The Northman. I was late getting to this one since I don't watch movies all that often. My hot take:
A few GREAT scenes, surrounded by a Hamlet retelling dressed up in Norse theming this time. Yes, I know the legend of Amleth actually inspired OG Hamlet, but we've seen so many "Hamlets" by now... Broad spoilers below:
-Berzerker attack on peasant village: awesome and uncompromising. Unless I missed it, there was nothing to make our "hero" redeeming here. Another movie would've injected a scene where he helps the village children escape or something, but Amleth's fully onboard with the raiding, murder, slaving, etc.
-Scene where you find out just how crazy Amleth's mother is: awesome acting; disturbing. You go from thinking of her like Amleth did, to understanding and sympathizing with her plight, to absolutely hating her power-hungry manipulating ways in the course of a few minutes. Dare I say, a masterful scene.
-Any scene with Anya Taylor-Joy: more good acting and screen presence. There's a reason she's getting lots of work.
-Cricket/rugby/American football-type sport scene: awesome and entertaining. Loved seeing the prince naively thinking he could hang with the big boys and getting hit with a hard dose of reality.
-Sword through the nose: had to rewind to make sure I actually saw what I just saw.
-Volcano scene: awesome. Not a Hollywood ending, but it was a happy ending for our protagonist. He got what he had been trying to achieve.
-Holy crap, Amleth's actor was like 45 years old. Could pass for mid-20s.
-Sorry to say this, but Nicole Kidman's cosmetic work was a little distracting being surrounded by all the gritty, grimy supporting characters. It kind of breaks my heart that so many people are scared to age naturally.
The majority of the time, I had difficulty staying engaged. While I think it was brave to make Amleth driven by goals somewhat unique to Viking culture, and for the characters, dialogue, theming to be immersively of the time period, I found it ultimately a little alienating. Don't know if there's a way to avoid that as it comes with the intent of the film, imo.
Still, Robert Eggers is the man. Nobody does uncomprising period pieces like he does. He presents the characters as they'd probably be, without rewriting them like they're modern-day time travelers, and it's surprisingly refreshing. I hope he gets to make whatever he wants for the rest of his life.