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Reviews
Zhmurki (2005)
Like snatch and lock stock and two smoking barrels, but Russian
This movie really is like Snatch and Lock stock and two smoking barrels. Criminal comedy, dark comedy, but its there - the whole tongue in cheek approach to Russian mafia reality in the 90's. It is exceptionally well cast and the characters all have clear cut roles and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It does not try to be anything more then it is, and it does an awesome job of it. The ending scene is the most merry one to date. The dialogue is witty, and a certain scene involving weaponry does justice to Long stock's "Its me bren gun" scenario. The only real problem, and this is not the film's fault, is that it sounds and feels better in its original Russian, leaving those with either dubbed (oh no!) or subtitled (meh) copies with less of an experience - but this is pure bias :P Again, I wish for people to see that genius does in fact exist abroad.
Lilja 4-ever (2002)
I have not seen a stronger, better executed film since Ver Hoven's work
While Russian in background, I did not grow up there in the 90's.....and this is why I have a western mentality that simply does not allow for what Russia "is". This movie captures that - it does not simply deem the theme of "despair" to be driving a dramatic reenaction of daily Russian life - IT IS a reenaction of it, unlike Hollywood's depiction of suburbia as a "regular" backdrop. The movie is character driven, and the characters do not present themselves as anything more then humans responding to the world they inhabit - not dreamers of glory, of better ideals - which is prevalent in Western cinema. The pretense is, that there is nothing above and beyond reality. You know who the main character is - it is you now, two, five, ten years ago - searching for meaning. But searching in a world which wants to rip open its skin and ship itself elsewhere - anywhere but where it is now. Sadly the main character takes her world past innocence to monotonous immoral co-existence to a completely new locale to choke out what little life was left in the detrimental shrine to life she has erected in her homeland.
A must see.