I feel like you’re off here. Her actions and inactions are not just about Julie being naiive, I feel she is fully aware of the loss and missed chances in her life. She is unable to be satisfied, always chasing something more - something deeper that a he can’t even put in to words. You even said ‘Aksel understands the way the world works much more than Julie does.’ But when faced with death he realises he misplaced the satisfaction he took from his work’s legacy and his other pursuits and realised he never chased that deeper feeling. All of us experience an unknowable amount of missed chances and potential lives lost in our lifetimes, and Julie understood this better than anyone in this movie.

This is a great video essay, but regarding the ending.... I got the impression Julie was quite content at the end, being a single photographer while Eivind had a family. Though the miscarriage was sad, the movie didn't show her to be devastated. It wasn't "a cruel twist of fate." It seemed to make her realize she had objected to having kids because she really _didn't_ want kids. I've only seen it once, though, so I could be wrong.

I had the opposite understanding of the message of the film. I believe the film was titled as such because the decisions she made were presented as decisions that would generally be considered mistakes or something to later regret by many in mainstream society. For example, her relationship with Aksel is stable and leading her toward a path of stability and children which, by many people’s standards, is success in a relationship, and Aksel himself tells her theirs is what relationships should be. This isn’t what Julie wants in her life, though, and she wants to keep searching for what she, herself, wants her life to be. Continuing to be in a relationship leading her toward a life that doesn’t seem to fit her causes her to feel as though she has a supporting role in Aksel’s life rather than a leading role in her own. None of her decisions, though, make her life worse. Each simply leads to a different stage in her life.

She feels "The worst person in the world" because she is almost never satisfied about what she has. This character is very complex because at the same time she is okay with the way she is (an independent, aware, strong woman) but at the same time she feels bad. Bad because she feels that all the people around her, in her same situation, would have feel great, whereas she can't really do it (yet). And also because her choices bring the others to suffer in a way or another. She is not naïve or immature. She is just the way she is: a person. She is so human, and it reflects the way we all are. Cause sometimes we have to live with these bittersweet feelings. Because choosing is loosing sometimes. But that's life.

I felt that in the end, the words of aksel resonated with her from the break up. Everything he said came true, that she ran when things got tough and that she would want him back to have kids with him, which is why she reconnects with him longing that she hadn’t had a fling with eiven unsure to keep the child as this was another tough life event. The break up with him concludes that she wasn’t happy, he had no stability or resources like aksel, aksel foreshadows the break up and then ultimately dies. This to me showed again when aksel explains the things he worried about were never the things that would happen (he wasn’t worried about death but yet it happened). I agree it shows human flaws, but it’s also shows the trauma Julie has with her dad and upbringing dictated her ‘flaky’ nature in her life. She looks back on every situation with regret and the end scene shows her going back to photography with short hair like the beginning of the film ultimately leading out a future of disappointment as she is unable to resolve her past traumas. She is not content and looks at past relationships/careers and life choices that she wasn’t able to finish. There’s an irony to the miscarriage as she wants to see this through and laughs in the scene almost reaffirming one thing she tried to see through failed. It’s a vicious cycle Julie lives and one we all live through our choices and actions as people we all want to detach from difficult situations but if we persist there may be greater meaning one which Julie never finds out.

I really enjoyed this film, it's a very human and submerisive experience and really doesn't tell you what to think about the situation or end with any ahah moment. It takes you on a truthful journey and let's you make sense of that how you choose to, much like life. Great analysis keep it up!

One of the best movie reviews i've seen so far

I think your analysis is off on certain areas. She is letting her emotions and feelings determine her actions, consequently, She is a passenger in her own life. Her agency is zero, while others are more pragmatic. She wants to live an authentic life. She is an observer, ie photographer, rather than a director. At the end when she photographs her ex bf wife / mother, she tries to capture the feeling that she is experiencing, she doesnt direct it. And that feeling is failure to perform the scene as directed. That actor women represents what she wasnt... She wasn't her ex bf's gf with a baby. She is not pragmatic. She made choices based on emotion all the way through the movie. She was existentially authentic if we base it on feelings as her guide. Everyone else is inauthentic.

this is one of my favourite films. im so happy people talk about it and love it too.

