In turns riotous and reflective, and boasting one of the year’s most transfixing performances, Joachim Trier’s latest is a protracted coming-of-age tale that immaculately captures that phase of early adulthood in which we’re all natural disasters leaving trails of destruction in our wakes.

An aspiring surgeon when we meet her, Julie (Renate Reinsve) soon takes psychology and photography for a spin before taking a job in a bookstore while trying her hand at writing. Consequently, when she moves in with her older boyfriend Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), an underground comic book artist, we’re left to wonder how long it’ll be before this love of her life turns passing fancy and she’s off looking for another endorphin fix. And then she meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum).

Moving with breathtaking velocity and featuring an utterly fearless turn by Reinsve, Trier’s exquisitely scripted film sends its vibrantly realized characters careening between awkward comic encounters, euphoric revelry, fantastical interludes (a central set piece is jaw-dropping in terms of audacity and execution), astute critiques of contemporary culture, and disarming realizations.