Upon reflection I'm beginning to think I might have downplayed the religiosity of both Thelma the film and Thelma the character. I doubt Trier wanted to make a pure allegory, but if you think of Thelma's extrasensory powers as a sort of Noah's flood - most of her friends are shown as hedonistic freethinkers who can barely hide their contempt for her faith and asceticism, while her father's supposedly benign protection feels ambiguously self-serving at the same time - you could argue that the unleashing of her powers first against her will and then of her own accord is akin to a spiritual cleansing of her social and familial environments. Which is to say, Trier beat Aronofsky (whose mother! was probably the most divisive film of 2017, with the arguable exception of The Square by Ruben Ostlund - hey another Nordic guy!) at his own game this year with only a fraction of his budget and bombast.
Not sure I'd still include Thelma in my top 10 of 2017, but it's definitely a contender now.
Then let me give another shout-out, this time to the TV series Borgen (though I'm guessing it's been mentioned already). Have yet to see a single episode
, but a number of critics I hold in high esteem have raved about it and I'm looking forward to taking the plunge myself.
I know it's easy to forget now but just a year ago we elected self-proclaimed pu$$y-grabber Donald friggin' Trump to the most powerful office in the world.
You really don't need to remind us.
