The Edge (orig. Край / Kray) [2010]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (1 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Russia Beyond the Headlines (S. Norris) article on the Gulag as portrayed in post-Communist Russian film / TV

Film.ru (A. Strelkov) review*
Flimz.ru (A. Yushchenko) review*
Gazeta.ru (D. Goryacheva) review*
KinoArt.ru (N. Tsyrkun) review*
KinoKadr.ru (R. Korneev) review*
KinoNews.ru (A. Izayev) review*
Kino-Teatr.ru (E. Vizgalova) review*
NewsLab.ru (S. Menzonov) review*
ProfiCinema.ru (N, Romodanovskaya) review*
RusKino.ru (S. Stepnova) review*


The Edge (orig. Край / Kray) [2010] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]*(directed by Alexey Uchitel [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]*, story and screenplay by Aleksandr Gonorovskiy [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]*),  serving as the sixth stop in my  2016 Russian Film Tour, is considered probably the closest thing to a truly Russian-made GULAG film made to date.

The film served as Russia's 2010 submission for the Best Foreign Language Film to the Oscars (where it may or may not have made the short list [1] [2] but ultimately was not nominated, though it was nominated by the foreign press corp for a Golden Globe that year but lost ultimately to the Danish film In a Better World [2010] (which also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film that year).

Did it succeed?  Pretty much by all accounts (even Russian ones) _not really_ and for multiple (some actually quite interesting / sincere) reasons.

Readers here should note that there have been several outstanding recent films about _aspects_ of the GULAG story that were _co-produced_ by Russia (though driven by the initiative of countries that had been _victimized_ by the former Soviet Regime).  Several of these films I have reviewed here including:

Siberian Exile (orig. Syberiada Polska) [2013] a largely Polish though at least part Russian co-production, that was filmed in Siberia, using, in part, Russian actors, and which even premiered in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia to an audience made-up largely of the _descendants_ of the Poles who were deported to Siberia after the Soviet Union invaded and absorbed of the Eastern half of Poland at the beginning of World War II in 1939.  (At the end of that first screening apparently a fair number of the audience stood-up and sang the Polish national anthem ;-). 

The Excursionist (orig. Ekskursantė) [2013] a Lithuanian-Russian co-production that again was filmed largely in Russia, utilized several fairly prominent Russian actors and even shared the Nika Award (the Russian closest equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Picture from the CIS / Baltics Countries in 2014 (an award that would arouse certain ambivalence in Lithuania today because the award honors films from the nations of the former Soviet Union whereas Lithuania never wished to be part of the Soviet Union and in the decades since its break-up has become a member of both NATO and European Union). 
 
Readers should _also_ note here that there have _also_ been excellent Russian-made television series on _other aspects_ of the GULAG including the remarkable ten part The First Circle (orig. В круге первом / V Kryge Pervom - TV Miniseries) [2006] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*(directed and screenplay cowritten by Gleb Panfilov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* along with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn [en.wikip] [ru.wikip]*[GR] [WCat] [IMDb] himself, a dramatization of Solzhenitsyn's celebrated novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]) which is available in its entirety (albeit in Russian) on the Telekanal Russia-1's website.  (English subtitles for the series in its entirety are also available online, if elsewhere, as well).

I generally avoid reviewing television series (due to their length ...).  But I have made exceptions before -- The Borgias [2011], Through the Wormhole [2010-] and The Bible [2013].  Yet, given that this series had apparently the imprimatur of Solzhenitsyn himself, it would seem somewhat unnecessary for me to review it here (clearly it's good).

Yet excellent or not, for the current discussion here it could be said that the reason why _that book_ by Solzhenitsyn was dramatized into a ten-part miniseries (and _not_ another book about the GULAG, be it by Solzhenitsyn or someone else) was that, making reference to Dante's Inferno, Solzhenitsyn himself characterized the conditions described in The First Circle [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] (those of scientists incarcerated by Stalin so that his men could keep an eye on them as they were impressed to work on secret weapons projects for the Soviet Government) as merely those of the "First Circle of the Hell that was the GULAG."  Other, "less valuable" inmates (like the Poles and Lithuanians above) suffered far, far worse.

So EVEN that remarkable ten part dramatization The First Circle (orig. В круге первом / V Kryge Pervom - TV Miniseries) [2006] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* could be said to be describing "GULAG - Lite"

Keeping ALL THIS in mind then, to the current film at hand ...

