Here's Your Life

A largely shapeless coming-of-age epic, what's most compelling here is the succession of breathtakingly beautiful images (including a couple of bewitching sequences in color), which take full advantage of the Swedish countryside and the springy, lo-fi New Wave aesthetic. But there's a realism and a relatability here that is remarkable, and very easy to admire. To put it in perspective, Boyhood would be America's Here Is Your Life.

Episodic bildungsroman about an inexpressive young man (or adolescent, really) who gains an education in the ways of the world (sickness, death, labour, alcohol, tobacco, women, socialism – and cinema), but who unfortunately remains fairly inexpressive throughout – slightly less so only when quitting a job. Sporadically interesting portrait of more or less repressive times (set during the First World War), but also a bit dreary.

As boring as my life...

Torturously slow and meandering, yet hypnotic. Took me 3 nights to finish it as I kept falling asleep yet I couldn't wait to get back to it. Stayed on my mind for weeks afterwards.

Jan Troell exhibits a fully-formed mastery of cinema In one of the most ambitious and impressive debuts I've ever seen, an epic, nearly three-hour long adaptation of a coming-of-age novel serial. The beauty is that it doesn't come off as a condensed dramatization of some grand plot (as most similar efforts do), but rather like an organic, breathing procession of glimpses into a teenager's life. Every scene is like a new experience, the same way life unveils itself to Olof.