Koko-di Koko-da

A strange and enthralling story about the experience of catastrophe and how we wrestle with it in the aftermath. I felt like there were a lot of references to Alice in Wonderland, and the imagery was inventive and evocative. I totally loved it.

It's a pretty weird movie, but the ending kind of explained it.

I really wanted to like this, but I could not get over the lack of reasoning why the couple was in that middle of nowhere to begin with. It detracted from the rest of the story and I just could not suspend my disbelief to enjoy this one.

One of the weirdest movies you can ever encounter. If you look beyond the appearances this picture is able to provide you with a creepy and realistic depiction of human sadness and grief. My rating: 8/10

Ultra-violent, surreal, Groundhog's Day: three words to describe Koko-di Koko-da. The film underwhelmed and became repetitive — I know, that's the point, but it didn't do it well like Groundhog's Day, Palm Springs, or Edge of Tomorrow. Mog (Peter Belli), the boater-hat-wearing, cane-wielding, ring-leader of the sadistic trio (+ 1 live dog, 1 dead dog) was the best part of the film. It touches on grief and trauma, but not in any way this reviewer is able to articulate. Midsommar and Another Round were both Scandinavian smashes and I was hoping this would be an addition to that echelon, but whatever message it was trying to make fell flat. It's nowhere near the mindless, gratuitous torture porn of Funny Games — a movie I loathe — but had it run thirty minutes longer, we might've gotten there. The shadow puppetry was cool, so if you enjoy shadow puppetry, this movie might be for you. Koko-di Koko-da wants to be edgy and smart when it's really just a time-loop horror, which might be exactly what you're looking for.

The more I think about this movie, the more I like it. The puppetry is gorgeous, and the folkloric characters that illustrate the metaphor at the end are particularly effective. The slow pace is no huge bargain, but after the fact, it left me with a strange mythical feeling. This movie is not completely satisfying, but strong in its defiance of following convention. It's original, that's for sure.

This was very slow for the first half and I gave up but I watched a second time and glad I did as it was quite good. Very creepy. There was really no explanation for any of the strange events but I'm not sure if it mattered.

Best film of the year!

An old-school Swedish grief-parable and pretty baleful. I'm not sure I'd recommend it; it's not as clever or emotionally moving as it thinks it is but it is grim. Couple grieving for their dead child are subjected to a cycle of weird torments by a group of surrealist fairy-tale psychopaths in a wood. It's not as horrible as 'Funny Games' or 'Antichrist' by far but it shares a similar dreary, circular ambience. Cool shadow-puppet sequence in the middle. Cw for several dead dogs.

A very unusual mixture of elements which ultimately work surprisingly-well together.