SnoopyStyle A dysfunctional upper-class family gathers for the father's 60th birthday. Secrets are revealed and chaos ensues.I understand the attraction of rebelling against Hollywood style blockbusters. Filming in a Blair Witch style doesn't make it good, let alone a masterpiece. The kindest thing I can say about the look of the movie is that the filmmakers are trying to do something different. It's not particularly interesting to me and rather tiresome.The other problem is mostly my fault. I don't know any of the actors. There is character chaos. I can follow most of the leads but it's hard to get involved. It's funny that Michael throws his wife and kids to the side of the road. I lose interest in any of them fairly quickly after that. I don't care about the family or its secrets.

MisterWhiplash To say The Celebration is explosive stuff is putting lightly. Thomas Vinterberg, using the 'rules' of the Dogme 95 decree - and how much he followed it to the letter may be up for debate, but hey rules were made to be broken right - takes on family dysfunction and the upper class in his native Denmark. It's the right approach, all things considered; if this were done as a 'normal' film, the acting certainly would carry it, but by everything being either hand-held in its pre-historic digital video, or in a distorted perspective (no tri-pods were used, to my understanding), there's an energy to it that can't be touched. There's real manic, nervous, anxious energy to the whole piece, even when it's just two characters sitting down to talk, like early on when Christian, sort of the main character in this ensemble, is listening to his dad (or step-dad I guess) telling him something important before festivities begin (or the one who really kicks off the central conflict - that being the one being celebrated for his 60th birthday, good old dad).It's not really important; not like, say, the bombshell that Christian drops almost carefree during his toast at this big familial engagement at this country hous, or the fact that this is taking place just days after the death of his sister by suicide. Meanwhile, other characters are dealing with things, like the volatile, abusive f*** of a brother Michael, and the other sister who is just trying to keep it together but can't understand, barely, how a party can go on like this in the first place.Tension ripples through this whole film. I can imagine, or just see, someone watching this and being put off by it. It's reckless, sloppy filmmaking in a big way - camera-work at times is jumbled and all over the place, and angles seem to jut-out with large letters. One would see this again in the couple of times Lars von Trier tried this (even Dancer in the Dark had the feel). But this is successful so much because the style is approximate, and even tries to keep up, with the emotional stakes. These characters are frayed and at best awkward with the revelations being tossed about, and some side things like, say, one of the characters bringing to the party a black taxi driver. When the party guests, led by obnoxious Michael (that actor, Thomas Bo Larsen, is incredible here by the way, if almost, probably over the top), sing a racist song at the table, with the man at right there. Yes, they're pretty much all horrible, folks! This shouldn't be funny as it is. Often, it's shocking and provocative, and is like if one took The Rules of the Game or Exterminating Angel (the latter I'm reminded of due to a moment or two where it seems like no one will be able to leave the house) and the filmmakers strip it all down until the bare, raw nerve endings are standing up, and characters puncture them one by one. There are times where it's funny just because of the tension in the room - it's not funny as in there's a punch-line, more like you need to laugh for just the relief from the nasty feelings. Other times, you can't laugh because of just how disturbing things get, like when a letter is discovered and read out loud. That scene in particular may be the best in the film: everything grinds to a halt when the truth fully, without any doubt, comes to light.It's incredible work because there's little room for subtlety here. If you're looking for BIG, this is big work, and yet on a very low-budget, super independent scale. Just as the camera-work is being performed sort of like a high-wire act, the family and friends at this gathering are on a similar edge as well, always ready to fall over with the threat (and visible appearance) of chaos and violence. Maybe in the days of Cassavetes this sort of filmmaking was possible, though even then he had tri-pods and artificial light. And because everything feels real, and real-time for the most part, it's hard not to get caught up into the action and these character's problems - even when you know you can't be on their side, or find them much sympathetic. The Celebration is cinema on fire.

Thanos Karagioras "The Celebration" is a drama movie in which we watch a family gathering in order to celebrate the 60th birthday party of the father. In this celebration everything is going very well but after some time everything change and some unpleasant family truths are revealed. These truths change or ruin the relationships between many people and also give a different perspective on how we see many of those people.I liked this movie because it was very unpredictable and I could not even think what will come up next and that was something that kept me in tense in the whole duration of this movie. I also liked this movie because of the plot that had many swifts and I could not predict anything as I said before. The direction was equally good and made by Thomas Vinterberg. About the interpretations I have to mention the great interpretation which made by Ulrich Thomsen who played as Christian. Another good interpretation made by Thomas Bo Larsen who played as Michael.Finally I have to say that "The Celebration" is a classic drama movie which represents many families which have many secrets between its members. If these secrets come up then change everything and of course in many occasions hurt people.

