In Eivind Landsvik’s directorial debut Marie Ulven, better known by her pop-star alias Girl in Red, plays Maja, a once-successful musician turned substitute teacher. Her sound, more akin to the snobbish experimental fantasia by the likes of Yves Tumor rather than the catchy bedroom pop of – well – Girl in Red, is aimed at those in the know, acting as an exclusionary taste signifier. She also happens to be a major loser.
We meet Maja amidst a self-destructive spiral: medication flushed down with cheap wine, millions of missed calls, overspending. A shaky camera splits her face into two hazy afterimages, an omen of the conflicted identity narrative to come. She lives with her mother (Tone Beate Monstraum), but rarely steps outside. Even her workplace, a school full of jaded teenagers, is depressive.
While Maja might have lost her coolness, her pupils are not much better, awkwardly trying to perform it but not really living it. The desire for hipness seems universal – Maja’s mother peppers her speech with words like “beef”, her co-workers (Anders Danielsen Lie and Snorre Kind Monsson) live vicariously through Heat quotes, and student Aida (Embla Berntsen) ostentatiously projects the aloof aura of not belonging.
In Landsvik’s eyes those identity projections are a source of overwhelming loneliness. His Norway is inhabited by unhappy egocentrics, who never meet their own expectations. It does not help that they perceive others almost as aliens – as seen in a scene where teachers spy on students through a glass pane and dub over their conversations, reducing teenage doubts to a reductive joke.
Low Expectations might at first seem to rhyme with Joachim Trier’s bittersweet, therapeutic brand of cinema. But the similarities end at the opening sequence of Aida running through a bridge, and the deliciously grainy Oslo in Andreas Bjørseth’s lens. Here introspection and conversation are not miraculous remedies, but necessary, if often insufficient, steps toward recovery. They also are a double-edged sword, leading to further alienation if wielded improperly – like when overtherapeutization creates rifts between Maja and her family, or when a teacher (Helene Bjørneby) hides her racism behind a hygge facade of well-meaning.
This tale leans into the slow and meditative, but too often loses its focus. Plot threads are hastily introduced, thematic framings are merely sketched out. It is hard to say whether this abundance shows a lack of directorial control, or is yet another commentary, this time on the dopamine-and-new-experiences-crazed generation. The director also likes to redundantly spell out his ideas, especially via flashbacks and dream sequences, or when drawing parallels between the movie and Ulven’s own experience as a musician and an ex-teacher. There’s an
inclination to tell, not show, the added context making the world feel more real, but not necessarily interesting.
Low Expectations is a freeing but shaky exorcism. In this world everyone is a mess, and the only remedy is to set reasonable expectations for yourself and others (and what’s reasonable might seem awfully low if you are used to running on high-alert). Only one thing is sure. If everyone’s a loser then nobody actually is one.
Director: Eivind LandsvikWriter: Eivind Landsvik
Cast: Marie Ulven, Tone Beate Monstraum, Embla Berntsen Stridbeck, Anders Danielsen Lie Running Time: 105 min
Country: Norway, Denmark
Year: 2026
Rating: 3.5
Łukasz Al-Darawsheh
©FIPRESCI 2026