Slamdance Film Festival 2024 Review – Iris (Espen Beranek Holm) is just like any other one of her fellow villagers at the beginning of the new fanciful film The Bitcoin Car. Sporting a ubiquitous gold item, each of the villagers gives some sort of outward sign of affluence thanks to an arrangement between the village and the nearby BitCoin Mine that has moved into town. For Iris, her car is gold-plated and she gleefully drives to the airport to pick up her younger brother Lukas (Henrik Paus). Of course, she will have to explain to Lukas what the company took in exchange for paying off the village. Writer-director Trygve Luktvasslimo crafts a distinctly Scandinavian musical comedy that works more as a stunning postcard from Norway than a whimsical movie musical.

A goat farmer and aspiring organic farmer, Iris is eager to share her interests with Lukas but she does need to explain something that has happened since he left. A mysterious BitCoin mine asked to take over the cemetery and build their factory right on top of the hallowed plot of land. The villagers lazily accepted the cash and all are relatively happy as a result. Meanwhile, a technician by the name of Viljami (Johannes Winther Farstad) is testing the safety of the factory. He begins to uncover puzzling questions and alarming discoveries.

Could it be that the glorious new Bitcoin Mine is causing more problems than it solves? Luktvasslimo doesn’t seem to be too sure exactly who he is after. Is it big business? Is it local complacency? Is it electrons with teeth? The Bitcoin Car coasts along on a cloud of sedate absurdity and breezy conflict. There aren’t too many stakes here as the characters look back on their mistake of selling out to a corporation with stoic regret and a quip. Fine, this isn’t a message movie, I get that. But then what is it? I will tell you right now that the cinematography by Philip Halvorsen and Rasmus West often upstages the action with exquisite Norwegian landscapes. The Travel Bureau should just go ahead and cut them a check now.

I really wanted to love The Bitcoin Car, but I just didn’t. It’s a movie about corporate greed and the effect that big money has on a small town. It features a factory that is made entirely of gold. It’s set in a surreal world of simplistic, stylized logic with musical numbers. Yet I couldn’t help but notice the lack of melody, much less any major conflict. I recognize the beautiful technical work of the aforementioned photographers and the sound by Nathanaël Gustin. I loved looking at this place, this world, but I was hoping to go a little further than Luktvasslimo was willing to go.

5 Out of 10