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Reviews
Agafia (2015)
French play Russians
I grew up watching Richard and Depardeau collaborations. So, their pairing always has a bit of nostalgia attached to the mere pairing of their names together.
This TV short based on Chekhov's writing has a silly plot. In some small Russian town, local sexually unsatisfied women go to the local hobo and feed him for sexual favors he provides to them. One particular woman Agafia decides to go further...
The production team did their best to create the Russian ambiance and dress the characters a la Russe.
In the end everything is so terrible, on purpose or not, it's super funny, and tolerable just enough for 20 minutes.
1993 (2023)
2023 is 1993?
The quote, often attributed to Pericles, aptly encapsulates the overarching theme of the movie and the era it depicts: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." This statement underscores the interconnectedness of personal lives and political circumstances.
The movie portrays an ordinary family akin to a ship adrift, navigating the tumultuous seas of life without a clear course. Struggling to stay afloat, the family mirrors the broader challenges faced by the nation they inhabit. In their quest for the meaning of life, they grapple with the uncertainties that echo the very struggles of their country.
This cinematic narrative draws a poignant parallel between the microcosm of individual existence and the macrocosm of national destiny, emphasizing how the currents of politics inevitably shape the lives of ordinary people. The family's pursuit of purpose and resilience mirrors the collective endeavor of the nation to navigate its own uncertain path, making for a compelling exploration of the human experience within the context of broader socio-political landscapes.
In a snapshot of Russia's historical juncture, the Director subtly hints at the contemporary landscape where well-intentioned citizens may face undermining from apathetic compatriots, governmental structures, and the media.
Despite its potential as an Oscar contender, the film faces an unfortunate setback due to Russia's decision to suspend its Oscar Committee. This move reflects the broader impact of the current political climate on international art exchange.
Champagne! (2022)
Don't waste your time
This film undoubtedly ranks among the most disappointing cinematic experiences I've encountered. It fails to elicit any genuine humor and, instead, proves to be an insufferable ordeal. One can't help but question the motivations behind its creation-why would anyone pen, produce, and dare to involve respected actors in a project so detrimental to their reputations?
The movie's contemptuous attitude towards the audience is palpable, leaving us wondering why the filmmakers have such disregard for our valuable time. Each scene unfolds with a sense of purposelessness, accompanied by dialogue that lacks any meaningful significance. In the words of the esteemed Roger Ebert, "No good movie is long enough, and no bad movie is short enough," and this film unmistakably falls into the latter category.
In essence, this movie is an infuriating and regrettable piece of cinematic waste, leaving viewers perplexed by its existence and the talents it squanders.
Kompromat (2022)
From Russia with the ankle bracelet
What promised to be a great movie, loosely based on real events, turned into a soap full of clichés and turns of events that lack verisimilitude. It is really sad that the screewriter/ the director felt the need to pack the film with over the top dramatic unrealistic eye-roll worthy plots and twists on top of the core storyline, wherever some understatement and restraint could have made this a great film. This story didn't deserve to be turned into melodramatic fromage.
However, the portrayal of the Russian system, specifically the prison and the people' interactions are realistic enough. The acting is great as well. It is entertaining enough for you to wait till the very expected end.
Nakanune (2022)
Daddy issues
Maksim, the protagonist of the story, wants his father's attention. The father left Maksim's mother and married another woman and had another child with her. The father yet has another mistress names Anna. Clearly, the father is a very busy man. Maksim goes to extreme lengths to get his father's attention. He is clearly a disturbed young man. He probably didn't get much love before and neither he does now. Even his girlfriend doesn't seem to care for him much. So Maksim decides to kill the dad's mistress...
The logic behind Maksim's decision is somewhat vague. It just seems like a bad idea that came into his head randomly. We follow him for about an hour of the film's running time. What we see doesn't make us feel much empathy for Maksim - if anything, personally, I was slightly annoyed as the film drags on - he is a thieving, trouble-making little s...t.. "Hurt people hurt people" is kind of a script here.
Artem Yakovlev's debut as Maksim is a decent acting entry into the film industry but the true star of this movie is Darya Ekamasova as Anna. When the narrative truly focuses on her in the last part of the movie, the story comes to life. Ekamasova's nuanced subtle performance is worth waiting for. Anna is heartbreaking - you root for her. She is the allegory of thousands of wonderful Russian women who have the misfortune of not being able to find decent men and, often, settle for those who are not available or not worth their time, or both. Anna breeds dogs for a living. She is caring and loving because, of course, this job requires exactly that kind of a person to do it right. In one of the scenes when she talks about puppies, she mentions buyers mostly want male puppies - they are more expensive than female puppies. It's a metaphor for the general state of misogyny in a society where whether you're a human or a puppy, you're easily discarded as a female.