Readers / potential Viewers of the current film here need to realize that in the case of this film, The Edge (orig. Край / Kray) [2010] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]*, the GULAG actually serves as simply a BACKDROP to A DIFFERENT STORY, _easier_ perhaps for a Russian to tell, about RECONCILIATION / FORGIVENESS:

Set in the late summer of 1945 (hence JUST AFTER the end of World War II) a Siberian community of Exiles at the "Edge of the Taiga" (all there for reasons of various and often quite random "anti-state" activities) is forced to confront (and forgive) a young German girl (played in the film by Anjorka Strechel [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) who they find quite unexpectedly living-out in the woods outside their camp.  What was she doing there?  Well ... she came out there in 1940 (hence before the war) with her father, again German, an engineer, who was tasked to build a bridge over a nearby Siberian River.  When the bridge partly collapsed, her father was summarily executed for his failure ("failure" not exactly tolerated by the NKVD of the time).  And so, she ran for her life into the woods, where she stayed, _alone_ FOR FOUR YEARS, until being discovered by Russian (again, somewhat condemned) railroad engineer (played by Vladimir Mashkov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*)

Anyway, this village of Exiles (again, all there, having been condemned, for quite random and often quite trivial "anti-state" activities) had to decide if they could live with this "Fascist" German girl who didn't even know that she was a Fascist.  That is essentially the film.

The harshness of life in this Siberian community (something of a cross between a village and a labor  camp) is, I suppose portrayed.  (One interesting aspect portrayed is also seen in the Polish and Lithuanian productions cited above as well -- in Siberia, most exiles were not really "fenced-in" in a traditional "concentration camp" sense as there wasn't really a need: There was _nowhere to run_ even if one wanted to ...).  Yet, arguably, the people in this Siberian community "at the edge" of the Taiga were portrayed as being at least _in part_ deserving of being there.  And except by the conditions themselves they were not portrayed as being particularly punished -- again basically "GULAG -- Lite."

So is this then really a serious portrayal of the life in the Soviet GULAG?  Even the Russian commentators above ask this.  And yet, it would seem according to many of the above critics / commentators that even the Russian populace itself is rather ambivalent about digging deeply into the horror that the GULAG was.

Should that really be surprising?

I don't think I've ever seen a film that really did portray the horror that must have been felt by a debtor or petty criminal as he/she was put onto a ship in England of the 19th century and then deported (on a several months journey) to Australia.  I'm sure that films about this exist, but I honestly can't think of one (there's reference to these deportations in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations [wikip] [GR] [IMDb] but again, if I remember correctly, only reference rather than actual description).

Then yes, Papillon [1973] [IMDb] [wikip] [GR] describes in vivid detail the horror of being condemned to prison / exile by France to Devil's Island.    One would think / HOPE that Russia today would be capable of making a "Papillon-like" film about the GULAG.

But I do also return to American reaction (especially on the Right) to movies about Slavery.  Every time a movie comes out about the horrors of Slavery, someone on Fox-News comes out saying: "How many more movies must we make about Slavery?  Hasn't everything that could be said about Slavery already been said?"

So I think I understand the reluctance of common Russians and even the Putin government to be(come) honest about the horror of what the GULAG was.  Nobody likes to look at the ugly parts of one's country's history.  And films that would explore such dark topics are not going to do well in the box office.  They don't do well here in the United States either.  American Sniper [2014] was far-and-away the most popular American movie about the Iraq war ever made.  How did the American films which were more critical of the war do?  Need one even ask?

Still those anti-Iraq War film _were_ made here.  A country where true freedom exists makes such self-critical films.

Russia's film community is certainly capable of doing better than The Edge (orig. Край / Kray) [2010] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]* ...



* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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Ghostbusters [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChiTrib/AP (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChiTrib/AP (J. Coyle) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

Ghostbusters [2016] (directed and cowritten by Paul Feig along with Katie Dippold based on the film Ghostbusters [1984] directed by Ivan Reitman and cowritten by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis) is A FUN, I suppose, "somewhat Feminist" remake of the beloved original.

