For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Difficult to believe this was chosen as the 2008 Swedish entry at Cannes and as best foreign language film at the A.A.! Must have been a lean year. Perhaps director Ruben Ostlund should have stuck with making Ski films - as this could be watched in 2 x speed and nothing would be missed. Boring, static single camera setups that when not cutting off people's heads - concentrates on feet while 'attempting' to tell a simple story. It looks and feels like something intended as a series of short, educational vignettes, that were then found to be highly unsuitable for school use so, strung together for Cinema or TV. Any interest is quickly killed off by overlong scenes that ramble aimlessly with very little point of view to sustain its 100 min run time. Only the easily pleased lovers of cheap experimental or student style works could find much interest. One story involving a bunch of young men on a drunken weekend could have easily been dropped and is especially vulgar. Such an unpleasant disappointment.

This is a very human film, where a number of different stories all meet. In a way, it is a film where the Swedish condition overpowers the human one; Swedes are well-known for not wanting to seem "out of the ordinary", so much that everything "normal" is perverted by the will to stay inside the box and not make any noise; the very first scene in the film is a kind of metaphor for that, and the rest of the film also.At the same time, I see this film as a kind of way to show that the obscure and involuntary can be normalised as well, which is displayed beautifully; the cinematography rarely - if ever - involves a moving camera, which has plagued much of modern Swedish cinema.Some of the acting is sublime and just torturously good, as with the two main young girls, the teacher and "the macho guys". The scripts complements all of this, wonderfully.This is a film that, when at its best, touches on the sublime. At its worst, it's wavering, but that's really beyond the point. This is a mostly beautiful film on the selections we tend to make today. I recommend it.

A teacher who witnesses a colleague strike a pupil gets ostracized by the other teachers. The elderly host at a posh party is injured but refuses to have medical attention. A stout bus driver refuses to go on driving unless the one who vandalized his bus steps forward. Two young teen girls go on a drunken, out of control-spree with friends. An all-male party weekend in the country has unexpected sexual repercussions... Five very different Swedish stories with one big common denominator: peer pressure and the situations it puts people in.Sad, on-target and all-too credible snapshots of social awkwardness & spinelessness, male pride and an equally sad alcohol culture. Major asset is the refreshing, semi-documentary-style ensemble acting, which makes me ask: why can't all Swedish movies have such seamless, perfectly and naturally performed dialog all the time? Too bad it's yet another case of finely written (and carefully photographed - often Roy Andersson-static - leaving details out of shot) little stories that don't get the development or resolution they deserve - we never get to know some characters enough to care (like the old man who gets a piece of fireworks in his eye), which proves that this movie easily could've been even stronger with 20 more minutes or so! 6 out of 10 from Ozjeppe

I was really surprised by this film. It consists of 5 independent stories and though they are completely different they share something common to human beings. Well "Short Cuts" was great and I can really recommend "Fyra nyanser av brunt" in the same genre. But "De ofrivilliga" has something extra. I bet you can recognize some of the awkward situation described in this film.It's pretty annoying with the strange camera angles and it's a bit like the habit of using too many close-ups that some directors use. But to some extend it makes sense. You learn to focus on the situation and the interaction instead of the people in the scenes.And I really must say that it's fantastic how a writer can invent the strange incidents in the film. I keep thinking - this must have happened for someone in real life. No one can have that wild an imagination.