Looking only at the last couple films in Lukas Moodysson’s catalogue, you might put the guy in a pretty narrow category. Humanity-hating son of a bitch, maybe. A Hole In My Heart and Container make it easy to forget about his earlier stuff like Together, Fucking Amal and even Lilya 4-ever, which looks like The Princess Diaries compared to A Hole In My Heart.
I’d like to say that trailer for Mammoth, his upcoming film, represents a major shift. But it isn’t going to sell anyone on the idea of Moodysson as a new comedy maestro. The film, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, doesn’t appear to be any more life-affirming than his other recent stuff, but it might not be so intent on bludgeoning happiness right out of your soul. There’s not much plot on display here, but what we do see is equal to just about all we know about the film so far: Bernal heads to Thailand, where he plays around with new life experiences, as Williams and their daughter have problems back at home.
Even as this seems to be mining a mixture of the mid-period depressive Moodysson and the impulses of Iñárritu, I’m curious to see the final result. There’s something about Moodysson I like a lot, a certain fearlessness, and I want to see how that is manifest in his most expensive film yet.