I write "somewhat Feminist" remake because there's a "turn about" in the casting.  All the "Ghost Bust-ing" paranormal investigators in this cast are women:

Kristen Wiig as Dr. Erin Gilbert, PhD, assoc. prof. at New York's Colombia University still trying initially to "play it straight" with her work (in particle physics) as she was "up for tenure" there,

Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates, Erin's former BFF from High School, who (somewhat predictably but McCarthy always plays these characters well ;-) was far less interested in "respectability" as Erin ever was, and so gleefully worked for some fly-by-night arguably "Trumpish" University doing her "para normal" research there,

Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzman, Abby's "super self-actualized" (super-competent, super free ;-), lab partner, WHO IMHO STEALS THE SHOW ;-).  Honestly, Jillian comes across as someone who was so completely "actualized," so completely "who she was meant to be" that if someone told me that "she could fly" I'd believe it ;-).  Her character, her confidence, is just spectacular, and spectacularly funny.  Jillian so _shines_ in her world that she almost blinds ;-), and

Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan, as a "NYC history buff" and "walk-on" to the Ghost Busters team after she sees _one too many_ "strange things" at her job with NYC's MTA (subway service)

and to make the "turn about point" the four hire a really "dumb blond looker" named Kevin  (played wonderfully by Chris Hemsworth) as their secretary ;-).

AND IT WORKS ... ;-)

In a city as large as New York, "there's always something happening somewhere" and so good old Patty comes to the emerging Ghost Buster team with a story that something (far more than normally...) "strange" was "happening in the subway."  And the story takes off from there...

I'd say more, but (1) I don't want to ;-), and (2) if I said more, it'd only serve as spoiler fodder.  I will also encourage viewers to count how many of the cast members from the original film make cameos in this one.  It's impressive.

Anyway, I loved this film.  The only reason why I don't give it four stars is that needlessly "keeping true" to the "crudity" that catapulted McCarthy (and perhaps Wiig) to stardom, there are _a few_ IMHO out-of-place crude jokes / comments in this film that really didn't add anything to it, except remove a half-a-star from my rating. 

Other than that, folks, "enjoy the happy paranormal ride" ;-)  


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Gamers / In the Game (orig. На игре / Na Igre) [2009]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Exler.ru (A. Eksler) review*
Film.ru (S. Kvasha) review*
Filmz.ru review*
Gazeta.ru (M. Zhuravlev) review*
Kino-Teatr.ru (M. Milnan) review*
KinoKadr.ru (R. Korneev) review*
KinoNews.ru (D. Zhigalov) review*
Video.ru (I. Golocova) review*


Gamers / In the Game (orig. На игре / Na Igre) [2009] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[MC.ru]*(directed and screenplay cowritten by Pavel Sanaev [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* along with Aleksandr Chubaryan [ru.wikip]*[GR]*[IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* based on Chubrayan's novel Games in Life (orig. Игры в жизнь / Igry v Zhizn) [2003] [GR]*[Amzn]* is considered the first Russian movie dedicated to "cyberpunk."  The film has since spawned (in Russia) two sequels as well as a television series.  It serves as the fifth stop in my 2016 Russian Film Tour.  (Note that I had actually hope to include this film in my first, 2015 RFT but simply ran out of time and never fully wrote it up then.  So I include here now).

In the opening (and quite adrenaline driven) opening sequence of the film (think honestly of our Fast & Furious [2009] films only in this case set at a über-hyped / über-slick (modern-day Russian) gaming convention), a team of college students from Nizhny Novgorod win a multi-discipline computer gaming competition (from car race to medieval combat to first person shooter) and as a prize each receive a cd-rom with an "experimental game" that promises to "take them to a new level."

When each of them try to install the game on their computers, it fries their disc drives.  However the game's installation does more than that.  By means of some kind of intense electromagnetic energy burst, the CDROM "installs" a multipurpose "gaming package" (from martial arts, to driving, to shooting) into their brains.  SO ... these previously quite average seeming college students (except for them having been really tough (bad-a..) "video-gamers") now become really tough (bad-a...) fighters in real life.

