top of page
Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Search

Movies: Dreams: Dreams (2024) by Dag Johan Haugerud: The Intimate Language of Obsession and the Power of the Written Word

  • Writer: dailyentertainment95
    dailyentertainment95
  • 13 hours ago
  • 11 min read

Summary of Movie: A Micro-Budget Quest for Artistic Glory

Conclusion: Dreams (Original title: Drømmer) is the celebrated final installment of director Dag Johan Haugerud's "Oslo trilogy," presenting a nuanced and deeply verbal exploration of a teenager's intense first crush, filtered through the complex reactions of her family and addressing the ethics of artistic obsession.

  • Summary of Content: A romantic comedy-drama focusing on teenager Johanne's documentation of her intense crush on her French teacher, which is later discovered and debated by her mother and grandmother, leading to a generational exploration of love, sexuality, and self-discovery.

  • Movie Trend: Scandinavian Dialogue-Driven Drama / Meta-Literary Cinema (Films heavily reliant on dialogue, narration, and the internal life of characters, often exploring the relationship between life and text).

  • Social Trend: Generational Ethics and Consent (Sparking discussions about the ethical boundaries of power dynamics in relationships, and how different generations view romantic and sexual awakening).

  • Director Info: Dag Johan Haugerud, a Norwegian filmmaker known for his successful "Oslo trilogy" (Sex, Love, Dreams) and his intelligent, dialogue-heavy, and often alternative/liberal angle on relationships.

  • Major Awards and Nominations: The film has secured 5 wins & 10 nominations total, boasting a Metascore of 81, underscoring its significant critical success on the festival circuit (including the Berlinale).

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Relying heavily on written/spoken language (narration, internal monologue) can be a highly effective, low-budget way to explore complex psychological and generational themes, provided the dialogue is exceptional.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: Consumers in the art-house circuit actively seek out films that challenge conventional narrative structures (like minimal action, heavy dialogue) in favor of deep intellectual or emotional content.

Why It Is Trending: The Power of Uncomfortable Intimacy

Conclusion: Dreams is trending due to its status as the critically anticipated final piece of Haugerud’s successful Oslo trilogy, combined with its brave and non-judgmental portrayal of a controversial topic—a teacher-student crush—filtered through generations of female perspective.

The movie’s trending status is fueled by:

  • The Oslo Trilogy Legacy: As the conclusion of a successful series (Sex, Love), it carries built-in audience expectation, especially among fans of intelligent Norwegian cinema.

  • Generational Conflict: The core premise—a teenager’s intimate diary being read by her horrified but artistically moved mother and grandmother—creates an immediate and relatable tension point.

  • The Nuance of Ethics: Reviewers note the film portrays the crush as "puppy love," deliberately avoiding a "toxic" label, which challenges conventional moralizing and sparks intense debate among critics and audiences alike.

  • High Critical Acclaim: The film's 5 wins & 10 nominations total (and a Metascore of 81) draw immediate attention from art-house viewers seeking critical darlings.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Addressing sensitive subjects (like student/teacher relationships) with an "alternative/liberal angle" can generate significant buzz and distinguish the film from conventional dramas, provided the execution is intelligent and non-exploitative.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: Audiences are increasingly seeking media that offers non-judgmental, complex examinations of ethical gray areas and difficult relationship dynamics.

Why to Watch This Movie: A Profound Study in Language and Feeling

Conclusion: Watch Dreams for its exceptional, life-like dialogue, its deep dive into the complex emotions of first love, and its distinctive, literary-driven directorial style that forces the audience to actively engage with the characters' inner lives.

  • Exceptional Dialogue and Monologue: Director Haugerud has an "incredible knack for putting words" that are both entertaining and incredibly human/life-like into his characters' inner monologues. This is a treat for those who appreciate literary quality in cinema.

  • Emotional Depth Without Pathos: The film is praised as an "amazing movie about feeling without pathos," providing a powerful, reflective, and often humorous exploration of infatuation and love's "sour sweet tribulations."

