Such an epic road movie in Russian... I liked the soundtrack, theme! Our future is darkness, and I don’t expect any good, only this hand of a friend. I'll never let go..." Etc.
I watched director Alexander Hunt’s debut film “How Vitka Garlic Drived Leshka Pits to the Home of the Disabled,” 2017, as some praised him greatly. The main character of the film Vitka Garsnok (Eugene Tkachuk) is such a rather brisk, not young (like him 27 years old) man, a former orphanage, works at a plastic processing plant in some state town, drunk. He lives with an unloved wife and the same unloved son with his mother-in-law, but also has a mistress, is sufficiently complex - you just need to see how he carefully combs his hair every time, as well as his bright yellow sneakers. Trying to get a loan for an apartment, but it is denied. And then suddenly it turns out that his father appeared, who left him with his mother many years ago, after which his mother committed suicide and he was in an orphanage. The precinct takes Vitka to him, it turns out that his father has an apartment where he lies paralyzed, he is being cared for by some woman, as it turns out later, with views of this apartment. However, Vitka has these views appear, he quickly draws up all the documents to surrender his father to the disabled home, and goes on a trip, but events begin to unfold quite differently than he expected. As you can see, this is such a road movie, shot in the realities of the Russian hinterland, I cannot judge how close to these realities, the gangster component is added to them, since Shtyr (Alexei Serebryakov) is still a former criminal with long experience. The performers of the main roles are very well selected, they are actually a little similar to each other. But, unfortunately, again, the action takes place within the framework of alcohol-criminal themes, buddiness and dislike, no Russian directors can break beyond these limits, again, some bandits wear tracksuits and T-shirts with the inscription Russia and Olympic symbols, this is too cheap a reception, although in the end there is something human in the main characters like a little squeamish. I was frankly annoyed by the loud soundtrack in the form of Russian rap, designed, obviously, to reflect the musical preferences of the main character and characterize him. At times, the depicted looked like a parody, the plot is quite ragged, the end is open. I will not recommend you to watch, decide for yourself.
I feel like I’ve watched a video clip of a Russian rap band or artist, like Husky. It just stretched for an hour and a half, but this is by no means a remark, but on the contrary, a huge plus of this black comedy by Alexander Hunt, about whom I know nothing more than his name. But Eugene Tkachuk, who starred in the title role, with each appearance on the screen more and more stunning and conquers the madness of the acting game. He plays 27-year-old Vitka, nicknamed “Garlic,” who lives in a small province, works in a landfill as a sorter, takes everything from his capabilities. He has a wife with whom he is connected only by a young son, he is constantly drawn away in a local club (it is terrible even to call him that), in which he is accompanied by comrades who have not gone far, and periodically Garlic fucks with the same easy-looking girlfriend Lariska.
Life prepared him a surprise in the form of his father, who left him as a teenager, because he went to prison. Because of this, the mother committed suicide, and Vitka was sent to an orphanage. His father, Lehu, nicknamed “The Styre”, is played by Alexei Serebriakov, who seemed to be born for such roles. There is an option to inherit his father’s apartment by giving it to a disabled home, because initially we show him paralyzed, lying in bed, without any hint of even minor movements and speech. But during a long trip to the father come strength, and an acquaintance is born between the main characters. They get to know each other very fluently, but this is enough for everyone to draw some conclusions for themselves and feel a family connection.
The film is full of hyperbolized absurdity, on which the entire narrative is based. This is the atmosphere that the authors tried to convey. This is an easy movie that only superficially passes through the sacred meaning, but it turns out to catch it. Again, not without talented acting. The soundtrack consists of many “rocking compositions” that we are so used to hearing from every domestically produced car racing at traffic lights. But he is wildly eating and affects the atmosphere no less than the characters themselves. After watching the movie, I did not even think about criticizing it, because everything in it is in its place, each character looks natural and natural, despite the style and style of the story. You realize that these are the characters that you can meet in real life, and we often live around them. I love movies about ordinary people, without a bit of pathos or other tinsel, because they are the basis of our country and its majority, yes, no one is perfect, each with its own flaws, but in almost every one of them you can find a piece of something spiritual and positive.
Soul impulses. The first answer to what's happening right now. What happens to us and to us. Reaction to long thinking-weighing-calculations. It is necessary to do so, exactly so, now, immediately, without delay, urgently, because it is so right.
Right? Who says that in us? After all, we just found out right now. This has never happened to us before. We've just been challenged in the face. After all, we have not even fully understood what exactly is happening and, moreover, did not have time to think about the far consequences.