And it is kinda amusing how they discover this:  One of the group, nicknamed "Komar" (meaning "Mosquito") (played by Evgeniy Kharlanov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) who manages to finally convince a girl Lena (played by Agnia Ditkovskite [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) to go out with him, takes her to a nice Middle Eastern (to the Russians Central Asian) restaurant, only to have his date being harassed by some of the waiters.  Well, the game package installed "into his brain" "triggers" something in the former "little mosquito" and ... one can guess what happens to the folks who made the mistake of harassing his date ;-)

Later a number of the gamers in this team, by random accident "happen upon" a group of about 80 mercenaries assembled in a warehouse somewhere (What were those mercenaries doing there?  Who knows... but this is _contemporary Russia_ with a lot of "private armies" / "organized crime")  When a couple of said mercenaries draw their weapons, the "newly installed" "threat trigger" inside them goes off, and ... when the dust clears there are 80 formerly _really tough mercenaries_ lying about the warehouse, wasted (killed) by this small band of college student gamers.

That of course "catches the attention" of the Oligarch (played actually quite wonderfully by Viktor Verzhbitskiy [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) to whom those mercenaries belonged.  Said "richer than God" (and arguably "almost as power as God")  Oligarch flies about Russia in a GIANT _WHITE_ TITANIUM / CLOTH ZEPPELIN-LIKE AIRSHIP ;-) ... Honestly, if you're gonna be Evil / wanna "make an impression" this is "a mode of transportation" to "look into" ;-).  HIS "tasteful" yet ENORMOUS "air ship" was "CASTING ITS SHADOW" _down_ on EVERYBODY ;-) ;-).   

Well said, Oligarch was not necessarily "angry" at the five gamers who wasted his company of (he would have thought) armed to the teach / highly trained mercenaries.  Instead, he'd kinda like to recruit them ... 

The rest of the film "plays out" ;-) from there ... It really made for a FUN / COMPELLING and IMHO unsurprisingly _successful_ film / story and one that honestly _a lot_ of Westerners (especially younger people) really ought to know about.

Good / great job!


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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The Infiltrator [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (P. Sobczynski) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

The Infiltrator [2016] (directed by Brad Fuhrman, screenplay by Ellen Brown Fuhrman based on the true life / true crime book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Robert Mazur [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) makes me very, very happy that I've never been part of the "into the Lion's Den" nightmares that this film describes.

The film is about former U.S. Customs Agent Robert Mazur (played in the film by Bryan Cranston ironically of Breaking Bad [2008-2013] fame/infamy) who during the height of the Reagan Administration's War on Drugs came up with the idea of "focusing on the (laundering of the) MONEY" made in the Drug Trade rather than on simply focusing on intercepting the shipment of the drugs themselves.  

So he invented the alias Bob Musella and gave him a somewhat mobbed-up / certainly somehow "connected" crooked businessman from New Jersey persona, and with his partner Emir Abreau (given a younger more freewheeling Latino alias/persona and played in the film by John Leguizamo) sets out to infiltrate / go up the ladder of the most powerful (Medellin) drug cartel of the time.  The backstory that they built around (the already some years dead/buried) random man named Musella was brilliant because as an _actual_ U.S. government agent, Mazur was able "to do magic" that is be able to "open doors" for increasingly higher placed Drug Lords that _simply would not have been possible_ for a mere "crooked New Jersey businessman with an Italian name" (unless of course, he was somehow "mobbed-up").  

But honestly _try sleeping at night_ if you're trying to enter into the circle of, gain the trust of, and ultimately_entrap_ Colombian Drug Lords like the men around Pablo Escobar (for whom this operation was ultimately gunning):  "Given" a beautiful if random stripper for the night as "a reward" by some impressed / moderately placed Kingpin, Mazur/Musella opts _to try_ remaining faithful to his wife by telling her (and later "taken by surprise" thinking he had been "generous" Drug Kingpin): "Sorry/thanks, but I'm engaged...(thinking on his feet) ... Look, I messed-up my first marriage, I really don't want to mess-up my second ..."  Well ... from that point on, the U.S. Customs Service has to give him a suitable "government issue fiancee" / agent (played quite impressively by Diane Kruger) for the remainder of the operation ;-).

At that time, "all (money laundering) roads" (in the Western Hemisphere anyway...) led through Manuel Noriega's Panama (and through a notorious bank of the time named BCCI ... which actually was shut-down as a result of this operation).  So viewers are teased with all sorts of other threads of intrigue (left still largely unexplored here) :  was the eventual 1989 U.S. Invasion of Panama set into motion to PROTECT THE CONTINUED SECRECY of ANY NUMBER OF LEVELS of U.S. SECRET GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS that had Panama as a hub (from anti-drug running / anti-money laundering operations (like Mazur's), to operations in support of the U.S. supported Nicaraguan Contras to even (possible) drug running operations _in support_ of the Contras...)  


