The Celebration

Out of the zany strictures of Dogma 95...Danish newcomer Thomas Vinterberg has made a funny, volatile, visually dynamic story about the unraveling of one extended family during the course of a patriarchal 60th-birthday dinner.

Though it dedicates itself to avoiding directorial egotism, in accordance with strict rules of the Danish filmmakers' collective known as Dogma 95, Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration is still a virtuoso feat.

This Danish film is an alternately funny and harrowing look at a family crisis, a meltdown that blends the needs of the truthsayers with the instincts of the let's-bury-our-heads-in-the-sand-and-pretend-none-of-this-is-happening types.

he Celebration rips apart the placid facade of a familiar subject, leaving its audience stunned. As difficult as the film can at times be, the patient viewer will be rewarded.

Despite the awkward, stomach- churning camera movements and the grainy, flat images that come with insufficient lighting, the actors' work is often riveting and compelling.

It's a tribute to The Celebration that the style and the story don't stumble over each other. The script is well planned, the actors are skilled at deploying their emotions, and the long day's journey into night is fraught with wounds that the farcical elements only help to keep open.

A propulsively inventive but uneven family comedy-cum-melodrama.

One of the first works from the avant garde film movement, Dogme 95, The Celebration is a fantastic work from director Thomas Vinterberg. A compelling and thoroughly entertaining look at this broken and dysfunctional family, the film feels almost like a home movie and that we are getting this exclusive behind the scenes look. In this aspect, the camera work is phenomenal and really puts you into the film and makes it feel as though you are watching this all unfold. The lack of music is an interesting touch that is honestly unnoticeable. The film did not need a score and did not have one, which really added to the realism of the film as a whole. The acting was fantastic, as was the writing, which really added great depth and authenticity to the various characters in the film. For a film that did not really focus on a single character as the protagonist, it never felt disjointed and was still incredibly focused. Overall, The Celebration is a fantastic film that is really well made and a powerful look at family.