Before watching this film, I saw the the title and the picture in the poster and thought, I bet this isn't about a person who is bad, but just a person living their live and maybe hurting others along the way (unintentionally) - and just because of that, feeling like the worst... The way you analysed it and explained with your own words was spot on.

Thank you for this thoughtful and insightful review! You should send this Joachim! He would appreciate it

You can summarise it as "The grass is always greener on the other side". She always thinks that she deserves better and there will be something better in the future if she only wait long enough and in the end she loose everything and alone. Moral lesson - enjoy from what you have.

Please keep making content. This was outstanding 👏

Well spoken analysis. I'll have to watch the film again for a deeper interpretation of who we are. Just people!

great analysis, thank you. Reminded me of the Before trilogy with all the dialogue between couples.

Wonderful analysis man, thank you

Absolutely beautiful analysis

Thank you for making this video.

Your content is awesome and the algo is 100 percent messing up not blowing your channel up

Thanks for making this video. I loved it but didn't understand it until you articulated everything in this video.

incredible analysis. it would've been great to be in class with you.

Your vids are truly so good. Each giving me a new perspective and making me remember about why I liked these films. Ty

I always worried something would go wrong, but things that went wrong were never that i worried about ....

Your content is absolutely incredible, how do you only have 2k subs yet?!

Way I saw it, to be "verdens verste menneske" (or The Worst Person in The World) is a unique sentence that captures the sense of a self-conscious humbling of oneself brought on the feeling & perception of failure to meet the expectations of yourself and others. In Scandinavia, to transparently shame oneself is a sign of conceding to the fact that it's not just accepting a flaw or owing up to a mistake but a way to validate it explicitally to anyone listening. It's also a sign of trust. Julie's mistake, I argue, is that she's not able to communicate this and her character flaw in not trusting others or herself. Julie seem self-conscious to that she's at a crossroads in her late 20s, a transitional stage where one goes onto take more burdens of adulthood but yet struggles to let go of her adolecence and young adult life, and has ended up in a situation she has all the potentials, but cannot commit to them or launch herself in fear of consequences that stems from her character trauma/wound. Her fear of wanting children herself seem to come from her repressed emotions and animosity against her parents (her father especially), and that past aggression and future anxiety collide with one another in the mushroom trip. These inner turmoils bubbles to the surface every now and then when someone edges her on to make a decision or action she percieves she doesn't have a say or feel she has control over, and when pushed to an extreme, she either negates it through escapism or by proactively but drastically recentering like career changes or partners. It innocently started as a pattern of uncertainty (later contextualized as being haunted by remorse and anger) as we see and hear in the prologue, yet she gives into temptations of the good it brings her short-term by ignoring everything long-term in favor of drifting around, and that cycle intensifies year-by-year until she's about to hit 30. Personally, I feel the movie explores the distance of ideals with opportunities, as the former promises outcomes that one seeks to fill desires, while the latter have unforseen processes with sides that isn't in one's control. Her relation with Aksel (the long-term opportunity) who took command of his life years ago brings out the underachiever inside her, while Eivind (the day-to-day ideal desire) who seemingly is pleased living to please others, brings out the hypocracy of potentials in her. Initially, I was of the impression she was too self-absorbed or egocentric, but examining her precarious position, it was through the mirroring of her relationships of her partners that really shows her dissatisfaction of not being a complete, and worst of all being self-aware of that fact. When she catches herself about being in the wrong to, she wants to create an out as well to ensure that none of the parties involved have done anything bad, so to not create or cause upset or ramifications, bringing it back to her fear of making irreperable damages that cause her grief. I think she got a reality check when she got to see how finite things were with Aksel's cancer and passing. She had to realize and come to grips with that the doors were closing in fast on them, and readily assert herself and her life by taking Aksel's words to heart, even though it was his wish to have kids. The miscarriage, however, I think was a twist I think her body showed as a last rejection now with her mind made up to take a risk, having lived so long in this suspension that it's part of her being when she warming up to the idea to becoming someone else. Someone new. Trier did a great job at detailing and unveiling what I think quite many are in right now in a way about not having been able to living up towards ones own or others instilled ideas, ideals, and dreams. That fear of not finding a conviction and meaning to oneself in your 20s on this intimate level isn't something I've seen much of in media. I think the only one that comes close to it in tone but to a lesser extent is "Only Yesterday" by Isao Takahata. Would recommend "Reprise", "Louder Than Bombs" and "Oslo 31st of August" by Trier too.