It all makes for one compelling a story.  But I was _very, very happy_ to be able to watch a story like this, smiling (at various times quite nervously) "with popcorn in hand" from "very, very far away" ;-)

Good / great job! ;-)


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Our guy in the Cemetery (orig. Парень с нашего кладбища / Paren s nashego kladbishcha) [2015]

MPAA (Would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

afisha.ru (S. Obolonko) review*
KinoArt.ru (N. Tsyrkun) review*
Kino-teatr.ru (A. Flipov) review*
Kommersant.ru (A. Solntseva) review*
NewsLab.ru (S. Mezenov) review*
OVideo.ru (I. Kershnev) review*
Rossiyskaya Gazeta (A. Litovchenko) review*
TenStars.ru (Y. Sa) review*
TimeOut.ru (D. Ruzaev) review*
VashDosug.ru (I. Gireiev) review*


Our Guy in the Cemetery (orig. Парень с нашего кладбища / Paren s nashego kladbishcha) [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]* [MC.ru]* (codirected by the brothers Anton Chizhikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]* [MC.ru]* and Ilya Chizhikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]* [MC.ru]*, screenplay by Vladimir Seryshev [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [MC.ru]*) is a rather straight-forward but effective youth-oriented Russian "scary movie" which serves as the 4th stop on my 2016 Russian Film Tour.

Unsurprisingly ;-), this film has proven FAR MORE POPULAR among Viewers/Readers on the MegaCritic.ru website (who ranked it as the #5 best/most popular Russian film of 2015) than the previous (headier, if also taken more seriously) two films that I reviewed as part of this tour.

The film centers around Kolya (played by Aleksandr Pal [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*) a 20-or-so year- old "kid" from "the Provinces" who comes to Moscow having been promised a job by his somewhat swarmy Uncle Vasya (played by Aleksandr Ilin [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*).  Yes, Kolya's uncle wasn't lying to him, completely... He did have a job for him -- as a watchman at an ancient creepy looking cemetery (where he himself was the manager) at the far, FAR EDGE of ... "Is this still Moscow?" asks a bewildered Kolya who may have wondered why he "left the village" for "all this" to begin with.  "Yes it is," his uncle insists (even as he's forcing Kolya to call him Vasiliy Ivanovich, even though he's supposed to be his uncle) "You know, Moscow's growing everyday."   Kolya's unconvinced, but what's he supposed to do?  He's already talked to his grandma that he's arrived, that uncle Vasya's picked him up at the depot and all ... Why cause waves?

Well a pretty good reason to have caused waves or at least ask questions would have been once he spotted HUGE dried blood stain on the floor right by the bed in the watchman's shack where he was to stay.  Instead, while _definitely_ taking note of the HUGE blood stain, he -- a young man from the countryside -- gets a pail of water, some lie soap and a brush, washes the stain away.

Indeed, A GOOD PART OF what makes the film FOR ME (and I suspect a lot of the Russian Viewers/Responders who liked the film on megacritic.ru) was Kolya's attitude.  YES the job sucked, YES he was repeatedly lied to by his swarmy, "city-slicker WANNA BE" uncle.  NO he wasn't even told that the last 5 watchmen RAN AWAY _screaming_ from this job ... Hence probably why his "uncle" had to reach back all the way to _his family_ back in the Provinces (who wouldn't have known any better...) to find someone like his nephew Kolya to take the job.  But there he was, Kolya, AND THIS WAS HIS JOB.  And so he did it.

There's _a lot_ of "Paul Blart" in this film (which I also LOVED).  Indeed, part of what made the film endearing is that yes, as a GOOD "genre film" it _freely_ borrowed from _a lot_ of similar (but also SIMILARLY POPULAR) "genre films" from both the U.S. and Russia.   Among the American films that this film borrowed from would have been the Night at the Museum [2006-2014] movies as well as The Sixth Sense [1999] and perhaps The Evil Dead [1981].  There is also explicit reference (arguably more like an advertisement ;-) to a recent Russian horror film called The Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[MC.ru]*.

So why did all those watchmen run _screaming_ from this job before?  Well, the place was "hopping" (with all sorts of characters) pretty much every night ... late, late at night.  Yet, also amusing was self-deprecating humor of it all:  For this was Russia after all ... and with all the organized crime in Russia these days -- the Living are OFTEN _EASILY_ as FRIGHTENING as ... the Dead ;-).

