Film

The Worst Person in the World

Name: The Worst Person in the World
Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy
Released: 2021
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørneby

Joachim Trier's Oslo-set tragicomedy follows Julie across four years and several selves — doctor, photographer, bookseller, girlfriend, none of them quite sticking. It's funny, aching, and structured like a short story collection rather than a plot, with one showstopping scene of the whole city freezing that alone justifies the runtime. For anyone who has ever felt like a work in progress with no due date.

TMDb rating

7.4

If you liked this

Frances Ha2013

Greta Gerwig, adrift and broke in New York, captures the same specific ache of being talented, likeable, and completely unmoored — funny in the same bruised, self-aware key as Julie's story.

But Black and white and self-consciously indie; the whimsy can read as twee if you're not already charmed.

Fleabag2016

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's confessional wit and grief-under-comedy is the closest thing on TV to Julie's voice — a woman narrating her own bad decisions with devastating clarity.

But The fourth-wall breaks and rapid tonal swings between joke and gut-punch aren't for everyone.

Annie Hall1977

The template for the chaptered, time-hopping relationship comedy, told with the same appetite for digression, direct address, and unresolved sadness under the jokes.

But Very New York, very 1977, and Woody Allen's persona and off-screen history are a dealbreaker for plenty of viewers now.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Scener ur ett äktenskap1973

Scandinavian lineage and shared subject: the honest anatomy of why love curdles, told in chapters, decades before Trier did his version.

Bergman's six-part Swedish miniseries invented the close, unflinching study of a relationship's slow disassembly that Trier's film is quietly in conversation with — same region, same unsparing honesty about desire outlasting commitment.

But Long, talky, and shot for 1970s television — two people arguing in rooms for hours, with none of the visual playfulness of the newer film.

Lady Bird2017

Same director's-eye tenderness toward a young woman who doesn't yet know who she wants to be, full of specific, lived-in comic detail rather than tidy arcs.

But Coming-of-age rather than the messier adult version — if you wanted the thirty-something reckoning, this is the teenage rehearsal.

(500) Days of Summer2009

A non-linear breakup story that's honest about how memory reshapes a relationship, with the same bittersweet, pop-song momentum and refusal to hand out easy blame.

But More stylised and twee than Trier's film, and the gender roles read a bit differently on a rewatch.

Marriage Story2019

For the other end of the timeline — what happens when the choosing is over and two decent people still can't make it work. Devastating, funny in flashes, unflinchingly fair to both sides.

But Heavier and more legal-procedural than romantic; there's little of Julie's lightness here.

Past Lives2023

A quieter, more contained meditation on the roads not taken in love, with the same aching sense that every choice is also a small grief for the life you didn't pick.

But Slower and more restrained — if you want Julie's manic energy, this one sits very still by comparison.

High Fidelity2000

Swap genders and decades and you get the same restless, list-making self-interrogation about why relationships keep failing, narrated by someone who knows they're partly the problem.

But Rockist and dated in its music-nerd posturing; the direct-to-camera confessions can feel like a lecture.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004

For the same fascination with how much of who we are is built from the people we've loved and left — here literalised as memory erasure, with real heartbreak underneath the gimmick.

But The sci-fi structure and Gondry's visual chaos are a very different register from Trier's naturalism.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster

Palm Springs2020

Same existential engine — the paralysis of choice, the fear of settling — rebuilt inside a completely different genre with a happier, goofier chassis.

A time-loop comedy that turns the same question — how do you commit to a life, or a person, when you can't stop imagining the others — into a genuinely moving sci-fi rom-com.

But Broader, sillier, and more plot-mechanical than anything in Trier's film; the emotional stakes arrive dressed as a high-concept gag.

Stories We Tell2012

Trades Julie's fictional self-reckoning for an actual one — a woman piecing together who she really is from other people's conflicting versions of her.

Sarah Polley's documentary about excavating her own mother's secret life asks, for real, the question Julie asks in fiction: how much of your identity is a story you've told yourself, and who else gets a vote in it.

But No jokes, no romance plot, and it's a true story with real stakes for a real family — a much quieter, sadder register.