Mothering Sunday (2021)
Barely watchable
The movie falls into the of those boring post-Covid films the pretentious critics try to convince you are masterpieces. While the sets and costumes (you just can't go wrong with Sandy Powell - she is a holy saint that really kind of saves this film) and excessively unnecessary nudity will keep your attention, the story is not compelling and borderline cliché. The undercooked script doesn't really dive into exploring the relationships, relying instead on almost constantly naked main characters silently wondering gorgeous premises. The time flashbacks are irritating to the point that they are laughable. The talents of Glenda Jackson, Colin Firth and Olivia Colman are criminally underused. The relationship of Jane and Donald characters is puzzling and unexplored after the basic fact that there is no chemistry between them. The cinematography is quite mediocre. The whole film is an opulent mess but on the other hand I have seen much much worse.
Topi (2021)
Russian LOST
The main characters are a guy who is clearly based on Pavel Durov, then there is a tabloid reporter, a Chechen girl who runs away from unwanted marriage arrangement, a girl from religious family whose sister just died in a bike accident...and one more girl who is a sexy cute type. All these different types come together to go for a trip to visit a mysterious monastery in God-knows-where place somewhere in Russia of course.
This Russian gloomier and much less entertaining version of American TV show LOST is packed with unlikeable main characters played by mediocre actors and propaganda of Russian Orthodox Church. The events don't make any sense. The finale doesn't offer any resolution. The episodes just drag on with boring dialogues that have no point. The characters often talk to each other in confrontational manner and constantly use explicit language, and often tell each other to g... f....themselves. It is supposed to be edgy and cool but instead comes off redundant and tedious. The show is pretending to have a deeper meaning; it is some sort of allegory or a metaphor for Russia as this place of mystery wrapped in enigma but this legend is getting old.
Moskau Einfach! (2020)
A cliche romcom with some historical background
A secret service officer is tasked with infiltrating a theater troupe to find out any suspicious activity in Switzerland during the fall of the Berling wall in the 80s. He falls in love with an actress, one of those he spies on, and finds his true self.
Everything in this comedy is predictable and not especially funny. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl gets mad at boy but love prevails. The pace seems slow because you just want to rush the scenes to the expected end. It's everything you have seen before done much better: a little bit of Tootsie, a little bit of HBO's show Barry, a little bit of..you get the point.
Black Bear (2020)
Poking a bear
The film has two parts. It is up to your interpretation to decide what part is an actual event and what is the script. However, both could be two versions of a script that Aubrey Plaza's character Allison concocted. She is a guest of Gabe and Blair, who is pregnant, Who's-Afraid-of-Virginia-Wolf like couple 2.0 in a new but already highly dysfunctional marriage. Part One, real or not, but Allison is clearly the one in control here. While she seems like an innocent by-stander who just randomly got herself in an unwelcome situation, her behavior pokes (a bear, get it?) out the worst reactions from her hosts revealing a monsterous relationship that will destroy not only them but everyone around them. As real as it feels, all of it also could be just in the imagination of Allison - it could be just a script, a sort of therapy/ revenge fantasy with cathartic resolution that Allison wrote after her life as an actress on a set.Allison mentions she has been a difficult actress who has a hard time finding work, so she turned to screenwriting, so Part Two of this film could be a pre-story of what happened to her or it could be just another script interpretation of it (perhaps written during but before the finale of Part One?). In that part the film director and the main lead actress with the same names as in Part One, mess with her head on the set to get her jealous and somewhat get the best performance out of her, bringing her to a total meltdown in front of the whole crew (all of them are quite a mess themselves - they could have had a film of their own; an amazing group of supporting actors here). What's reality? What's fiction? All? Some? Or none? This film is for those who do not need to have clean cut answers and are happy when a film opens a door for interpretation.Aubrey Plaza gives a jaw-dropping performance - the best role of her career in my opinion. She is a revelation here. Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon are fantastic at making you gravitate towards a theory that Part One MUST be real. Part One belongs to them but the whole film belongs to Aubrey Plaza. One of the best films I have seen in 2020.
Jalouse (2017)
It's pretty good
While there is a certain degree of predictability, the movie is quite enjoyable and entertaining. Karin Viard is indisputably a fantastic actress who can make anything shine - she is great here. The film deals with emotional and mental instability caused by the main character's premenopausal condition. She is jealous and resentful of anything good that happens in lives of her family members, co-workers and friends, and she sabotages the happiness of all of them and consequently alienating them . I do not know many films, if any, that deal with this rather heavy subject matter that is quite real but in such a delightful and light way. There is just the right amount of comedy and drama to make you want to know how the main character gets out of the mess she made.