So even the Dead that he runs into walking the grounds of the Cemetery at night look to poor 20-year-old Kolya "from the Provinces" / "from the Village" to "keep them safe."

So this is a GREAT and often VERY FUNNY FILM :-)

Honestly good job! ;-)


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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Swiss Army Man [2016]

MPAA (R)  ChiTrib/LATimes (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (2 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChiTrib/LA Times (R. Abele) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller-Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  


Swiss Army Man [2016] (co-directed and co-written by Dan Kwan and Daniel Sheinert) is a small, sneaky, summer-time indie film that despite starring two well known/popular actors -- Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe -- almost certainly _isn't_ going to be remembered for a long time to come... except that it was _strange_.  

Late 20-something / early 30-something Hank (played by Paul Dano) finds himself stranded, somehow, on some desert island, surprisingly awash with a lot of garbage.  And after utilizing said garbage to send out all sorts messages -- in bottles, on small rafts, on even quite elaborate small boats _all_ made out of said garbage (he was not only getting increasingly desperate but _also_ desperately _bored_ ;-) -- he decides to end it all.  So ... standing on a thrown away "6-to-12-pack" plastic "ice-cooler" with a noose around his neck, from which he's about to throw himself off, ... he spots, suddenly ... a body that was washed onto shore.

Having been given for the first time in _a very long time_ a smidgen of hope, he fumbles out of the noose around his neck and runs to the body, finding it to be ... dead.

Yet even though the body (played quite masterfully by former "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe ... talk about "dead pan acting" ;-) is dead (basically _becoming_ "another form of garbage")  even his / its process of decomposition proves remarkably even _miraculously_ useful to Hank: The gases produced in his/its intestinal tract -- his/its flatulence ... -- make(s) it/him ...  (yes) FART ;-) ... with _such force_ that Hank is able to ride the body LIKE A JET SKI ;-) off the island and to (some) new shore.  Other bodily functions (ones that _don't_ require much cerebral input...) prove useful to Hank as well, as his "dead body" / "friend" proves to be a veritable "Swiss Army Knife"-like gadget ... giving the film its name.

And indeed Hank proves to be something of a MacGuiver [wikip] [IMDb] of Garbage, turning all sorts of refuse into useful things.

Much (sort of) ensues ...

There is a more-or-less obvious theme of "recycling" (taken truly to the extreme ;-) / "one man's garbage is another man's treasure" that, honestly, becomes "something to ponder" by film's end.

Yet, I honestly _don't know_ ;-) if the film-makers sought to _make fun of_ "recycling" or (honestly) tried to make a very interesting / youth-oriented (re)statement of a doctrine held by most Eastern Philosophies (Buddhism in particular) that "change" (even Death / Decomposition) is Inevitable and needs to be embraced to attain Enlightenment.

Yes, this is a film that argues that even flatulence (and more ...) can be "made good."

I'll leave it then to you Dear Readers to decide if this goofy / appropriately R-rated / and arguably surprisingly quite intelligent movie is ... for you ;-)


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The End of a Great Era (orig. Конец прекрасной эпохи / Konets prekrasnoy epokhi) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

AFisha.ru (S. Zelvenskiy) review*
RadioVesti.ru (A. Dolin) review*
Rossiyskaya Gazeta (A. Litovchenko) review*
The Hollywood Reporter.ru (Y. Zabalyev) review*
Zavtra.ru (A. Belokurova , I. Malashenkov) review*


The End of a Great Era (orig. Конец прекрасной эпохи / Konets prekrasnoy epokhi) [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed and screenplay by Stanislav Govorukhin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*, based on the novel The Compromise (1981) [GR-ENG] [GR-RUS]*[WCat-ENG] [Amzn-ENG] by Sergei Dovlatov [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*) is an excellent four 2016 Nika Award (Russia's closet equivalent to the Oscars) winning film (including for Best Director) that serves as the third stop of my 2016 Russian Film Tour.

