353 - The Northman

Writer-director Robert Eggers, who previously wowed us with The Lighthouse, returns in style with a brutal, bloody Viking epic, based on Amleth, the figure in Scandinavian legend that inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's the first of his films to see a wide, mainstream release and large-scale ad campaign to match, and it's perhaps for that reason that it is in some sense less demanding that its audience put the work in to understand and interpret it - although there remains plenty of room for that, and it's in a different league to the blockbusters with which it's competing. It's a film to put down what you're doing right now and see at the cinema - it's vicious, atmospheric, and beautifully shot, and you won't regret seeing it where it's meant to be seen. Recorded on 17th April 2022.