  • Challenging the "Coming-of-Age" Box: The film is described as a "coming at life movie" that transcends the diminished expectations of the standard coming-of-age genre, challenging viewers of all ages to reflect on their own "lack of liberty in thinking and feeling."

  • A Unique Cinematic Style: Whether you love it or hate it, the film's reliance on narration and exploration of Oslo's neighborhoods is unique, offering a meditative, visually beautiful, and highly intellectual viewing experience.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Do not be afraid to prioritize text and internal monologue over conventional visual action if the narrative serves as a strong vehicle for profound emotional and intellectual exploration.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: There is a significant audience (especially in the art-house demographic) that favors intellectual stimulation and complex character study over fast pacing and traditional plot mechanics.

What Trend is Followed? Scandinavian Literary Drama

Conclusion: Dreams falls squarely within the Scandinavian Literary Drama trend, utilizing heavy internal monologues, intelligent dialogue, and often minimalist or observational visuals to explore profound philosophical or psychological themes.

The film adheres to this trend by:

  • Literary Structure: The strong reliance on Johanne's intimate diary (the "intimate writings") makes the film's structure feel literary, focusing on narrative and text over conventional cinematography.

  • Dialogue as Action: The film treats the characters' discussions and internal monologues as the primary source of action and conflict, a hallmark of Nordic character dramas.

  • Thematic Focus: It utilizes a specific personal crisis (the crush/diary) to explore universal ideas: romantic ideals vs. reality and the ethical ambiguity of relationships.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Using a literary device (like a diary or letters) as the central mechanism for exposition and internal conflict provides a strong, unifying structure for complex emotional narratives.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: The established reputation of Scandinavian cinema for intelligent, slow-burn psychological dramas attracts a loyal, discerning international audience.

Movie Plot: The Diary That Shocked a Family

Conclusion: The plot follows the immediate, high-stakes consequences when a young woman's private documentation of her intense feelings is unexpectedly exposed to her family, forcing a confrontation between romantic ideals and generational boundaries.

  • Setup: Johanne, a teenager, develops an intense crush on her French teacher and begins documenting her complex emotional journey in intimate writings.

  • Inciting Incident: Johanne's mother and grandmother read her private diary.

  • Rising Action (The Generational Conflict): The mother and grandmother are both horrified by the contents but simultaneously taken by the powerful writing and story. This dual reaction sparks the film's main internal debate about ethics, art, and judgment.

  • Climax (Implied): Johanne navigates her feelings, forcing the family to reckon with her romantic ideals vs. reality, and exploring universal emotions of self-discovery, love, and sexuality.

  • Implied Movie Trend: The Forbidden Relationship/Coming-of-Age Narrative, but subverted by focusing the tension on the family's reaction to the writing rather than the relationship itself.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Shifting the focus of a controversial plot point (the crush) to a secondary element (the family reading the diary) allows the film to explore larger themes of judgment, art, and privacy without being bogged down in relationship clichés.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: Plots that explore the conflict between private life and public/family scrutiny resonate powerfully in the age of constant documentation and social media.

Director's Vision: Dag Johan Haugerud's Vision: The Trilogy of Liberal Relationship

Conclusion: Director Dag Johan Haugerud's vision is to conclude his trilogy by using a seemingly familiar plot—first love—as a vehicle to engage in a nuanced, alternative/liberal exploration of relationships and challenge audiences to admit their own "lack of liberty in thinking and feeling."

  • Focus on Intellectual Dialogue: His background as a novelist informs his preference for rich, human, and life-like dialogue and monologues, ensuring the film's power comes from its text rather than its visual action.

  • Observational Pacing: The inclusion of scenes dedicated to the portrayal of Oslo and "walks from one home to the other" (as noted in reviews) reflects a vision focused on place, environment, and meditative pacing over narrative efficiency.

  • Subversion of Stigma: Haugerud consciously aims to portray the ethically murky relationship in a way that minimizes toxicity (e.g., puppy love), forcing the audience to re-examine their ingrained moral judgments.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Directors with a strong literary background can successfully create a unique cinematic language by leaning into narrative voice and dialogue as the primary tool for emotional and thematic delivery.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: A segment of the audience follows specific auteurs (like Haugerud) who promise a consistent intellectual challenge and a distinct stylistic approach across their works.

