How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World (2025) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for pills
Take a Drink: for the drudgery of modern, working life
Take a Drink: for signs of cutting or precautions against it
Take a Drink: whenever the voiceover kicks in
Do a Shot: for shadowy figures
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
There have been not a few films that try to communicate what it is like living with mental health issues, particularly the kind that inhibit you from trusting even what your eyes and ears are telling you- perhaps especially so.
How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World is one such film, following Pia as she returns home from an institution and tries to build a “normal” life, likely not for the first time.
A Toast
Director Florian Pochlatko’s visual approach will strike you right away- he employs beautiful saturated cinematography and a mix of aspect ratios, styles, and stocks to put you inside Pia’s cinematic dreams and delusions, her worldview. It’s all very stylish and energetic, melding with the choice music cuts excellently, and quite funny, if certainly messed up, in its sense of humor.
The film is carried by a spiky but empathetic central performance from Luisa-Celine Gaffron. It’s just good casting- there’s something uncanny about her face, her overlarge mouth. She’s complimented by the rest of the able cast as well.
However, this is no light, feel-good film, either. The gathering stormclouds of this plot are awfully oppressive. Who’s going to crack first? It could be daughter, mother, or father, each of whom seems to be hurdling towards a breaking point. Be noted: this is a legitimately stressful watch.
Beer Two
As Pia spirals, so does the film- not totally out of control, but enough to make you wonder if they’re going to stick the landing. For me that final feint didn’t quite work, but I’m not sure how I would have ended it, either.
Verdict
How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World is an unflinching portrait of someone struggling, yet living with their mental health.
