Louder Than Bombs
Director: Joachim Trier
Talent: Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Devin Druid
Released: 22nd April
When a New York Times piece about the true circumstance of Isabelle Reed’s death is about to be published, her widowed husband (Byrne) must debate how best to handle breaking the news to his young, troubled teen son Conrad (Druid) while coping with the vociferous objections of his older, newly married son (Eisenberg) to whether the details should even be made public in the first place.
With this film, Trier makes the rather unusual decision to take matters of the heart and handle them with a cool, detached and intellectual tone. The result is a visually stunning and mentally taxing art-house film whose core themes seem as nebulous and inaccessible as the heavy, encumbered gaze of the now-deceased Isabelle Reed. This modern and more stylish take on the suburban gothic trope which was so popular in the ’90s is certainly pleasant for those who are fans of the genre, but this film may leave viewers unsatisfied due to its refusal to let its guard down and be vulnerable.
Words: Eva Short