La caméra de Claire (2017)
underwhelming
The plot is minimalistic to the point of being ridiculous. The dialogues reminded me of tutorials for students who study a foreign language. They are rather primitive: "I am hungry" - "Are you hungry?" - "Yes, I am hungry". Luckily this film is only 1 hour and 8 minutes but it felt longer...I love Huppert but here she has the easiest acting job ever. What a waste of a great talent.
Voenno-polevoy roman (1983)
The eternal theme of Love and War
This film might be perceived by many as melodramatic and yet it is a delicate study of things that happen so often - people falling in love with those who are not capable to love them back, seeing people through the dream of love past and gone, being in love with those who are so opposite that it is only a matter of time for the love like a ticking bomb to explode and wound with hurt and pain. It is melodramatic indeed but yet so real - something that everyone can relate to, except it's a bit different when love happens during the war. The film is set briefly during the World War II and mostly in after-war time - probably in Moscow. The actors are magnificent - they did great jobs showing strength, vulnerability and humanity of the characters in that time when everyone was trying to get their lives back on track and in such desperate need not to be alone in that difficult time. Great found locations and after-war Soviet fashions give the film wonderful authenticity and the true feeling of that time. The song that is often heard throughout the film has a haunting quality - the lyrics are a constant reminder that everything might have been different if it wasn't for the war.
The Family Stone (2005)
Average predictable comedy drama
It's very obvious from the start how this movie will go and what the end of it will be. The cast is great to watch but there are no character challenges here really - not that there is a need in that either. It is all good to the certain point when the clichés overwhelm the script so much that you are not even able to take seriously enough to drop a tear for the film's another tragic storyline of a dying mother Stone (Diane Keaton) who has not revealed to her kids that cancer is taking her life and it's it their last Christmas with her.
The main plot is simple. A serious well-to-do son Everett(Dermot Mulroney) brings his soon-to-be-bride girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker seems to have fallen into the trap of being type-casted as a neurotic yet stylish woman from New York) for his family's approval. She is disliked even before she steps her foot into the house - that is a premise for series of comedic situations when you witness the clash of personalities as well as their insecurities. Think "Junebug" but very 2-D. Amy, one of the sisters (Rachel McAdams) immediately makes Meredith's stay practically impossible by being the bitchiest family member while Ben (Luke Wilson), a free-spirited son (and predictably the opposite of Everett) lays his eyes and sees the good in Meredith even though she makes many tactless, sometimes even horrid mistakes contributing to the fact of being disliked by each member of the diverse Stone family. Diverse it is indeed, there is also a deaf gay brother and and his African-American boyfriend planning to adopt a child - they are a subject of one of the pivotal scenes in the movie when a little bit of a political message is brought up and it shows that The Stones are worthy of their last name by sticking up for each other and also there is pregnant sister (a character that is absolutely unnecessary and is in the movie to fill "the more- the merrier" cliché of family films). Claire Danes plays the easiest role of her career - Julie, Meredith's sister, who arrives to support her sister in a difficult time of trying be liked and predictably finds love in the family. Avoiding to reveal too much of the movie that gets sappier and sappier towards the end and runs out of comedy too soon, I would like to note that overall the film has a positive and kind message but we have seen it all before.
Being Julia (2004)
The new take on Maugham's masterpiece is worth seeing
I was always wondering Lithuanians and French took on Maugham's wonderful novel and filmed after it before English and Americans did. Finally "Being Julia" came out. The cast is great and the film is beautifully executed. However I'm sure Istvan Szabo did see Lithuanian version "Teatr" (1978) with Via Artmane as Julia Lambert. There are similarities especially the old (actually dead) teacher of Julia who appears in her visions strikes a similarity with narrator who speaks to Julia behind the screen in Lithuanian version. Nonetheless, Hollywood version is definitely more polished and Annette Bening is the only actress who could play that role and she is simply glorious in it.
Banket (1987)
great animated short and true reflection of its time
The animated film is a short story of a birthday celebration. Some guy invited his friends...However we don't see any of the characters - we only see the objects move. Moving chairs, moving forks and spoons, glasses with drinks, glasses and cigarettes etc. We hear conversations...The end of it all is the sight of ruined tableware, broken glasses...and the card flying off the dresser. The main character's mother, who ,we assume, has not seen her son in ages, wishes her son a very happy birthday.
The film is the product of its time- anti-alcoholism reforms started by Gorbachev found its way and had been reflected in Soviet cinema at the time.
However, what makes this film distinctive is a unique way it was filmed. It reminds us of movies about an invisible man and, yet it is totally original.