Themes: Obsession, Sacrifice, and the Price of Ambition

Conclusion: The central themes are the ambiguity of artistic production, the volatile nature of youthful infatuation, and the inherent tension between romantic ideals and reality across different life stages.

  • The Ambiguity of Art and Literature: The family's dual reaction—horror at the content vs. admiration for the "powerful writing"—explores the nature of artistic distance and moral judgment in storytelling.

  • Infatuation vs. Reality: The film focuses on Johanne navigating the turbulent emotional space between romantic ideals (the crush as written) and the often-disappointing reality of the experience.

  • Generational Gaps in Sexuality: The film uses the mother and grandmother as foils to Johanne, highlighting how societal and personal views on love and sexuality shift dramatically across different ages.

  • Oslo as Character: The emphasis on the physical setting and its neighborhoods reinforces the theme that environment shapes perception and experience, a common thread in the trilogy.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Creating thematic tension by contrasting two elements (e.g., the morality of the crush vs. the quality of the writing) gives the audience two separate entry points for critical discussion.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: Audiences appreciate narratives that use family units to explore universal conflicts, as the intergenerational dynamic provides natural complexity and emotional depth.

Key Success Factors: Stylistic Confidence and Critical Debate

Conclusion: Dreams's key success factors are its bold stylistic choice to prioritize narration and text, the resulting critical controversy (which generates buzz), and the highly-praised, emotionally raw performance by the lead actress.

  • The Power of Controversy: The film's unique approach to the student-teacher dynamic, which some critics lauded as "brave" and others condemned as "dismantling cinema," guarantees widespread discussion and attention.

  • Narrative Tenacity: Director Haugerud's conviction to embrace a heavy narration style, despite it being a severe risk and off-putting to some, demonstrates a strong, uncompromising artistic vision.

  • Lead Performance: Praise for the teenager Ella Øverbye ("She is a good actress") ensures that the emotional core of the film remains strong and relatable, even when the style is challenging.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: An uncompromising stylistic choice, even if polarizing, is often better for critical success and market visibility than a middle-of-the-road approach.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: Consumers are drawn to media that is the subject of high-stakes critical debate, viewing such films as culturally important and intellectually stimulating.

Awards and Nominations: Recognition in the Independent Circuit

The film has amassed significant critical success with 5 wins & 10 nominations total, including a Metascore of 81. This substantial recognition from festival and critical bodies confirms its status as a highly successful art-house picture, building on the success of the preceding films in the Oslo trilogy.

Conclusion: The strong award recognition, particularly from international film festivals like the Berlinale, solidifies the film's position as a critically acclaimed, high-quality international drama.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Achieving success early on in the festival circuit provides crucial validation for films with unconventional structures or difficult subject matter, opening doors to wider international distribution.

  • Consumer Trend Implied: The high volume of nominations and the strong Metascore attract discerning viewers who use critical consensus as a primary filter for choosing content.

Critics Reception: Art-House Masterpiece vs. Cinematic Failure

Conclusion: Critics are sharply divided, praising the film as a masterful, intellectual exploration of feeling while others condemn its heavy narration as a failure of the cinematic form, making its reception highly polarized.

  • Source: Poldi_Berlin: Praises the film as being "so much more than coming of age" and calls it an "amazing movie about feeling without pathos," challenging the audience to reflect on their own freedoms.

  • Source: frank-boester: Highly complimentary, stating he "cannot applaud enough," praising the director's "incredible knack" for life-like inner monologues and predicting that everyone who's "ever been crazy in love" will relate.

  • Source: diluvian-failure: Extremely critical, calling it a "monotonous literature reading with moving pictures" and a "catastrophic dismantling of cinema's very foundations," arguing that the award is a "disgrace to Berlinale."

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: High critical polarization can be extremely effective in building buzz. The most passionate negative reactions often highlight the very elements (the heavy narration) that the director intended to be the film's defining characteristic.

Reviews: Engaging Dialogue vs. Endless Monologue

Conclusion: User reviews reflect the critical split, with many praising the film's intelligent dialogue and emotional depth, while a frustrated minority found the reliance on continuous narration to be tedious and distracting.

