Director 101: When Hollywood Doesn't Always Make It Better: The Films of Swedish Director Daniel Espinosa

 

Image Courtesy Wikipedia

It’s easy to remember directors by the misfires, the duds, or the flops that they make. But doing so misses out on their talent, style, and abilities. If viewers remember Tomas Alfredson for his flop The Snowman instead of his award-winning Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy or Let the Right One In, they’d be missing out on so much that Swedish director has to offer. 

Another Swedish director with some amazing films, and a couple flops, is Daniel Espinosa. He gained attention with an award-winning Swedish crime film that got Hollywood’s attention. After that came some films ranging from technically skillful to disappointingly sad. One could make an argument that Espinosa makes his best films when he isn’t working for Hollywood. 

Espinosa, originally from Chilè, has talked about his politics and his fascination with idealism and what happens idealists hit reality, a theme in many of his films. His idealistic characters are portrayed in a visual style that can be compared to Michael Mann and filmmakers who are part of Dogma 95, a Nordic film movement that uses more naturalistic filmmaking techniques. 

After a couple years of disappointments and duds that ended with Morbuis (2022), Espinosa  returned to European filmmaking with Madame Luna (2024), a film which won nominations and awards at a Swedish film festival, though it didn’t receive a wide release. In the film, an Eritrean human trafficker is forced to flea/immigrate to Italy, where she starts to suffer from the same injustices as the people she formerly trafficked. 

Additionally, Espinosa was the conceptual director for the Netflix crime limited series Helicopter Heist, a technically-brilliant depiction of the actual robbery of a Stockholm bank by means of a helicopter. In it, two Kurdish men pull off one of the most notorious robberies in Sweden’s history. 

Espinosa is a Swedish director to keep an eye on, especially when he tells crime or immigrant stories. And also maybe when he makes a Hollywood film. 

- Eric Beach

Image Courtesy the Weinstein Company

Snabba Cash 

The 2010 Swedish film follows the tightly plotted story of three characters in Stockholm, all financially strapped and trying to get ahead. The idea of snabba cash (‘easy money’ in English) is the goal that ties and literally intertwines these characters throughout the film. JW is an intelligent finance student who drives a taxi at night in an attempt to have money to party with the Stockholm elite on the weekends. Joel Kinnaman won a Guldbagge (Swedish Oscar) for his portrayal of JW. Abdulkarim, JW’s boss at the taxi service, gives the finance student some opportunities to make some extra cash, including picking up Jorge (Matias Varela), who recently escaped from prison. Jorge is a Chilean migrant who was imprisoned for his role in the cocaine business.

The Serbian mafia in Stockholm wants Jorge for his extensive knowledge of the cocaine business. So Serbian hitman Mrado (Dragomir Mrsic) is also sent to fetch Jorge, who could help the Serbians take over the cocaine trade. JW initially loses Jorge, who is found by Mrado. The student later finds Jorge being beat up by Mrado, and finds a way to save Jorge. The Chilean ex-prisoner is nursed back to health in JW’s dorm room, where they somewhat become friends.

The story continues with JW creating a space for himself by using his knowledge of financial woes of the elite to help Abdulrakim and Jorge launder their cocaine money. The paths of JW, Jorge, and Mrado intersect quite literally throughout the rest of the film. Loyalties shift when the realities of the criminal underworld hit each of the three protagonists (Jorge, JW, and Mrado) in different ways.

Cinematographer Aril Wretblad won a Guldbagge for his artistic use of shaky cam and more naturalistic lighting in the film. This style could almost make Snabba Cash part of the Dogma 95 movement, a set of rules created by Danish directors Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round) and Lars von Trier (Dogville). The visual style and production match many (though not all) of these rules meant to create more grounded, realistic films and keep control of the production more in the hands of the directors.

The result is a naturalistic crime story with noir-ish elements that explores the class divide and the desire to get ahead. The film feels similar to Michael Mann’s Heat, through its naturalistic production and its use of the city itself as the set and lighting source.

 - EB

Image Courtesy Universal Pictures

Safe House

Stripped directly from the Jason Bourne playbook of action-loaded espionage thrillers, we are treated to another Denzel Washington film in which he once again delivers the same performance. Don't get me wrong. Safe House is not necessarily a bad movie. It's just not that good.

The main shortcomings of the movie are the predictable conspiracy plots, the overemphasis on Bourne-style action, and the typical story we've all come to know in these types of film. Also, Ryan Reynolds does not make a believable CIA agent or action star. As a post-Christmas season release, it's an entertaining film that's not ever going to test your brain power but might entertain you at an over-inflated run time of an hour and fifty-five minutes.

See it when it's available as a rental.

Image Courtesy Lionsgate Entertainment

Child 44

Based on a critically and commercially successful novel of the same name about a disgraced Russian MGB agent who is assigned to investigate a series of child murders, what could have been an engaging period thriller set during the height of Stalinism is instead a dour and tedious bore that meanders and fails to engage.  Where the novel gave room to excoriate hypocrisies within the Soviet state, largely with turning a blind eye to crimes to uphold the notion of communism as blissful ignorance, the Ridley Scott-produced film doesn’t do a whole lot with that beyond brutalizing the viewer with oppressive violence.  With few surprises outside of the obligatory fist fights Hardy is tasked with, Child 44 mostly wallows in unpleasantness and lacks focus, never really sure which plot thread is more pressing than the other.

