Like "Borat", but not funny Let me start with the positive:
1. This is the entourage of Chukchi whalers. Every object is in its place. Everything is interesting and interesting.
2. The image of the American Ranger is well worked out. It came out voluminous, even despite a small piece of timekeeping.
3. Nature and environmental disaster (emissions, destruction of whales, garbage) in this film, though background, but there. And for this, perhaps, respectable (but taking into account the rest – it seems to be done in order to throw dust into the eyes of a sensitive to environmental issues Cannes viewer).
Now on to what could have been better.
1. Personally, I was deeply offended that the music of Simeon Ten Holt (where the piano and organ are played) was crammed here just to give deep thought where there is none. And in general, all the music that played in the film was wrong.
2. The naive Chukchi youth is not just naive – he is obviously stupid. Both intellectually and emotionally. He makes impossible mistakes. We have to put it in the camera.
3. What did the author want to say by the fact that during the entire film the hero has twice a bummer due to engine failure in transport? What kind of hero is he not a lucky man and nothing depends on him? But why? Or that he didn't check the engine, so he's stupid? But why do we have to show his intelligence again?
4. The film always hits the poor young man, making him look stupid. We already know he's stupid! What's next?
5. It would seem that since he is stupid, then according to the laws of the plot, he should at least have a big soul. But no, she's tiny - he's ready to just kill good old friendships for a fantasy about an overseas girl. I mean, impulse. He only remembers guilt when things are bad. And he moves on quietly and rejoices, forgetting his guilt when he's doing well. This character is a bug with a petty soul.
I believe that this character is an insult to the entire Chukchi people.
6. At the end of the film, the hero seems to really, according to the laws of monomyth, returns changed... but is it true? No, he didn't come to this out of strength. It's about being hungry and tired. His journey didn't change him. I don't believe it.
7. The feelings that must appear in the hero’s difficult moments are created only by Simeon Ten Holt and his pianos. The hero himself does not experience anything, and I do not empathize with him either. Only annoying – how low a move – to use such music to press on the feelings of the viewer due to the fact that the plot of these feelings does not provide.
8. The picture, the shooting seems to be good. But clearly with a claim.
In general, I saw through the film - this is an attempt to just throw dust in the eyes of the viewer of the Cannes festival, hiding the lack of plot, insulting the Chukchi people - behind inverted hipster shots, giant pauses in the communication of the characters, primitive non-humoresque à la "a joke in a serious film, he-hee, ironic and sharp."
Bad. We just shot another Borat, who went to America falling in love with Pamela, but not funny and with a claim to Cannes profits.
4 points for the Chukchi life and for the American ranger, in the image of whom I really believed, there is nothing more artistic in the film. One imitation and claim.
Original