Subtext: Although Isak is lying, as soon as he mentions his mother, Jonas stops pressuring Isak, because he knows what’s up with his mom. Mahdi doesn’t, which is why he keeps pressuring Isak, and only when Jonas gets all serious, asks Isak how his mom is, and eyes Mahdi, only then does Mahdi understand that there’s more here that he doesn’t know, because he hasn’t been friends with Isak for as long as Jonas has.



Subtext: It’s not a coincidence that the picture Isak stares at while trying to convince himself that he could make it work with Emma, is one where she looks as un-feminine as possible. Short hair, very little make-up, can’t see her breasts, could almost be mistaken for a guy.



Subtext: The Locker™ is a recurring metaphor for how out Isak is. At this point, he’s trying to suppress the fact that seeing Even made him feel something, he’s struggling to bottle it up, shove everything back in his locker, his closet.



Subtext: Although Emma says he’s an idiot, her body-language completely shows that Isak managed to charm the crap out of her, again.



Culture: What we’re seeing is the tryouts for the dance group for the revue. It’s a bit of a stretch to imagine that they would allow an audience of non-revue-people for this, but it serves the plot, so whatever.



Blink and you miss it: Even is wearing Isak’s cap, removes it, and throws it at Isak.



Blink and you miss it: Emma didn’t remember Even’s name, which is why she’s calling him Endre.



Subtext: Isak is trying to ignore Even, but suddenly gets interested, because Even is challenging the stereotypes. Isak struggles with internalized homophobia, he thinks that “all gays are like that”, and here comes this dude who says that it’s not true, you don’t have to change yourself to fit the stereotype, you can continue being a grumpy little guy even though you’re gay.



Subtext: Emma clearly lost this discussion, but since she can’t think of any counter-arguments, she simply declares it to be “boring”, and drags Isak to the dance floor.



Cinematography: The abrupt cut between the dance floor and the aftermath brings us back to reality, in the same way that Isak is brought back to reality. While dancing and making out with Emma, he’s actually pretending that he’s dancing and making out with Even, the music and lighting makes it almost a dream-like scene. And then the lights come on, there’s empty beer cans everywhere, people are getting ready to leave, and the harsh reality sets in.



Culture: Remember that this is a pre-party. The actual party is a revue-party, a party for everyone participating in the revue. Every sub-group pre-parties by themselves, and then join up at the real party, so this is just for the members of Kosegruppa. The tickets that Vilde mention later is to prove you’ve paid the cover for the real party.



Cinematography: This scene has three camera angles that it keeps cutting between. There’s the two over-the-shoulder angles for showing the dialogue back-and-forth, but look at what the wide scene camera is doing. The characters start very far apart in the scene, but as Even moves closer to Isak, so does the scene camera. It’s a very neat trick to heighten the tension that we’re feeling, and it’s almost imperceptible because the editing is mostly cutting between the over-the-shoulder angles.