  • Source: frankde-jong: Gives an 8/10, highlighting it as the best of the trilogy and noting the insightful focus on the family's reaction to the relationship.

  • Source: Muhammad_Algabrouny: Gives a low 5/10, expressing anger at the "Endless Narration," calling it an "audiobook," and advising the director to "shut the f* up & let us feel."

  • Source: diluvian-failure: Gives a very low 2/10 (consistent with his critic review), summarizing the experience as a "sterile recitation of words" that failed to deliver a cinematic experience.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: When adopting a high-risk narrative technique (like heavy narration), include "warning" notes or context in marketing materials to manage audience expectations and avoid negative reactions from viewers expecting a conventional film.

What Movie Trend film is following: The Literary and Philosophical Drama

The film is following the Literary and Philosophical Drama trend, which prioritizes the complex exploration of internal emotional states, ethical ambiguities, and social dynamics through highly refined language and often deliberate pacing, borrowing structural elements from literature rather than standard screenwriting.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Targeting audiences that enjoy highly intellectual foreign language cinema allows for freedom from commercial pressures regarding runtime or narrative momentum.

What Big Social Trend is following: The Precarity of the Modern Artist

The movie is following the big social trend of the Shifting Landscape of Sexual Ethics and Generational Dialogue. By deliberately showcasing the clash between the teenager's subjective experience of love and the adult family members' ethical frameworks (as triggered by the diary), the film engages with contemporary issues surrounding consent, power dynamics in education, and the need for open, non-judgmental dialogue about sexuality.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Using a generational gap (grandma, mother, daughter) to discuss a difficult topic provides a ready-made structure for examining how societal norms and moral codes evolve.

What Consumer Trend is following: Validation and Motivational Content

The film addresses the consumer trend of Demand for Authentic, Challenging Emotional Narratives. Consumers are drawn to media that provokes strong feelings and intellectual analysis. Dreams satisfies the demand for a film that is "not diminished by critics," offering an elevated, deeply felt experience about the complexities of human emotion and relationships.

Insight:

  • For Filmmakers: Market the film not on plot, but on its intellectual intensity and the promise of deep emotional resonance and reflective viewing.

Final Verdict: An Uncompromising Portrait of Youthful Longing

Dreams is a fitting and provocative conclusion to the Oslo trilogy, serving as a confident, challenging, and often brilliant examination of first love, the ethical weight of ambition, and the enduring power of the written word. Director Dag Johan Haugerud utilizes a polarizing style—heavy narration—to achieve a powerful, unfiltered glimpse into a teenager's soul, resulting in a film that is either celebrated as a triumph of literary cinema or dismissed as a failure of the visual medium.

  • Key Trend Highlighted – The film is a masterclass in the Scandinavian Literary Drama trend, where dialogue and text are the primary sources of cinematic power.

  • Key Insight – The high degree of critical and user polarization is its central marketing asset, guaranteeing intense discussion and positioning the film as a must-see cultural artifact for the art-house community.

Similar Movies: Character-Driven Dramas

Conclusion: The similar movies, particularly those in the trilogy, share themes of intense interpersonal relationships, the complexity of love and sex, and a distinct, reflective Norwegian cinematic style.

  • Love (2024): The second installment of the Oslo trilogy, also focusing on shifting relationship dynamics from an alternative perspective.

  • Sex (2024): The first installment of the Oslo trilogy, exploring expectations of desire and gender roles.

  • Sorry, Baby (2025): Implies a modern, perhaps ethically challenging, relationship drama.

Final Insight on Market Positioning:

  • For Filmmakers: Position Dreams as The Literary Event of the Year. Focus marketing efforts on the intellectual depth, the trilogy connection, and the critical debate surrounding its style.

  • For Consumers: Marketed as "Unflinching, Unconventional, and Unforgettable," promising a sophisticated, dialogue-driven emotional journey that requires active engagement from the viewer.


Subscribe Form

Thanks for submitting!

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

©2020 by DailyEntertainmentWorld. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page