‘Armand’ Review — Renate Reinsve is a live wire of anxiety in Norwegian drama
A review of the new film, Norway’s 2024 Oscar submission
Call me “the worst person in the world,” because I somehow never got around to watching the 2022 Joachim Trier film that made international audiences fall in love with Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve. I’ve seen a number of her 2024 projects, however, including A Different Man and Presumed Innocent. She’s great in those, but after checking out Armand — Norway’s submission for the upcoming Oscars — I am fully on board the hype train. She’s incredible.
Director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s claustrophobic drama is about a mother named Elisabeth (Reinsve) who gets called to a meeting at her son’s school. Armand is six years old, and he’s done something to his best friend Jon. A teacher named Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) has asked Elisabeth to sit down with Jon’s parents (Endre Hellestveit and Ellen Dorrit Petersen); she wants everyone to talk this out, determining the appropriate course of action so that this can never happen again.
