Last year's local blockbuster. Positioned as a crime comedy, read ala Guy Ritchie. Quite a lot of advertising and good reviews. Continue to spin periodically and now at different shows. And in general, against the background of the fact that there are very few good feature films being shot in Latvia, this is certainly a worthwhile event to some extent.
There are good moments in the movie, and we’ll start with them. Cinema is very cool stylized, under some old school times like the 80s - 90s. The picture and scenery are wonderful. Latvians know a lot about this. They have a sense of style, especially when it comes to nostalgia for the LSSR. There is nothing political here. Just among the Latvians there are many good artists and designers and a strong makslas skola. But then, for the most part, there are different “buts”.
Well, in fact, the film has almost no drive in the expected version, which you expect from a crime comedy. The movie is a set of bearded anecdotes and tales, which are combined again with a rather banal through storyline. A screenwriter Imants Weide is writing a script for a television project and is obsessed with the idea of bringing real stories to life. To do this, he decides to modulate such stories, which is helped by a pair of fringes called Thistle and Algae and a strange friend of Imants Harry. There are various comic situations out there. Sometimes the humor is quite black, but not as often as I would like.
In general, this happens quite easily, but rather measured and melancholy. Ugara's definitely not. And the actors, let's say, are not very good and not very characteristic. Basically, they are underplaying, overplaying or overly crooked.
Here we are told that the actors are not professional, hence the demand is not great. But to be honest with you, this is total bullshit. If the director is really talented, then even a film with not very good actors can turn out great. Immediately came out weak dynamics, banal plot, wrong selection of characters and in the end, albeit beautifully designed, but rather mediocre picture. Still, probably Latvian directors with their mentality and attitude to the cinema better shoot detective noirs and psychological thrillers. And criminal comedies are better for Lithuanian brothers.
Watch Zero 2. And this movie for me can be missed.