Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Flynn Boffo ★★★½ 2

  I gotta start blaming Satan when my photos don't work out

• 

  Review by Robert Daniels ★★★★½ 7

  They do still make movies. Truly amazing work here concerning colonialism and religion’s role in the practice, and the power of being seen and who is chosen to be seen and whose history is recorded.

• 

  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 5

  The premise here that combines colonial arrogance/prejudice and an unforgiving, foreign natural environment screams Icelandic Silence, but as is par for the course at this point with Pálmason's sideways approach to dramatizing otherwise familiar stories and his elliptical/elemental stylistic sensibility, that still doesn't quite capture the full breadth of what's going on here. Perhaps gets a bit too cute with the late violent ironies but I was engrossed nonetheless by its minute focus on tangibility in the harsh physical conditions we all one day eventually return to, as well as the act of taking photographs and preserving moments/feelings in time. Without a doubt an early years-end contender for most beautiful landscape film photography and best screen dog.

• 

  Review by fran hoepfner ★★

  the wørst përsøn în the wørld

• 

  Review by ˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★½ 2

  There Will Be Mud

• 

  Review by Thomas Flight ★★★★ 2

  We say that we “capture an image,” or “take a photo.” In this film that clearly intentionally acts as a beautiful portrait of Iceland, the colonizing mentality that sometimes seems to go hand in hand with image taking is brought to center stage.

  Key here is that our priest is not interested in seeing or hearing, only imposing his vision upon the people he encounters, imposing his vision upon himself. What he fails to see the film brings keenly to our attention with its stoic, lingering gaze.

• 

  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★ 6

  In the end, we will just be skeletons in the mud. Godland is an experience through history, designed to immerse us in a time and place often forgotten. Opening with text claiming the film to be inspired by real photographs, Godland is executed as if in tribute to photography. The camerawork is slow and often static, usually far away from the characters. Set in rural Iceland, very little happens for a long time. The first half is about a journey through inhospitable geography. The beautiful landscapes contrast with the earthly difficulties the characters face on their dangerous travels. By the time Godland reaches the main thrust of its plot, a lot of anger and resentment has built up inside the…

• 

  Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★½ 7

  I'm not sure this fully achieves its point about the paradox of man's quest to be both at peace with the natural world and establish structures that define it, but this might be the most awe-inspiring landscape image-making in a movie in several years. Just astounding at every turn.

• 

  Review by bill griff ★★★★★ 2

  I would simply not do anything this man did

• 

  Review by TheKinoCorner ★★★★★ 1

  This feels like an arthouse movie that could have released in the 70s or 80s. I could tell that this film was influenced by Herzog, Tarkovsky, and Bergman, but it still managed to be original and wholly captivating.

  The film, shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio with an open gate, is just as much concerned with the landscape of Iceland as it is with the story of the film. It's a kind of Western about a priest who travels across Iceland to take photos and build a church, but tensions between him, the land, and the people threaten to taint his holy soul.

  The pacing is slow, but there's never a dull moment. The cinematography, sound design, and music are…

• 

  Review by lykonos ★★★★ 9

  this movie is gay and no, I will not be explaining further.

• 

  Review by Hutch ★★★★★ 13

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Hlynur Pálmason has already made three fantastic feature films and some stunning shorts, and while he’s not going to be for everyone, he’s definitely for me. 

  Godland is the tale of a Lutheran priest from Denmark and his mission to build a church in Iceland. It’s inspired by some of the earliest photographs discovered of the island that were taken by a priest on one such mission in the late 19th century. Pálmason - a mixed-media artist before he evolved as a strikingly original filmmaker - has taken these photos as an inspiration for a freely imagined tale of colonialism and wild nature in an austere, yet beautiful film, framed as if an old photograph in Academy ratio with rounded…