Turfseer The noted Danish director, Thomas Vinterberg, asks the question, 'is there nothing sacred?', and decidedly answers in the negative. Some may call 'The Celebration' a black comedy, which according to Wikipedia, fits the definition: "In black humor, topics and events that are usually regarded as taboo…are treated in an unusually humorous or satirical manner while retaining their seriousness." But the film also falls under the broader category of farce: "a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable…Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances…Furthermore, a farce is also often set in one particular location, where all events occur."If one accepts Eric Bentley's definition of farce where one is permitted the outrage without the consequences, then Vinterberg has broken the societal taboos of pedophilia by asking us (in effect) to consider that the consequences of such a transgression might not be as bad as one thinks. Indeed, when Christian spills the beans at his father's big birthday bash that he was molested by his father as a child, the outrage is certainly there for all to see-but the consequences are hardly what the viewer is expecting.'The Celebration' reminds me of a much darker version of 'Seinfeld'. The four 'Seinfeld' buddies are deeply flawed human beings, but once they come across a much darker force (The 'Soup Nazi' as one of countless examples), they must prepare themselves to do 'battle'. The end result is that our 'heroes' may end up a bit 'bloodied', but their far more neurotic counterpart, must inevitably receive his/her comeuppance.Hence, Helge's children, Christian, Michael and Helene, are cast as the protagonists, who inevitably must take their 'evil' father down. But along the way, they too, with their serious flaws, are exposed as pyrrhic victors. Perhaps the most flawed of the three children is Michael. Immediately we see what a hothead he is when he kicks his wife and children out of the car, to give his brother a ride, driving up to the family-run hotel where the celebration will take place. Later, he flips out completely, berating his wife for forgetting to pack his favorite shoes, that he was planning to wear at the party. If there's one wrong note in the film, it's Vinterberg's decision to cast Michael as an out and out racist, after he sings a racist song, disparaging Helene's African-American boyhood. The whole idea here is to highlight the characters' limitations, not make them unsympathetic!Vinterberg also hints that Helene has not lived up to her expectations. When she finds a suicide note belonging to Christian's twin sister, Lisa, who killed herself a couple of months before, she ineffectually hides it, afraid to reveal its contents to anyone. Helene's mother, Else, expresses her disappointment in her surviving daughter by alluding to her failed career choice as a singer and her flirtation with socialism. Else's racism is much more subtle when she claims Helene chose 'anthropology' over 'law' (a dig at Helene's black boyfriend).And finally there's Christian, who Helge reveals during one of their 'one-on-one's', has a history of psychiatric problems and failures of relationships with women. While a victim of sexual abuse as a child, Christian can only ineffectually lash out at his parents in front of friends and family members. Even after his initial claim of abuse, he comes back for 'more', castigating his father again and then his mother, claiming she was a witness to Helge's pedophilia and did and said nothing. The whining Christian ends up being tied to a tree by Michael, as the younger son believes his mother's story that Christian is a teller of 'tall tales'.Soon, however, the far more disturbed Helge gets his comeuppance. After the toastmaster reads Linda's suicide note (given to him by Helene at Christian's behest), the deceased daughter implies she was also molested by Helge (as part of a dream, she says). Helge finally owns up to his behavior, by outrageously stating that was all Christian "was good for." But instead of anyone calling the police, the consequences are minimal for the family patriarch. That evening Michael administers a non-lethal beating; in the morning he beats a hasty exit as Michael asks him to leave the breakfast area—with the further proviso that he will be not be seeing his grandchildren ever again.As for Else, she declines to join her husband 'in exile'. Some internet posters have stated that she too deserved Helge's fate. But consider this: at the time the abuse occurred, what could she really have done? If she had went to the police, would anyone have believed her? Or if she tried to leave with the kids, what kind of financial support would she have had and wouldn't have Helge done everything in his power, to prevent her from taking the kids?You may have noticed, of course, the low quality of the film's production. That's of course due to Vinterberg's allegiance to the Dogme 95 Collective school of filmmaking, which Vinterberg was one of the founding members. We all remember what this silly avant-garde movement was all about: no props, no music, a hand-held camera, filmed on location, director getting no credit, etc. In short, Dogme 95 was just another word for 'low-budget' and a well-meaning attempt by independent filmmakers to achieve parity with the big-budget studios.Vinterberg's real achievement here is extending the genre of black comedy into a new realm. Taboos are refreshingly swept aside with a 'happy ending' (the antagonist is dealt with by his family not the police; facing ostracism instead of a criminal sentence). 'The Celebration' is not much of a 'laugh-out loud' spectacle but still manages to be fairly original.