This is the best review in the world.

I just saw the film today and your review really added to my enjoyment and understanding. Thanks.

Well done 👏

Love your stuff bro

This is a really good review so good that I kept listening despite it spoiling the movie for me.

Great video!

this is so fucking good good work !!!!! love it sm

Her glaring flaw is that she refuses to take control of her direction in life but is still easily upset when others attempt to make decisions that include her. She resents her first partner for his success and aspirations and shames her next partner for being content with a simple life. All the while, she lacks the confidence to make tangible steps in pursuing her own goals.

This movie was released with somewhat different name in my home country Korea. The title was “Anyone is the worst when they love”. You may accept the meaning of the title as “Anyone is the worst when they love (others).” But you may think, ”Anyone is the worst when they love (themselves).“ People end up in a dilemma where we are inevitably perceived as the ‘worst’ by the outside world when we truly love someone, including us, as a relativistic being, that is, when we recognize existentialist subjectivity. When we do such a complicated and ironic ’love‘, we become the worst. A lot of lines that moved my heart and poetic scenes were really impressive. I plan on rewatching this movie later in life. It will probably make me think in another perspective about life.

well explained

This movie was fucken PHENOMENAL

life is unpredictable.

Great vid, gonna watch the movie

I am from India, in our high school English exam we have something called unseen passage in which we have to read the passage and answer questions based on the passage and they are of different complexity. After watching this movie it felt like I was doing an unseen passage with the hardest complexity. I can't even answer any questions related to the movie 😅

Loved the review more than I loved the movie

this was a good movie, and a good message that finding ourselves takes time, but i didn't really have a connection to the characters... good, interesting, but that's about all

Dude, turn on the subtitles! :D

Even though I have enjoyed watching the movie I felt like chances have been missed, a lot. It has to be with the fact that the movie director and the screeplayers are men and scandinavian. I am italian and I live in Scandinavia and I remember the first years living in DK how much I was surprised by the fact that women here have family and kids from their 20s. Sometimes they have 2-4 kids, while in Italy we barely have one child per family and in our late 30s. I have realized that a lot has to do with the pressure of the scandinavian society on women. "Do it for Denmark" (have children) was even a tv commercial few years ago (you can find it here on yt). And yes, children are conceived by couples but the main toll is on women, their body, their life and careers. The fact that Julie doesn't want children should have been explained better. She doesn't know who she is and in the movie we also barely know who she is. We know her only through the conversations with her boyfriends who also clearly doesn't understand her (I found Axel's comments on her relationship with her father quite irritating). She barely start to know herself and it is conforting that at least she realizes that she doesn't want to bring another human being in this world.

the character of july remindes me of fleabag

i love this movie, and this video Was as beutiful as the movie

LOL this movie reminded me exactly of my ex because this is exactly how she moved. Person to person, job to job, situation to situation, always looking for greener grass, I imagined that scene where she ran away from Axel and how happy she seemed, running across one bridge that she burned to another, to yet again burn another bridge. No, to me this is an appropriate title for Julie, she is the worst person in the world.

I bought this film and Drive My Car on Blu Ray on the same day.

To be brief. I think your criticism here is pretty much on point. Two and a half things I disliked about this film were first, the unnecessary voice-over (who was that and why. The only good voice-over in a film ever was probably Yorgis Lanthimos 'The Lobster', cos it was lateral to the action on screen)?; second the straw-manning of the feminists - like they were presented as almost basic as against a horrible kinda Woody Allen argument of the freedom of expression as being the utmost; and the half being a momentary allusion to Ivan's notion of overpopulation being an issue - that made me a little less sympathetic to two characters I'd by then fallen in love with a bit. Having said all that - I did love the film, and found it deeply affecting and quite moving, and, myself having a daughter much the same age as 'Julie', very relatable. Loves x

This is one of the best Dakota Johnson's performances.

I feel like Julie. How can I love?

The Worst Person in the World is the best movie in the world

Lol at the reviewer literally not understanding the main character as they strive to be understood.

The girl liked to go the easy way, she was not mature and was not responsible. Thats all about the movie.

I found her to be annoying, and kept questioning how she is the worst person in the world. I loved the beginning how it showed her flaking on her educational choices. But it is just a movie centered around love and quite far from American reality. A job at a book store?

Typical bpd foid.