Phoenix (Camilla Strøm Henriksen, 2018): Norway

Reviewed by William Geare. Viewed at the 2019 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Phoenix (Føniks) is a difficult film to describe. A dark tale about a young girl attempting to keep her broken family together, the film balances its painfully real depiction of mental illness with many sequences of suspenseful surreality. As Jill (Ylva Bjørkaas Thedin) spends every day taking care of her unstable mother (Maria Bonnevie) and her sensitive younger brother (Casper Falck-Løvås), her only solace is the hope that her estranged father (Sverrir Gudnason) will visit for her birthday. After a devastating tragedy takes place, Jill decides to keep the event a secret in order to protect those she loves.

Helmed by writer/director Camilla Strøm Henriksen, the film is an expertly crafted, visually striking mood piece that keeps viewers on edge from start to finish. Full to the brim with disturbing imagery and distressingly tense character beats, Phoenix is consistently effective when playing with a viewer’s emotions and expectations. While other films with this much ambition often fall flat in their execution, Phoenix triumphs in reaching its full potential. Everything from the vibrant colors to the creeping musical score contributed to an ongoing sense of dread throughout the film. And though at times the pacing can come across self-indulgently slow, Henriksen more than makes up for that by filling every frame with so much intrigue that even when the plot is taking its sweet time to get moving, the anxiety of remaining in the moment often contributes to the sense of inescapability of the situation at hand.

The most refreshing aspect of Phoenix is how much focus is placed on the characters. It is unusual to see such a carefully constructed picture of a family in a film as stylized as this. Even at its most surreal and bizarre, the film always prioritizes the story’s human relationships, placing them front and center.  The performances of the four principle actors are all stellar, with Thedin’s sympathetic Jill and Bonnevie’s unhinged Astrid standing out as particularly impressive. Not much can be said about the plot without giving away the film’s many shocks and surprises, but suffice too say the direction the story takes is fascinating. 

This is truly a fantastic film. The craftsmanship on display is masterful, and the story is always compelling. Simply put, Phoenix is a work of art.