Dirch

Since this film won't make sense to non-danes, I see no reason why my review should. So here goes: 'Dirch' er et to timer langt afsnit 23 i den store Dirch Passer julekalender. There. You can google translate it, but it still won't make any sense if you're not danish.

A towering, bloated, grotesque and vile monument to everything that is wrong with cinema. A cluttered catastrofuck of painfully manipulative, witless writing and gutless, feeble and visually impaired directing. The "actors" perform with all the gusto of dead songbirds in the gutter, caked and awash as they are in the filth and bilge of this fetid offence to art, moving images and at least two of the five senses. To put it another way: Fuck this film in the ass with that contraption from Seven.

Ranthe and Kaas are great, but I'm not sure if this was the right way to deal with a story about the greatest danish comedian... Personally I don't care about everything that was going on behind the scenes I wanted more of the Dirch I know and love. The one who I've seen so many times in movies in my youth! Fuck it, I'll just do a rewatch of Præriens Skrappe Drenge!

Lars Ranthe nails it perfectly as the one you never heard of, and Lie-Kaas most definitely nails it as the one you just cannot copy. The first hour of the film is sublime in almost every way, but it gets increasingly insecure in the end, making it depend rather solely on the gags and sketches. Which is a pitty, as the drama starts out cleverly. All in all, really worth seeing, for sure.

For all it's great camera work, fine performances and fresh approach to the subject matter, Dirch can't help but feel a bit aimless, as the movie's initial tight structure sort of disintegrates halfway, and the last act becomes a tired and obvious journey to the title character's inevitable demise. Ultimately Dirch Passer's comic genius is emphasised not by Kaas' otherwise impressive performance, but by how impossible it is, to imitate a true funny bone comedian.

If anything, this movie is a testament to what an irreplaceable comedic genius Dirch Passer was. Nikolaj Lie Kaas nails all the dramatic aspects Dirch's subdued persona, but he struggles greatly, when trying to encapsulate his performances. For the rest the movie plays like the an overly long third act of a standard biopic. Dirch manages to elude Zandvliet, who's clearly inept at story structure. It ends up being an inoffensive, if unimaginative and overly long run of the mill standard fare.

Kaas and Ranthe are terrific. I liked how the film didn't follow a traditional bio-pic formula, instead throwing us into the story head-first. The film eventually loses momentum in the last act which ought to have been trimmed. I didn't find the revue parts funny (a helplessly dated brand of humour if you ask me) but they seemed spot-on in terms of accuracy. Whether or not the same goes for encapsulating Passer's life, the tragic main focus of the film is a dramatically sound choice.

An enthusiastic performance by Kaas but, as others have pointed out, it is too one-sided and does exactly what it says was wrong with Dirch's career; brings him to the forefront and hushes the other people to the background. I know it is a bio-pic but there were many more elements to Passer's disintegration as an actor than simply himself and his own self-doubt. Commendable performances all round but fails to hit the nail on the head and could've done with a deeper bite into the Passer legacy.

It might chronicle the life of one of the most beloved danish performers ever. But basically it's just a rip'off of "Lenny"

Definetely worth a watch if you have even a tengential knowledge of the comedian. Lie Kaas transforms rather uncannily into the mannerisms of the late Dirch Passer, which in and of itself is worth the price of admissions.

A genuine, heartfelt bio-pic of Denmark's most conflicted and beloved cultural icon. Though it is unafraid of sentimentality, it avoids the cheap, undeserved sort that tends to plague modern Danish cinema - mostly thanks to Lie Kaas' and Lars Ranthe's performances, as well as Zandvliet's confident direction. Has a drop-off in interest in the last half, although I guess it expresses the drop-off in Dirch's life after a certain event.

A gloomy, joyless, moping film that feels just as offensively fake as had the filmmakers taken the opposite, light-hearted approach to the subject.

Lacking the lasting emotional impact one could have hoped for, but Kaas and Ranthe are truly great and most importantly this biopic is equally focused and prioritized.