A debut feature from a nepo baby brings a wide range of expectations for me. Sometimes they can turn out fantastic, like Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, and other times you get films like Ishana Shayamalan’s The Watchers, a haphazard attempt at replicating her father. Luckily for Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Ingmar Bergman, his debut Armand finds himself a worthy directorial talent to look out for in the future.

Armand follows Renate Reinsve as a mother, Elizabeth, whose son is accused of crossing boundaries with a friend from school. As the story progresses, the film slowly reveals the truth and how the parents of the children fit into the conflict. While the story is centered on Elizabeth’s titular son, Armand (Loke Nikolaisen), Elizabeth is the true standout character in this psychologically dreadful drama. 

Renate Reinsve has proven with performances in The Worst Person in the World and A Different Man that she is one of the most accomplished actresses working right now. With Armand, I believe she delivers her best performance yet. Her character is incredibly deep, expressing a vast amount of emotions and she is pitch-perfect in every scene. Whether it is her psychotic break-downs or smaller scenes of empathy, Reinsve is a force from start to finish.

The way the film unfolds is constantly engaging. Films set in a limited location need a strong screenplay (also written by Tøndel), and Armand does a great job of keeping its audience on edge. The way the characters slowly reveal themselves throughout the movie made me question everyone’s morals and how things took place, which made for an incredibly effective watch for its near two-hour runtime.

The central conflict is left open-ended for a good portion of the movie, which brought an immediate uneasiness to me. It not only set up the mystery of the film, but shed a darkness on the environment that never went away. Once the conflict is revealed, it hit me like a truck with how dark it is, acting as a parent’s worst nightmare. It makes for a horrifying story, but one that is incredibly compelling for a feature length film.

The characters are purposefully distant when it comes to emotions, adding to the sense of uneasiness for Armand. As the film progresses, I never knew what a character would be thinking or what they planned to do in the scenarios presented to them. While this aspect may be aggravating to some, I found it to be an incredibly effective way to tell a story, having me on the edge of my seat on multiple occasions.

Armand delves into a variety of genres. At its core, it is a family drama that goes into themes of mental health and generational trauma, but Tøndel’s vision views the film through a horror lens. Cinematographer Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s use of close-ups and soft lighting brings an anxiety to the film, making the characters and the viewer feel trapped in this frightening experience. There is rarely dead space in the frame, contributing to the idea of confinement. The film is not only trying to get you to empathize with the characters’ lived experiences, but Tøndel wants you to experience exactly what they are going through. Telling this story as a drama had a small chance of sparking an emotional reaction out of me, but adding elements of other genres brought this to another level. 

The conflict itself is an incredibly powerful and thought provoking idea, but I found the themes to be the most fulfilling aspect of the film. The way the movie tackles themes of rumors and mental health were incredibly resonant to me. Having the film take place in a school was the perfect parallel to this idea, showing how adult life can sometimes feel the same as grade school did. Whether it is blaming others for someone else’s mistakes or the way information is spread, the way these ideas interact and form a complete narrative is incredibly satisfying and expertly crafted. 

By the end, Armand gives you a clear answer to how the conflict comes to an end. While I feel the movie needed to give some kind of answer to the questions it was raising, I wish there was more ambiguity. Some of my favorite aspects of the film are figuring out why the conflict happened and what drove the characters. Because the movie explicitly reveals the mystery, it gives me less to think about when the credits roll. There are some twists that caused me to reinterpret sequences from earlier on, but there wasn’t enough for me to commend the film more.

With Armand, it feels like Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel is going to have a great career ahead of him. This film shows his strong voice in filmmaking while showcasing his talents as a screenwriter. Constantly engaging with incredibly tense moments, I was enthralled for the entire runtime. While the film goes into some dark places, I found myself riveted by each scene.

Armand was screened at the 2024 Heartland International Film Festival. IFC Films will release it in theaters later this year.

OSCAR POTENTIAL:

• The only category Armand could reasonably compete in is International Feature. As it’s already been selected as Norway’s submission to the category and making its mark at different film festivals around the world, I could see this getting the traction needed for a nomination. The fact that IFC is distributing the film is worrying since they’re not known for being the best Oscar campaigners, but the power of Renate Reinsve makes me think this will get in.