Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
The impressive feature debut of Icelandic actor-turned-director Baltasar Kormákur, 101 Reykjavik has already attracted comparisons to Pedro Almodóvar's farces, yet its deadpan humour is quintessentially Scandinavian, bringing to mind the droll tragi-comedies of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki.
Hlynur (Gudnason ) is a 28-year-old slacker still living at home with his mother (Karlsdóttir) in the Icelandic capital, and getting by on unemployment benefits. Days are for sleeping and computer games, nights are for boozing, while avoiding any long-term commitment to the opposite sex. However, a drunken one-night-stand with the middle-aged Lola (Abril) has some unexpected consequences...
101 Reykjavik makes excellent use of voice-over plus fantasy and flashback sequences to convey Hlynur's bemused state of mind. And it's refreshing to watch a film in which the central character has no ambition for self-improvement. Somehow, though, Gudnason's performance makes us feel sympathy for this childish loafer. That, combined with atmospheric cinematography and Damon Albarn's dub-heavy score, makes this cool Icelandic export well worth seeing.
NO VERDICT
Not for the first time, workers at Fallout, Doom, and The Elder Scrolls parent ZeniMax threaten strike at Microsoft: "Paying your employees a livable wage as a multi-trillion dollar company is the least they could be doing"
You can get an early 5-minute preview of James Gunn's Superman, if you go see A Minecraft Movie
"If it can run on Steam Deck, it can probably run on Switch 2": Ex Nintendo marketing leads say Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring prove there's a market for big AAA games on Switch 2
