mpeters-7 Reviews

Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)

If you like Jarmusch movies you like this one.

[9/10 · 13 August 2004]

This is not so much a movie as it is a test of your campiness quotient. The CQ has a mean of 100. If you fall below 85, you live in a really sad world and as you advance above 100 you are able to extract the comical and farcical aspects of life with increasing ingenuity. After auditioning for a Russian apparatchick (who listens stony-faced to their music, then says "no good - try the US" and departs) the band departs for the US. As they travel from New York to the South, the music changes through a range of pop/rock genres. As another reviewer noted, the music is far more enjoyable than it has a right to be and the dead-pan stoicism of the characters is a hoot. From Steppenwolf to Mariachi music, you will hear and see it all. Try the movie again a year later and it will be even more enjoyable because now you can attend to the hilarious detail which you have missed first time around.

Un honnête commerçant (2002)

Absorbing, sophisticated

[9 August 2004]

This movie is also being rented out as "an honest dealer", and may be referred to as "step by step" - although there is another movie called "step by step" which is not "Un honnête commerçant". So, there. To those who need a bit of a respite from the Hollywood type heavy duty drug dealer drama, this provides welcome relief. A very absorbing and riveting tale that makes up for the lack of fisty-cuffs and knock-em down drag-em-out by a very inventive plot. Set in Belgium though it hardly matters where. You will be very busy trying to second-guess the principal character's reasons for saying and doing what he says and does. You will not be bored ! Subtitles are of the new generation - they stand out clearly and are easily read without visual idiocies so common in older subtitles. Outstanding acting by the character in the starring role and the usual fine performance one would expect from Phillippe Noiret.

Salmer fra kjøkkenet (2003)

Close to perfect little movie

[18 March 2004]

This movie pokes fun, in a very gentle way, at a whole lot of things. At the Swedes and their "Ikea-type" market research, at the Norwegians and their laconic ways, and at the strange ways of humans altogether. This movie manages to be moving without being sentimental or manipulative. What I mean here is that the element of manipulation that is quite obvious in many of the more sophisticated recent "feel good" movies I generally enjoy (you know the ones I mean - Cinema Paradiso, Billy Elliot etc.) is not in evidence here. We are getting at something pretty basic and human with "Kitchen Stories". The movie tracks the unlikely relationship that develops between the Swedish market researcher, sent to observe (and strictly forbidden to interact with the subject of his study) the kitchen ways of his crusty Norwegian bachelor "host". Sounds rather minimal but this is a movie that is as good as a movie can get. Perfect pacing, perfect acting, perfect camera work, perfect story. While the movie can be enjoyed on the tv, as video, I think that it is best seen on a larger screen in a movie theater because the visual impact is strong. You come out of this movie a happier person than went in and that is worth something these days !

The Cuckoo (2002)

very good movie

[22 January 2004]

I disagree with a previous reviewer that Cuckoo or Kukushka is only for the artsy film crowd. There is no way you cannot be drawn in to the story, once you start watching. The film involves total non-communication by the three actors, each of whom speaks a different language. This device is also used in the movie "Shadow Dog" by Yarmusch, in the interaction between the ice cream vendor and Shadow Dog. Lovely in its humanity and with remarkable and unforgettable performances by the Lapp woman "Anni", whose sexual candor and enthusiasm catches the viewer by surprise, and who can only shake her head at the idiot ways of her two soldiers; the Finnish soldier who is talkative, likable, and peaceful; the idealistic Russian soldier who, even though at the beginning of the movie in the process of being cashiered by the Stalinist system, is slow to accept his "enemy" as human being. One of these slow-moving stories that does not have a single dull moment. And a lovely little ending that is satisfying without being sentimental. Incidentally, I had a bit of a hard time figuring out the relations between the Finnish (German ?) soldiers and the Finnish sniper who was being chained to a rock. I suppose individuals with an interest in technical aspects of warfare would know why he was put in that position. Not that it matters to the flow of the movie.