Some interesting stuff here about Norwegian disco and religion. Who would have thought?
Disco (2019)
Grade: B-
Director: Jorunn Myklebust Syversen
Screenplay: Syversen
Cast:Josefine Frida Pettersen
Run Time: 1h 34m
Rating: NR
By John DeSando
If you have difficulty seeing the similarities between disco competition and religion, see the Norwegian drama Disco for the answer. Disco is energetic, hypnotic, and softly sexual. Religion of the Pentecostal kind can be loud and repetitive, full of concern for the devil and Jesus and accompanied by sexual shenanigans sometimes by the pastors themselves.
Fair Mirjam (Josefine Frida Pettersen), a young Nordic blond beauty is a champion disco competitor and a Christian who sings devotional pop music. Given the sordid past of a father who molested children, she has doubts about the reality of a god and calls for forgiveness by various adult testimonials.
She refers to her agnosticism, which you’d have to infer if not for a little speech and some revealing facial signals, with too little dialogue but heaps of closeups. Well, I can identify with the agnosticism and have many experiences with teen reticence. Religion, disco, or not, teens are inscrutable.
Contrasting scenes of acrobatic sometimes suggestive performances are the heavy-duty scenes of Mirjam being chastised and preached to about being more committed to Jesus. As she listens to her step-father lecture her mother and sister about keeping away from his fraudulent televangelist brother, she also witnesses her mother accusing dad of indiscretions.
To ramp up her devotion to Chris and respond to the leaders’ battering, she attends an island religious summer camp, where we watch in disbelief as the adults expunge demons from kids by having them forcefully submerged and breathe into bags resulting in their passing out. No, this is not a comedy, but it is a cautionary tale about extremism be it in religion or dancing.
Not much is resolved for saints and sinners because the script calls for little commentary on the struggle for good and evil. What’s there is pretty costumes, colorful backgrounds, and inane talk about being a friend of Christ while sins are the extracurricular activity of choice for responsible adults. Can we blame the young for being skeptical?
Learn about Norway, teens, battering adults, disco, and some colorful cinematography. It’s actually relaxing. Prime Video.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com
