Riders of Justice (2020)
Sort of a spiritual successor to Flickering Lights with much of the same cast. I was expecting mostly an action comedy but it starts off on a much more serious and sombre tone. It lays the foundation for something with lots of potential about determinism, dealing with grief, and finding meaning in chaos.
But it also has the well known dark violent humour from Anders Thomas Jensen. Even more extreme and bloody than previously and I admire the movie for combining these two very different tones into the same narrative. It sort of works but remarkably so. It doesn’t fall completely through, but I was also left with a feeling of having watched half of two good - and very different - movies.
20 years ago I would have been more into the action comedy, now it is the emotional reflection that speaks to me. It is an interesting move to combine the two into a story that is basically about getting men to seek therapy, the discrepancy between serious grief delivered by Andrea Heick and juvenile swearwords from Nicolas Bro didn’t always sit well with me. In addition, it is a weird combination of realistic portrayal of loss with straight up fantasy action in a world where the police somehow doesn’t exist. I don’t think those two different worlds works that well in the same movie. Points for doing it anyway though.
It does have genuine funny moments, mostly from Lie Kass, and I really think Andrea Heick gives the most emotional depth here.
Rating: 3