The Middle Man

Friday, March 17th, 2023

This is “A wryly amusing and absurdist drama”, according to The Toronto International Film Festival. ‘Sulk’ is the title of the novel on which this dark Scandi comedy is based. It’s set in a dismal American city where the continuing news is so bad a middle man is recruited to communicate it. Sulk means drain in Danish and Norwegian but swallow in Swedish, the title thus  either describes the city or the news.

The Hollywood Reporter described the film containing “doses of dead-pan humour that feel distinctly Scandinavian”, whereas The Guardian called it “relentlessly pointless and dull”. But then not everyone loves ABBA or IKEA furniture (except perhaps the Canadians).