Jonas Åkerlund
Small Apartments

LA RECENSIONE

Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund aka Vans McBurger (Swedish director) turned fifty-eight just two days ago. He was born near Stockholm, specifically in Bromma, a small town of sixty thousand souls that overlooks a nook facing the cold shores of the Baltic Sea.

Well, the Åkerlund before committing to directing various music videos and films, embarked on a career as a drummer in the black metal/thrash metal, and I’m told viking metal (ehm, all genres not within my expertise or interest savasansdir), band Bathory, just to clarify.

Alright, that said, let us return to this 2012 film directed by him, namely "Small Apartments" (based on the book by Chris Millis titled "Small Apartments"), released in Italy just a year later directly in DVD format with the title "Small Apartments". Okay, to keep it short, among the good actors, there are only three I am familiar with, namely the legendary William Edward Crystal, "Billy" for friends in the role of a fire investigator, James Edmund Caan (passed away alas two years ago, rip) in the role of a neighbor to the protagonist, who complains for various reasons that I cannot spoil, and lastly Hans " Dolph" Lundgren (a fellow countryman of the director) in the role of a writer/martial arts instructor.

The main character is Franklin whose last name is also Franklin, a really unconventional guy, who enjoys playing in his underwear a sort of Tyrolean horn two or three meters long, and also spending time gazing (with an appropriate binocular) at scantily clad girls while they wiggle in the apartment across, who survives by drinking big bottles of soda and eating pickles covered in mustard (bought at the local minimart where events and occurrences happen which I won’t narrate here), in one of the tiny apartments of a motel run by Mr. Olivetti — spoiler (already dead stiff at the beginning of the movie and I won't say how...), in the company of a little dog (talking?) named Bernard who literally gnaws on Mr. Olivetti's toe. Young Franklin has a brother (also named Bernard) currently admitted to a psychiatric institution, passionate about bowling and the books of the writer/martial arts instructor.

Knowing nothing about the film (watched last night before heading to sleep around one am), I was somewhat impressed (positively all in all) by the scenes and the raw events with which the film unravels the threads of the story, narrating the incredible two days experienced by Franklin before being able to change his dreadful existence for the better thanks to his brother Bernard.

This is in brief, but there's much more in the movie, there really is!