Cool And Crazy

A documentary set in the small, snowy coastal town Berlevag, situated two hundred and fifty miles inside the Artic Circle, where a two dozen or so aging blokes in sailor suits make up an all-male choir.

This isn’t all that surprising in a place where the only activities seem to be catching fish, filleting fish.and a whole host of other, no doubt enthralling fish related activities. At any rate, this doesn’t seem like a place getting the sufficient quotient of sanity maintaining sunlight. At some point the aforementioned choral society travel to Russia for a choral festival, and well, that’s about it really.

Still, if the subject matter may not sound terribly promising, and the fact that the proceedings are littered with Norweigen acappella numbers probably sounds more disturbing still, and yet Cool And Crazy makes for delightful and quietly compelling viewing.

Largely, this is down to the eccentric bunch which make up this film’s subject matter. There’s the wheelchair bound conductor with a perfectionist streak; an aging Communist determined to pay fitting tribute to the brave dead of the Red Army; an elderly former speed freak and a 95 year old who can still vividly recall his first and only encounter with alcohol at the age of four.

Mostly this gang talk about women. Women they have had, women they will never have, and women that they never could have gotten even in their long past primes.

Though a thoroughly unique fim, Cool And Crazy recalls something of David Lynch’s The Straight Story and Michael Moore’s Mac And Me in its understanding of a strong sense of community, and its lament for a way of life before it is actually gone.

For all the snow-storms though, this is far from bleak and instead is a predominantly happy and humourous affair displaying a rare warmth, generosity and playfulness.