Celebration, The

"It's no 'Bound', but there's still lesbians."
(Awesome)

Our dueling critics, Drew “Psycho” Norman and Bill “Egghead” Brienza, had been complaining that we haven't given them enough to do lately so we tossed the video cassette of THE CELEBRATION their way. Here’s what they came up with...

EGGHEAD: I'm pleased as punch to tell you about Thomas Vinterberg’s superb little film THE CELEBRATION...


PSYCHO: Hey, wait a minute I thought this was some MTV Spring Break party tape or some good shit, it’s some foreign job.


EGGHEAD: Brilliant, my educationally challenged friend. THE CELEBRATION is, in fact, from Denmark and was shot entirely on a home video camcorder...


PSYCHO: Oh shit. BLAIR WITCH with subtitles here we come.


EGGHEAD: Interestingly enough, THE CELEBRATION was at theaters well before BLAIR and ...


PSYCHO: And “BLAIR”? What’s up with that? You on a first name basis with that overblown, over hyped...


EGGHEAD: As I was saying, THE CELEBRATION came out in 1998 and is quite a feat. As part of the Dogma '95 film series...


PSYCHO: Suck what?


EGGHEAD: Dogma '95. It’s something of a cinematic manifesto between a band of filmmakers including THE CELEBRATION’s Thomas Vinterberg as well as BREAKING THE WAVES’ Lars von Trier and...


PSYCHO: Manifesto? Are they Commies?


EGGHEAD: Hardly. Just filmmakers sick of the slick Hollywood product. Their rules include things like no artificial lighting, hand-held cameras, no filters, no special effects, no gunplay.


PSYCHO: So, in other words, it’s boring as a real home video.


EGGHEAD: Actually the gimmick of using a home video adds texture to the proceedings but the film, its subject matter, script, and quality of acting, would have stood on its own in any format. It all takes place during a weekend gathering in a rich home in the country.


PSYCHO: (sarcastically) Oh please continue, I’m waiting on bated breath.


EGGHEAD: Everything starts as usual. We meet the drunken son. The horny maid. The Prodigal Son. And then during the big toast to the rich father, everything goes to hell.


PSYCHO: I thought you said there were no special effects.


EGGHEAD: We’re not talking about WHAT DREAMS MAY COME here. I mean the hell that is other people. Before the weekend is over there’s fighting, fornicating, family ties get severed and there’s even a bit of ghost play. I really don’t want to say a whole lot and give away the many surprises the film holds...


PSYCHO: Aha! So the Dogma dogs break their own stinkin’ rules.


EGGHEAD: With the ghost bit they do bend them, but the fact remains, THE CELEBRATION is one of the very best, freshest films of 1998. At the very least the sleeper of the last few years. I really can’t say enough good things about it.


PSYCHO: You just did.


EGGHEAD: Very funny. THE CELEBRATION, in its own way, is also as an important landmark film, in the video revolution of features, as BLAIR WITCH.


PSYCHO: I KNEW you couldn’t go five minutes without mentioning that thing.


EGGHEAD: You need to broaden your taste base. What’s the last foreign film you liked?


PSYCHO: That BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE lesbo thing. It’s no BOUND but...


EGGHEAD: That’s Canadian.

PSYCHO: My kind of foreign film. I don’t like to read subtitles. Especially when two hot babes are... EGGHEAD: Never mind. PSYCHO: Hey, where are you going? (sounds of footsteps and tape ending)-- Psycho and Egghead