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We’ll never be royals...

...but we can watch them on screen in this week’s new releases, including The King’s Choice and Victoria and Abdul

The King's Choice: How to respond when the Nazis offer you protection from the English?
The King's Choice: How to respond when the Nazis offer you protection from the English?

Royals: they’re just like us! King Haakon VII of Norway liked to play hide and seek with his grandchildren and even pretended to have conversations with his grandson’s teddy bear! I mean, he also had to decide whether or not he would give his approval to a collaborationist government during World War II, but hey, everybody’s gotta make tough decisions at work, right? (Just ask Barry Seal, who had to choose between jail and working for the CIA in American Made. Or the folks at the New York Public Library, who have to include “digital inclusion” in their debates about the future of The New York Public Library, as related in Frederick Wiseman’s latest doc, Ex Libris.)

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King's Choice <em>(Kongens nei)</em> **

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A detailed, compelling timeline of Operation Weserübung — the German takeover of Denmark and Norway in 1940 — largely seen from the perspective of Norway’s King Haakon VII. (It’s less a war movie than a story about politicians in wartime, and the few battle scenes are made all the more gripping by their rarity — civilization undone by its opposite.) Haakon, though elected by the people, was a ceremonial figure — except not so much to Der Führer, who wanted his approval for the new man in charge. (Not many people see their name turned into a word; go ahead and look up “quisling” sometime.) Director Erik Poppe’s handling of complicated material — diplomacy amid invasion, familial struggles amid national strife, political machinery clanking along amid explosions — is clear and sure. It’s only when the script gets ambitious and attempts to valorize/humanize one of the Enemy that it stumbles, badly, muffling the impact of the titular decision. In Norwegian and German with English subtitles.

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Queen Victoria, meanwhile, got lonely in her old age and found comfort in the charms of a young servant. That he was from India mattered not a whit; he was tall and handsome! And he told her such wonderful stories. (The film version, Victoria and Abdul, is a bit understuffed, whereas the other Anglo-Indian flick currently in theaters is rather overloaded. See them both for a happy medium?)

Speaking of Kings (cue the groan), Billie Jean King took the classic claim “girls rule, boys drool” to court — the tennis court, that is. (Cue the second groan.) Battle of the Sexes tells the story. Scott didn’t think too much of it, but at least womankind came off better there than it did in the self-discovery yarn Year by the Sea. And at least no women wind up dead the way they do in The Unknown Girl. Or, for that matter, Flatliners — though we didn’t review that one.

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The King's Choice: How to respond when the Nazis offer you protection from the English?
The King's Choice: How to respond when the Nazis offer you protection from the English?

Royals: they’re just like us! King Haakon VII of Norway liked to play hide and seek with his grandchildren and even pretended to have conversations with his grandson’s teddy bear! I mean, he also had to decide whether or not he would give his approval to a collaborationist government during World War II, but hey, everybody’s gotta make tough decisions at work, right? (Just ask Barry Seal, who had to choose between jail and working for the CIA in American Made. Or the folks at the New York Public Library, who have to include “digital inclusion” in their debates about the future of The New York Public Library, as related in Frederick Wiseman’s latest doc, Ex Libris.)

Sponsored
Sponsored
Movie

King's Choice <em>(Kongens nei)</em> **

thumbnail

A detailed, compelling timeline of Operation Weserübung — the German takeover of Denmark and Norway in 1940 — largely seen from the perspective of Norway’s King Haakon VII. (It’s less a war movie than a story about politicians in wartime, and the few battle scenes are made all the more gripping by their rarity — civilization undone by its opposite.) Haakon, though elected by the people, was a ceremonial figure — except not so much to Der Führer, who wanted his approval for the new man in charge. (Not many people see their name turned into a word; go ahead and look up “quisling” sometime.) Director Erik Poppe’s handling of complicated material — diplomacy amid invasion, familial struggles amid national strife, political machinery clanking along amid explosions — is clear and sure. It’s only when the script gets ambitious and attempts to valorize/humanize one of the Enemy that it stumbles, badly, muffling the impact of the titular decision. In Norwegian and German with English subtitles.

Find showtimes

Queen Victoria, meanwhile, got lonely in her old age and found comfort in the charms of a young servant. That he was from India mattered not a whit; he was tall and handsome! And he told her such wonderful stories. (The film version, Victoria and Abdul, is a bit understuffed, whereas the other Anglo-Indian flick currently in theaters is rather overloaded. See them both for a happy medium?)

Speaking of Kings (cue the groan), Billie Jean King took the classic claim “girls rule, boys drool” to court — the tennis court, that is. (Cue the second groan.) Battle of the Sexes tells the story. Scott didn’t think too much of it, but at least womankind came off better there than it did in the self-discovery yarn Year by the Sea. And at least no women wind up dead the way they do in The Unknown Girl. Or, for that matter, Flatliners — though we didn’t review that one.

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