Low Expectations

Every low comes with the promise of a high. Norwegian filmmaker Eivind Landsvik, however, remains stuck in a perpetual low in his first feature, as he attempts to navigate the unbearable absence of catharsis in life and popularity. Nominated for the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Low Expectations marks the acting debut of alternative pop’s queer icon Girl in Red (Marie Ulven), exploring the anxieties of being in your late twenties.

Maja, a self-made musician, falls apart at the height of her career and returns to her mother’s home to slowly rebuild her life. Rather than burning out, she struggles to rekindle a flame that quietly died somewhere along the way. In search of some stability, she takes a substitute teaching job at a high school.

The plot begins where screenwriting manuals would suggest a cut, in the aimless downtime of everyday life. Since moments of existence are far more insignificant than they seem in stories, Low Expectations builds itself out of small details and fleeting observations of absent- minded wandering. Like one of Maja’s colleagues, who tries to cheer her up after a less-than- successful encounter by jokingly freezing mid-run – time around Maja actually stands still. While everything vanishes in a flash, she drifts into a state of perpetual nihilism.

School not only introduces a system Maja has never been part of, but also gives her the chance to experience her teenage years at almost 30, having skipped them in pursuit of her career. Gossip, valley girls and myths about reverse cowgirls – she is confronted with an entirely different set of problems. The only student she manages to connect with is Aida (Embla Berntsen), who in a way, reflects Maja’s long lost hopes while holding up a moral mirror to her poor decisions.

Despite her luckier career path, Maja feels throughout like a less self-assured alter ego of Marie Ulven, an on-screen reckoning with the artist’s own vulnerabilities. This tension with reality makes her portrayal disarmingly alive and unforced, captured by cinematographer Andreas Bjørseth in all its subjective integrity. Mesmerizing as the 16 mm texture is, it also conveys a sense of detachment from the surroundings – a blurring of perception, a gradual numbing, a loss of connection with the world.

Low Expectations pays little attention to broader social dynamics, not presenting Maja as the voice of a generation. Yet she embodies every doubt and anxiety that leave young adults paralysed. She seems incapable of feeling anything but a failure: as an artist, as an adult, and ultimately as a daughter. Despite her mother’s (Tone Mostraum) attempts to reconnect, they make little progress in rebuilding the trust and connection they have lost.

As Maja quotes Annie Hall: “Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach, teach gym.” But those who can’t cope with the overwhelming weight of the underwhelming existence become substitute teachers. For some, this will eventually become just a rough patch to recount in an interview someday. For others, the upswing is always just around the corner.

Reviewed on: 13 Oct 2026