A very smartly filmed period-piece / dramedy of sorts, presented (spot-on perfectly for effect) _entirely_ in high-contrast black-and-white, and set in 1969 (significance of the year becoming important for all kinds of reasons as the film progresses), it tells the story of  "a year in the life" of Andrey Lentulov (played by Ivan Kolesnikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*) a still young, 30-something-or-so, Soviet-era journalist, originally from Leningrad (once and again St. Petersburg) yet for reasons not altogether clear (boredom, perceived greater opportunity / freedom, necessity?) taking a job in not altogether far Tallinn, the capital of the (then) Estonian SSR (once and again Estonia).

Why was he (choosing?) to leave Russia's (then the Soviet Union's) _second city_ (with a population of millions and a cultural cache' commensurate to its size / importance) for basically a "provincial capital" of a then fairly nearby "imperial reservation?"   The Imperialism of Russian life in Tallinn is patently clear throughout the film -- Ethnic Russians seem to hold most of the important positions.  Their ethnic Estonian subordinates appear loyal enough BUT when they turn to speaking Estonian to each other the Russians DON'T HAVE A CLUE what they're saying... Such was "life of the British" in India or Kenya / Rhodesia (or IRELAND for that matter ...) "during the Raj" as well ...

That kind of an admission -- that the Russian dominance of Estonia during the Soviet Era was certainly unjust -- is _in itself_ a remarkably mature and perhaps even brave statement.  (I from / live and write from a country, the United States, that doesn't particularly like to admit its mistakes either ... ;-).

But the whole film becomes a _fascinating_ and to CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA _challenging_ exploration of WHY "1969" could truly be understood as "the end of an era" for (then Soviet) Russia.

To understand "what the era was" and "how/WHY it was ending," the film begins with a montage recalling how the 1960s began in Russia -- WITH GAGARIN.  At the beginning of the 1960s Soviet Union quite literally seemed "at the top of the world."  YET, lest one understand that opening montage as simply a celebration of the Great Soviet Achievements of the time (and let's face it, putting the first satellite and then first human being into space were _great achievements_) EVEN THE OPENING MONTAGE _ENDS_ with an thoroughly _uncomprehending_ Krushchev first scandalized by and then _loudly denouncing_ a famous "modern art exhibition" in Moscow.  So the Khrushchev Thaw was already coming to an end UNDER KHRUSHCHEV.

Fast forward then to "the summer of 1969."  Among the first assignments Andrey is given by his boss, Editor in Chief (goes without saying) "Party man" Genrikh Frantsevich Turonok (played by Boris Kamorzin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) at his new post at the "Estonian Pravda" (pravda in Russian, of course, meaning "truth," but also the infamous name of the then Soviet Union's Communist Party's _authorative_ newspaper in Moscow) is to help write the front page article _not about_ (AMERICAN) Neil Armstrong WALKING ON THE MOON but instead of a thoroughly _random_ "state visit" by the General Secretary of the Polish People's Republic to Moscow ;-).

Now dear Readers understand, the film shows ALL of Andrey's journalist colleagues watching (live?) coverage of  Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, and them toasting the _human_ achievement of man walking on the moon, SOME perhaps disappointed that it wasn't a Russian walking on the moon, BUT STILL ACKNOWLEDGING, indeed TOASTING (it offered an excuse to drink ;-) the "HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT" OF IT ALL ... and they were being asked TO PRETEND that it "really was no big deal" ... that the again THOROUGHLY RANDOM "state visit" of the Polish General Secretary was _somehow_ "more important."

Many of Andrey's other writing assignments for the paper during that year were similarly absurd: He's given a assignment to write a "puff piece" (most familiar with Soviet Era journalism would know that _most_ domestic stories _were_ "puff pieces") about the recent birth of Tallinn's 400,000th citizen.  (Readers here note that Estonia's capital Tallinn, like most cities between Leningrad and Berlin were thoroughly decimated - and in the case of cities of the Baltic States like Tallinn repeatedly, by both sides - with then a huge exodus of those Estonians who _could flee_ doing so as their country was _definitively_ falling once again under (Soviet) Russian control).  Well, as Andrey sets out to research this story which is to "celebrate" Tallinn's reaching this nearly 25 years-after-the-war benchmark of 400,000 residents ... he finds the story to be "far more complicated" than it would have initially seemed ;-).  The city's 400,000th tovarish was born "out of wedlock" and the father was an Ethiopian exchange student (so "black?" asks Andrey. "Chocolate colored" answers the cautious doctor Andrey's interviewing, unsure if this thoroughly random fact was going to _somehow_ get him into trouble.  And indeed, Andrey's Editor of this Russian language daily in Estonia, becomes worried how this story would not play with HIS higher-ups back in Moscow...)

