The Worst Person in the World: A Post-Coming of Age Coming of Age Film
Tessa Kennedy (she/her)
Hello! My name is Tessa Lea Kennedy, and I am The Violet Magazine’s film critic. Each month, I will watch a recently released film and provide a brief synopsis (no spoilers, of course) and critique it, and say whether I recommend it or not. If you have any recommendations or requests, please email thevioletmagazine27@gmail.com with the subject line “Film Column.”
After my first film review for the Violet was about The Eyes of Tammy Faye, I was advised to choose a more mainstream film for my next review, something less “obscure.” Thus, this month we will be discussing a subtitled Norwegian indie film. I am very good at taking writing advice.
This film, The Worst Person in the World, came out in early February 2022 in Norway and is a series of vignette-like chapters detailing four years of our protagonist, Julie’s, life. In just the first few minutes of the film, we are shown her quitting her path in the study of medicine, cutting her hair, and having an affair with her professor. In the next minute or so, guided by an unseen narrator, we are shown Julie’s next several months of life. She changes her career path, hooks up with different people, and eventually meets Askel, her boyfriend for the majority of the film. Thus, the such-labeled “prologue” of our film reaches its end, and we are thrown into the life of Julie.
Julie is young, confused but certainly smart, and feels as if Dakota Fanning was written by Sally Rooney. She smokes, is glued to her phone, and is ambivalent about having kids. With such an evocative film name, I came into this movie expecting to find the main character detestable, unwatchable. However, she is a perfectly admirable human being; witty, clever, with a stable moral compass. If being annoyed with most people and having no clue about life makes you “The Worst Person in the World,” I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling robbed of this title.
As I mentioned before, this film is told in a series of vignettes, all with titled chapters and a prologue and epilogue. Each installment reveals more of Julie’s life and motivations, as she makes mistakes, flirts with temptation, and balances the pros and cons of what she wants. This is not a tale with a definitive conflict and goal, nor a concrete beginning, middle, and end, but more of a dive into the life of someone who experiences a lot of the same puzzlement and sadness as any other.
There is a double-edged sword in contemporary realistic fiction such as this. They are relatable, and help you realize that life and love make no sense to almost everyone else, but can hit too close to home. Like yeah, I know that I struggle with figuring out if I’m a good person, and what the hell love is– I don’t need a film that tells me a story of someone just as messed up as I am! Still, it feels good to hit that nerve. Thankfully, the film does give you some Norwegian escapism. (I, too, would like to walk around Oslo and cry, and then crash a wedding reception and flirt with a random guy I meet.)
One more thing I’d have to give this film props for is that although this film has a lot of the tried-and-true elements of an indie/romance/existential crisis flick, it really adds some original elements of whimsy and fabulous experimentation. I want you to experience these moments yourself, but there is one scene I’m mostly referring to, where everyone except the two lovers just…freezes. They run around town while everyone else resembles statues. (A tableau vivant, if you will.) This was a split second of magical realism in such a non-fantastical film and is unlike anything of this genre I’ve ever seen.
Don’t come to this film if you’re expecting a routine love story, or a tale with good guys and bad guys. You won’t find that here. You’ll find an account of love, sex, family, and death, moments of joy and moments of heartbreak, and, thank goodness, a story with current references that don’t give off a “How do you do, fellow kids?” impression. This movie didn’t change my life, but it made me feel something, which is one of the few things I can ask from a film. If you are interested in Sally Rooney and/or self-loathing, I highly suggest you check out The Worst Person in the World.
