User Rating
Director
Baltasar Kormákur
Cast
Victoria Abril,
Hilmir Snær Guðnason,
Hanna María Karlsdóttir,
Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir,
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson,
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson,
Gudmundur Thorvaldsson,
Baltasar Kormákur,
Lilja Nótt Þórarinsdóttir,
Jóhann Sigurðarson
Genre
Drama,
Comedy,
Romance
Thirty-year-old Hlynur still lives with his mother and spends his days drinking, watching porn and surfing the net while living off unemployment checks. A girl is interested in him, but he stands back from commitment. His mother's Spanish flamenco teacher, Lola, moves in with them for Christmas. On New Year's Eve, while his mother is away, Hlynur finds out Lola is a lesbian, but also ends up having sex with her. He soon finds out he and his mother are sharing more than a house. Eventually he must find out where he fits into the puzzle, and how to live life less selfishly.
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Lola is played by veteran Spanish actress Victoria Abril, one of Pedro Almodovar's favorites, and though the character sounds familiar, Abril brings so much zest and enthusiasm to its creation that it feels original and makes the passion she inspires believable.
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
A wonderful, cockeyed sex comedy.
New York Post by Lou Lumenick
Accurately described as an Icelandic version of Pedro Almodovar's gender-bending black comedies -- but it's also reminiscent of early Woody Allen movies.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Feels as though it is not about much, but it is so well acted that the lassitude becomes a part of the atmosphere.
New Times (L.A.) by Luke Y. Thompson
While 101 Reykjavik has already been compared to "High Fidelity," with which it shares the notion of an emotionally immature male narrating a tale of his own failings, it's probably closer to something like "Spanking the Monkey," which took the Oedipal angle even further.
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
The tone of the film is in keeping with its most resounding image: Hilynur lying in the snow with a cigarette dangling from his mouth as the suicide note on his chest blows away in the wind as he wakes up.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Much of this is pretty funny, in its perverse, disorienting style, and there's an irrepressible sunniness to the relationship between Lola and Hlynur's mother.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Fun to watch it may be, but it's shallow fun. Like the drugs and booze the characters keep using -- and even the sex -- it's a passing pleasure.
Village Voice by Dennis Lim
Kormakur's debut feature fulfills the basic requirements of good slacker comedy: It's grounded in quotidian tedium and frustration, and it acknowledges both the humor and pathos of the relevant coping mechanisms (here, lackadaisical flings, porn addiction, amnesia-courting binges).
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Characters find themselves in absurdly complicated situations, but respond with sardonic cool rather than hot-blooded hysteria.
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