Later, Andrey's boss sends him on another "puff piece" story to interview a particularly productive Estonian milk-make somewhere in Estonian cow country (she seems to milk cows in a statistically faster fashion than most other milk-maids, _not just_ in the venerable Estonian SSR, but across the whole Soviet Union (Yes folks, THESE were the kind of stories that ROUTINELY made "national news" in the Communist world of the time.  Another great film about the absurdity of that time is the recent Polish film One Way Ticket to the Moon (orig. Bilet na Księżyc) [2013], set incidently in 1969 as well ;-).
 
Well, to approach this story, Andrey has to find an Estonian translator, who he does find, out there in the nearest sizable town to the kolkhoz with this statistically-remarkable milk-maid.  That translator, named Evi (played by Kyart Tammyapv) [IMDb] [KP.ru]*) a quite attractive, blonde, ethnic Estonian journalist working for a local "youth" paper, confesses to Andrey, that she'd actually _much rather_ research sex than milkmaids (! ;-), explaining to Andrey (needless to say, intrigued ;-) quite sincerely (though yes, she does like sex) that "sex is important, can make a lot of people happy, and yet, most people do it wrong."  (Anyway, they do have "their encounter" and afterwards the 20-something-lovely-Estonian-translator kindly tells him "what he could do better the next time." ;-).   And then, afterwards ... they go to find the milkmaid ;-)

The milk-maid episode ends with Andrey getting his research together, writing the story, only to be informed by his superior that their higher-ups (presumably in Moscow) "already wrote the story anyway" (presumably _without_ any research or anything).  And Andrey's excursion into Estonian cow-country was pretty much a waste, except for perhaps getting a few tips about how to better please a woman "the next time" by a young attractive Estonian 20-something year-old, who actually would have fit _quite well_ and quite _sincerely well_ with her Swedish, German or even American "sisters" who were starting to ask similar questions as well.  The difference is, of course, that her Western counterparts could do so far far more freely than she back in the Soviet Union of the time.

There are ALL KINDS OF SIMILAR STORIES / INCIDENTS in this film.  What did they add up to?  It would seem clear that the message of the film was that the "Great Era" of the 1960s Soviet Union came to an end because the Soviet Union was simply _too closed_ of a society.  Everything had to be approved, an orthodoxy to maintain.   Indeed, throughout the film, there were numerous reference by Andrey's various "higher ups" about "the lessons of Czechoslovakia" (in 1968 the Soviet Union led a Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization movement there).  But of course, those "higher ups" were drawing _exactly the wrong lessons_.  They kept maintaining that the "problem" of Czechoslovakia was that there had been "too much freedom there" that "once you lose censorship, then ..."

The message of the current film here was that the opposite was true: The curtailment of freedom actually _killed_ innovation and reduced happiness, bringing what could have been a Great Era to an end.

Again, this film won FOUR Nika Awards (Russia's Equivalent of the Oscars) last year in Russia including best director (Stanislav Govorukhin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) and "discovery of the year" (actor - Ivan Kolesnikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*).

Is there a statement being made about the "more current affairs"?  ONE WOULD HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT NOT TO SEE IT...

But while my comments above may seem needlessly hard / harsh to some Russian Readers (and would be Russian censors --  I actually may have had some experiences with this recently, with regard to my review of Francofonia [2015]) -- if there EVER WAS A FILM that could PROVE TO WESTERNERS that RUSSIA is _capable_ of both self-criticism and CAN SMILE it is this one.

And remember dear Readers here, that I started my (somewhat obsessive ;-) periodic focus [1] [2] [3] on Russian films here in search of films that prove that RUSSIANS CAN SMILE.  Why?  Because WE (honestly!) _DON'T_ SEE THEM HERE -- IN THE WEST.  And honestly, World Peace / the Fate of the World may depend on us seeing becoming able to see Russians as being capable of smiling, just like us, just like all of us (in spite of often, honestly, a very tragic national history ... which we also need to take into account).

So my hat off to the film-makers here:  Ten, twenty, thirty years from now this film will be remembered, on _numerous levels_, as a _great_ one, perhaps even beginning / re-invigorating a NEW era ;-)  Congratulations!



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