[Thor Joachim Haga]

I’ve yet to see Mascaro’s THE BLUE TRAIL and Bi Gan’s RESSURECTION. They are potentially visually dazzling. They have press screenings next week over here.

And to follow up on that, I saw both yesterday. I’m afraid to say they were both disappointments.

THE BLUE TRAIL was Mascaro’s attempt to comment on post-Bolsonaro traumas in Brazil, with a slightly futuristic, dystopian society where old people are no longer needed and sent to “colonies”. A lot of it just feels awkward, and he doesn’t manage to lift the mundane, visually, like he did so wonderfully in NEON BULL. And that’s with having the friggin’ Amazon at his disposal. But some striking moments here and there.

RESSURECTION was a wildly complex film, but also terribly bloated and self-indulgent. I have no idea what the recurring thread throughout the segments are (existential crises?), and the “meta” comment with the “fantasm” didn’t really work. At almost 3 hours, I was wriggling in my seat. But kudos for visual artistry on high level. Yes, there’s some Powell & Pressburger there, but the second part was clearly molded on German expressionism (or, rather, it’s like if Tim Burton and Ridley Scott went to Fritz Lang’s place to pop acid), the second with the monastery and snow made me think of Kurosawa and IKIRU, and the vampire sequence with its massive amounts of red, Zhang Jimou and RAISE THE RED LANTERN. But the whole thing should have been focussed and tightened up.

Was supposed to have seen Maria Sødahl’s PARADIS this morning, but overslept! Next ones out, in the theatre, is Jim Jarmusch’s FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER on Thursday, and then Kristoffer Borgli’s THE DRAMA and Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s BONE LAKE the week after Easter. But probably loads of home viewings inbetween, will need to sort some screeners out — there have been several 2026 “buzz” films I’ve missed out on, including THE MOMENT, NO OTHER CHOICE, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE, ALPHA, MEKTOUB, MY LOVE: CANTO DUE, RENOIR ++.