It’s a shame because Tom Hardy is actually quite good as Leo Demidov, the former pawn of fascism who gradually develops a guilt complex over his position of power and the abuses committed by his comrades.  That’s not to say he’s altogether a convincing Russian alongside the equally distracting casting of Noomi Rapace and Gary Oldman as fellow Russians, but he sells the part well enough.  Most of the film is lensed in that desaturated grayscale seen in the likes of Alan Parker’s Angela’s Ashes, where everything looks pretty miserable.  

When the film isn’t punishing hardened characters with stock villains and melodramatic archetypes who seem to have wandered off the set of Gymkata, it drags its feet before getting to any real point, with many elongated monologues and moments for Hardy to show off his acting chops by crying on camera. 

Neither an outright bad movie nor a particularly good one, Child 44 is an average and forgettable effort which wastes the actors, a true story that’s otherwise worth telling and a lot of dollars which could have been better spent elsewhere.  Word has it the film was recently banned in Russia prior to theatrical release due to how it transforms the country into a Peter Jackson fantasyland.  While the right to creative expression should absolutely be upheld in every nation, Russian viewers shouldn’t feel too bad about having Child 44 withheld from their eyesight.  Sluggish and misguided with too many threads that don’t add up, my friendly suggestion will be to let this one go quietly into the night.  If nothing else, Child 44 piqued my interest in the source material upon which the film was based, if only to recognize how a powerful history lesson resulted in a cinematic mediocrity that should have hit the dumping ground season sooner than later.

- AK

Image Courtesy Sony Pictures Releasing

Life

Obviously bred from the same DNA as Alien, this wary journey aboard the ISS is a claustrophobic nightmare situation that pits a newly discovered creature against a desperate crew of human beings who are on a scientific mission.  Much like every other movie in this sub-genre, decisions are fraught with despair as the fight or flight mechanism sets in when they find themselves in the battle for their own mortality. Using precise lighting techniques, excellently designed sets, realistic-looking creature effects, and a believable cast that knows how to play well together, Life is actually much better than expected. Yes, the plot elements are borrowed from numerous other alien or sci-fi films, but the overall product is a carefully designed one that pays great tribute to its predecessors. 

Stylistically, Life is an amalgamation of Gravity and Ellen Ripley's first battle against the Xenomorph. The tone is dark and brooding as the hallways of the ISS feel cold and mechanical. Cloaked in a veil of darkness while flashing lights serve as a beacon of hope, Gyllenhaal and Ferguson make a perfect match as director Daniel Espinosa skillfully manifests a sci-fi/horror project that puts the failures of his abysmal Child 44 to rest. Many will call Life a rip-off or a clone. But it really isn't. There are obvious nods layered throughout, but overall, it's one that deserves a second viewing. As a long-time genre fan, Espinosa's work here gave me real hope for the future of this crossbreed of creature-heavy cinema. 

This is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that doesn't stop until the credits roll. Anchoring his new film with a cast that knows how to deliver realism and distress, Life exists mostly on the shoulders of six skilled actors who never fail in their portrayals. The jump scares are highlighted by a new breed of slithering creature that feeds on fear and flesh. The exterior space scenes are impeccably filmed. And the terrorizing phenomena of this little bastard named Calvin is desperately awaiting a sequel. If this thing can drum up enough money over the weekend, don't be surprised if we get a sequel called......Death. 

- CG

Image Courtesy Sony Pictures Releasing

Morbius

Morbius is a remnant of the late '90s or early 2000’s that has no plot other than the ethical fight between Morbius and his lifelong friend. It presents nothing new to the genre as it takes ten steps backwards by coddling old school ideas and never pushing any new themes or ideas. It’s all setup for a sequel or continuation that will most likely never come. 

Whether you like Jared Leto or not, the man has done some fine roles and is known as a hardcore method actor. The unfortunate part of Morbius is that they give him nothing to work with. There’s no luster, no formative arc, and only a base line script that calls back to the beginning days of this genre when most of these types of films were laughable at best, paying no respect for the artists that originated these characters. And to be honest, did Morbius really ever have enough depth to make that transition to film?

With Sony still holding rights to so many of the Spider-Man characters, it’s going to be a long time watching them mangle and destroy as much as they can with no due diligence in creating a respectable universe for them to exist in. To say the Venom movies are even way better than this Morbius dreck is a cast understatement. At least those took a “so bad it’s good” stance and were mildly entertaining. Morbius just checks boxes for its entire length, marking off each expected plot point as it goes. There is nothing remarkable or creative about this feature film. Leto and Smith flounder against awful CGI and sets and scenes that have no depth or realism. 

If you're looking for bad, this is the definition of the word.

-CG