’s Little Trip to Heaven. Celebrated by Fréttablaðið journalist, and former Grapevine editor, Valur Gunnarsson as a movie that places Kormákur “between Mamet and Lynch,” the movie has garnered more enthusiasm about local film than anything since Nói Albinói, the Dagur Kári movie whose style seems to inform Little Trip.
A review of Little Trip will appear in the Grapevine’s February edition, but for right now, we can reveal that the Icelandic papers agree that the film is exceptional, and Icelandic audiences are receiving the film warmly, with 8,000 people paying the 1,000 ISK ticket price—local films have an added surcharge. We must also point out that Mugison, given the opportunity to do a soundtrack and score the film, demonstrates a true talent for blending his skills with the silver screen.
If you don’t want to see the small, local production of the day, you can see its polar opposite, the big screen epic King Kong, which has been the most popular film in Iceland as of print time. If you need more of a sales pitch: in Little Trip, you might be able to recognise parts of Reykjavík and southwestern Iceland disguised as Minnesota; in King Kong, you can be assured that Iceland will likely not cross your mind.
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