BUDDY (2003)

I should have hated this movie because it falls victim to so many cliches when it comes to the romance plot, but I didn't, because its humor is genuine.

Or, "NO, NOT THE RENE RUSSO GORILLA MOVIE." I guess the animal in that movie was named Buddy. I'm still kind of unclear on why this movie is named what it is, since nobody is named Buddy and there are not even any gorillas in it. If you were looking for gorillas, you're going to be disappointed, I can tell you that much.

Buddy is about a young man named Kristoffer (Nicolai Cleve Broch) and his two friends and roommates, Geir (Aksel Hennie) and Stig Inge (Anders Baasmo Kristiansen). Kristoffer always has his digital video camera in hand ready to capture the craaaaazy adventures he and his friends are always having, such as jumping out of windows and doing stupid dances in their kitchen. Kristoffer has a frighteningly large library of MiniDV tapes of this kind of material in his bedroom.

One day, some of these tapes fall into the hands of a local television station and Kristoffer and his friends are offered their own segment on a popular show, made up of their craaaaazy adventures! The friends accept this offer and become local celebrities. They're being paid to be themselves on camera! Complete strangers are greeting them in public! Life is good!

But of course things don't stay that way, because then we are introduced to Henrietta (Pia Tjelta), the Love Interest whose sole reason for existence is to fall in love with Kristoffer, get mad at him, and then take him back. We predict this may have something to do with the television show. Most likely, something will be shown that is Too Personal. Or is that another subplot?

I should have hated this movie because it falls victim to so many cliches when it comes to the romance plot between Kristoffer and Henrietta (how many more times must we see someone walk in at the Wrong Moment and run away without listening to the explanation?). But I didn't, because its humor is genuine and the characters are a great deal more likeable and believable than your average romantic comedy. Yeah, okay, I was happy when they got together in the end. So sue me.

I want to mention specially that the character of Stig Inge, who has a panic attack every time he tries to leave Toyen Center (the part of town they all live in), provides an emotional center to the film that makes me wonder why it always seems to be the supporting characters in these kinds of movies that steal the show. Probably because they're not forced to jump through the same kind of narrative hoops as the lead characters.

(Also, this movie features a super cool soundtrack I would kill to get my hands on. If any of you out there happen to live in Norway, maybe you can forgive me for not loving your movie and hook me up, yo.)