Those expecting a documentary focusing on Stieg Larsson’s huge popular “Millennium” series — the high-grade pulp mysteries he wrote as a kind of hobby, and which weren’t published until after his death in 2004 at age 50 — are likely to be disappointed by “The Man Who Played With Fire.” The thing for which Larsson is posthumously world-famous is just barely touched on in Henrik Georgsson’s feature, though clips from the spinoff Swedish and U.S. features are scattered throughout.
Instead, this nonfiction biopic concentrates on something even more compelling: Larsson’s life pursuit of tracking extremist far-right groups as an investigative journalist, a personal obsession that made him an expert in a field that’s only grown more politically relevant since his demise. You don’t get a lot of Lisbeth Salander here. But you do get an overview of fascist/nationalist movements in Sweden and beyond over recent decades,...
Instead, this nonfiction biopic concentrates on something even more compelling: Larsson’s life pursuit of tracking extremist far-right groups as an investigative journalist, a personal obsession that made him an expert in a field that’s only grown more politically relevant since his demise. You don’t get a lot of Lisbeth Salander here. But you do get an overview of fascist/nationalist movements in Sweden and beyond over recent decades,...
- 2/8/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Diagnosing the fire that fuels the extreme right wing in Sweden as well as the business interests that it props up, journalist-turned-internationally-acclaimed author Stieg Larsson’s lived a fascinating, heroic life fighting for democracy. While this battle is not without casualties, influencing the violent passages of his world-renowned Millennium series, what would get the late author, in the end, might have been his reserved, workaholic lifestyle.
Directed by Henrik Georgsson, Steig Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire explores the right wing’s role in propagating hate in the form of populism throughout Europe, while avoiding kicking a hornet’s nest, and exploring the alt-right and populism elsewhere. Providing extensive background on groups Larsson targeted and exposed as a threat to democracy, the documentary largely focuses on the obsessive reporting of its subject. The challenge here is bringing order and clarity to a general global audience as it explains the...
Directed by Henrik Georgsson, Steig Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire explores the right wing’s role in propagating hate in the form of populism throughout Europe, while avoiding kicking a hornet’s nest, and exploring the alt-right and populism elsewhere. Providing extensive background on groups Larsson targeted and exposed as a threat to democracy, the documentary largely focuses on the obsessive reporting of its subject. The challenge here is bringing order and clarity to a general global audience as it explains the...
- 1/27/2019
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
David Crow Jan 25, 2019
Sundance doc suggests the greatest work Girl with the Dragon Tattoo creator Stieg Larsson did might've been to fight our grim future.
Traditionally when one thinks of neighborhood violence inflicted by Nazis, it is in chilling black and white footage of a brick going through a window or assassinations in 1930s Germany. But as Stieg Larsson spent his life warning against, our past increasingly looks like our future. It’s a grim reality underscored to nightmarish effect in Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played with Fire, a new Swedish documentary which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. Ostensibly a film about the enigmatic life of an ill-fated author—one who died before the success of “the Millennium Trilogy,” which most Americans know as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books—the movie is much more fixated on Larsson’s own lifelong obsessions: such as the rise...
Sundance doc suggests the greatest work Girl with the Dragon Tattoo creator Stieg Larsson did might've been to fight our grim future.
Traditionally when one thinks of neighborhood violence inflicted by Nazis, it is in chilling black and white footage of a brick going through a window or assassinations in 1930s Germany. But as Stieg Larsson spent his life warning against, our past increasingly looks like our future. It’s a grim reality underscored to nightmarish effect in Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played with Fire, a new Swedish documentary which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. Ostensibly a film about the enigmatic life of an ill-fated author—one who died before the success of “the Millennium Trilogy,” which most Americans know as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books—the movie is much more fixated on Larsson’s own lifelong obsessions: such as the rise...
- 1/25/2019
- Den of Geek
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.