The film's grumpy narrator opens with "I wouldn't come here, to be honest." Then spends nearly two minutes accidentally making Oslo sound perfect.

The joke works. Everything he resents is something someone exhausted by Barcelona, Venice or Kyoto would trade for: no queues, no exclusivity, restaurants you can just walk into, a king who's allegedly just around the corner. The complaints are the pitch.

What makes this more than a clever one-liner is that it arrives at exactly the right moment. Overtourism has become a genuine anxiety — for cities drowning in it and for travellers who no longer want to be part of the problem. Oslo doesn't pretend to be the most spectacular city in Europe. It pretends to be slightly disappointing, which in 2024 is the most sophisticated positioning a destination can have.

There's also something worth noting about the production. Shot in two days with a crew of four, inspired by Joachim Trier's Oslo trilogy and Kristoffer Borgli's deadpan shorts — it looks like an indie film, not a tourism board commission. That's a creative decision that makes it believable.

A 26% increase in international arrivals. Zero saccharine couples dancing into the sunset. The last line he delivers, sitting outside a café: "A city should feel a little hard to get. It's like a good relationship — it's not supposed to be easy." Is meant like the pinnacle of criticism. It lands as the best tagline Oslo never officially wrote.