THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Cert 15, 128 mins, Comedy/Drama/Romance, MUBI, available now on MUBI, available from May 27 on Amazon/BT TV Store/Curzon Home Cinema/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from June 20 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99)
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Silje Storstein.
STUDENT Julie (Renate Reinsve) is in the throes of an existential crisis of her own making.
She casually changes her scholarly focus from medicine to psychology and then photography.
Boyfriend Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), 15 years her senior and a successful graphic novelist, is ready to settle down and have children but Julie is resistant.
One night, she gatecrashes a wedding reception and verbally spars with a guest called Eivind (Herbert Nordrum).
Soon after, Julie jettisons Aksel to embark on a passionate relationship with the new man.
Regrets surface. When you don't have to tend the grass on the other side of the fence, it's bound to look greener.
Nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and International Feature Film, The Worst Person In The World is an exuberantly crafted comedy drama neatly distilled into 12 chapters, an epilogue and a prologue.
Reinsve's irresistible performance draws on a script co-written by director Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, which sends Julie along a flimsy tightrope between celebration and self-annihilation.
At one point, Aksel devours an article that Julie has penned on female sexuality and anoints it "intellectual Viagra".
Trier's stimulating picture also merits such lofty praise.
It's an exhilarating trek along Julie's emotional spectrum from tearful loneliness and crushing despair to giddy carefree abandon, including a second chapter entitled Cheating that brilliantly captures the heady scent of possibility during a flirtatious first encounter.
"We didn't cheat," agree Julie and Eivind with mutual smirks.
The Worst Person In The World doesn't cheat either in its pursuit of rich, layered and uncomfortably relatable characterisation.
Rating: 4/5
OBI-WAN KENOBI (6 episodes, starts streaming from May 27 exclusively on Disney+, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Adventure)
THERE is a disturbance in the Force when the latest Star War series unholsters its lightsaber on Disney+, expanding a galaxy far, far away that already includes The Mandalorian and The Book Of Boba Fett.
Sharing its title with one of the most beloved characters in George Lucas's otherworldly saga, Obi-Wan Kenobi unfolds 10 years after the heartbreak and hope of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith, which concluded with Ben Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) leaving Luke Skywalker in the care of his step-uncle and aunt, Owen and Beru Lars (Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse), on Tatooine while twin sister Leia is raised as a princess on Alderaan.
Ben is still in exile, keeping a close eye over Luke (Grant Feely), but former Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) has fully embraced the dark side as Sith Lord Darth Vader.
He intends to extinguish any flames of rebellion to the Galactic Empire led by Emperor Palpatine, aided by ruthless inquisitors including Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram).
The first two episodes arrive this week and a third surfaces on June 1. Subsequent instalments debut every Wednesday.
