RKS 2025 Film: “Live a Little”: Bosom Buddy Interrail On the Road Picture?

Posted byRobert K Stephen (CSW)Posted infilmTags:, , , , , , , , ,

One can’t deny the Swedish film “Live a Little” falls within the on the road genre with two mid twenty buddies Laura (Embla Ingelman-Sundberg) and Alex (Aviva Wrede) seeking to tear up Europe on a trip they have been planning for years. But as in the Brit film “How to Have Sex” the surface gloss shouldn’t throw you “off the rails”.

Laura and Alex arrive in Warzaw looking to party down as apparently this seems the depth of their youthful intelligence. Trusting and naïve they locate a couch surfing home and meet Parisian Lucas (Oscar Lesage) a fellow couch surfer. And clubbing they do drowning copious amounts of shots. Oh the follies of youth!

The following morning Laura wakes up in the couch surfing palace in the buff with no memory of how she ended up in the bed or who with. A condom lies on the ground. Through flashbacks she pieces the story together and Lucas is the one.

Laura blames the alcohol. Is Lucas a creepster taking advantage of a virtuous Swedish lady? Was alcohol laced with some evil date rape drug? Or possibly is Laura so hemmed in by propriety and her boyfriend Elias (Odin Romanus) her sexual misadventure is really an adventure of sexual liberation? As the flashbacks progress could it be Laura was conscious of the event and a willing participant. Why did one of the couch surfers upon hearing Laura’s description of her Lucas encounter note,” You didn’t say you passed out.”? Are we witnessing self deception on the road to a form of moral and sexual liberation. As Alex says about her own sexual adventure “one needs to live a little”.

A movie about young adults testing the water and fine and dandy until the ice of trust cracks and sends a few sinking into the cold depths below. The concepts of trust, monogamy, sexual aggression and stereotypes, guilt, faithfulness, forgiveness, healing and sexism arise.

Laura’s story as evidenced by the shots of women, seemingly random at the film’s conclusion, could be a message that Laura’s adventure or misadventure is not unique.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNLESq_Mf44

Written and directed by Fanny Ovesen.

Will be available in North America on digital platforms on 16September2025.

RKS 2025 Film Rating 83/100.

Published by Robert K Stephen (CSW)

Robert K Stephen writes about food ,drink, travel, film, and lifestyle issues. He also has published serialized novels "Life at Megacorp", "Virus # 26, "Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog" and "The Penniless Pensioner" Robert was the first associate member of the Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada. He also holds a Mindfulness Certification from the University of Leiden and the University of Toronto. Be it Spanish cured meat, dried fruit, BBQ, or recycled bamboo place mats, Robert endeavours to escape the mundane, which is why he has established this publication. His motto is, "Have Story, Will Write."

Leave a comment