But suddenly, in an instant, they saw everything that happened, and themselves in this, and the whole meaning of this far, far ahead - in one fell swoop, albeit very inaccurately, only one subtle contours, only a general meaning - but they saw and rushed into what happened, made a decision, without solving all this incredible puzzle, drawing into itself all the world that could be available to us and all its future - without thinking further - not a deliberate decision, but our own.
What are these reactions in a pattern that have been “written” before us in our bodies, in the cellars of our type of psyche, or that are hollowed into us in our childhood – hollowed in by the first encounters with others that were appropriated by our pain and pleasure, grown by other people’s encouragements – those fairy tales and carrots with which we were treated while we were not in control of ourselves?
Or this is our most personal and intimate – to all conversations and calculations – the impulse of our soul, the impulse of our body – what we are in essence – what we can see in ourselves when we are most honest with ourselves – even before all collisions with this evil world around, even before fear of it, even before rivalry and envy of others, even before winning a “solution” convenient for everyone.
And is it important to distinguish whether we have come into this world just as unique, or has this world — the whole world of “atoms and molecules” and the world of people — raised us in this way? Is there a need for genealogy here, if we show ourselves as such and not others? Why here to introduce far-fetched axiological tables – that what is from “society” or “genetics” in us is bad / good, and what is in us from our “exceptional”, “accidental”, “self-fictional” is good / bad?
Where, who dares to draw the final boundary between me and the one who gave birth to me? Who will dare to make the final judgment only on me, and not on the world, or only on the world, and not on me?
Here I am – I appear to myself in my first reaction – the first conscious reaction I am aware of – the one that, behind the second confusion, the one that silences the first gust of a purely chemical storm in the veins – silences or intensifies it – because this is also a choice.
And there is no very first-time occurrence - quite unexpected - a person waits for much, very much that can happen - and repeats in himself that if this is so and so, then I will be this and that - repeats tales about myself - dreams, fears and chooses - and when it happens, then either performs already "without thinking" or "forgets" the exhausted - because he does this too - because this is also the manifestation of his own name.
The impulse of the soul is my impulse. And most of the time they are beautiful. Sometimes they need to pay with their whole life. That's the thing. That is the beauty of man.
...
The hero in the film, the hero in life - appears before us having already made his main impulse of soul - giving his child life.
Having left the orphanage, received an apartment from the state and twisted with the first girl who came across - the choice before him arose in the form of an "ultimatum" of the mother of this girl. The main challenge of life is in all clothes. Here he came from a screaming woman who had to attach his already, most likely, alcoholic daughter, and then a young boy appeared, and even with housing.
"Abortion-or-marriage," she cried about eight years ago and continued to shout later, "Oh, you chose "marry" and "will-bring," that's how you educate, keep your wife, exchange our two apartments for one big one, so that-the-child-was-normal-family, or else he-will see-from-the-children's, work, feed-us-all, well, there drink-walk, but work, pull. Screaming and this heard the child, who has already grown up, who was killed every time in this cry - killed all the grandmother, mother, and father - because he was silent, he did not know how to get out of what he decided.
He decided. The first time he could have chosen another. How could he betray all those dreams about his family, all the heartbreaking pain of his own family, which was the most important thing in him for many, many years in the orphanage?
He did not betray himself, he decided to live for his child.
And then could not stand the manipulation of himself, then could not stand, already broken inside, his wife, could not withstand his lust.
And there was not a chance for him to go on a different track than our homeless life offered him - when no one-nobody-nothing-nothing-no-one-no-one-no-one-no-one-needs, except to cash in on him - make him work, spin on spending on things, on eating, on drinking.
The only reflection of the warmth of humanity is next to the always random ones like him - to be together, to hammer the sensory channels of the body with rhythmic beats like music, to immerse in the forgetting of alcohol or any other drug - chemical sludge, which gives forgetting, which allows you to forget the sharpness of the knife of reality that is constantly at your throat - the sharpness of your human consciousness and understanding.
Souls are beautiful impulses.
The impulse of the nurse, the one who first kicked out the hero, who once chose this “social work” – to care for others, for the weakest – but she could probably choose another. It was then that the nurse, by her calculations, attracted herself again to our so rational, i.e., so beastly life - life that she tries to tell herself that she is about to snatch a fatter scythe.
And again, the impulse of the hero is to save her sister from a stupid beast, which will surely pull her into the world that he knows so well that, probably, he pulled her so gradually in her memory of her father, in her memory from childhood.
And the most dangerous impulse - the most beautiful impulse - to save the father.
Forgetting himself, forgetting himself calculating and worthless - accustomed here to this gray life that could still last and last. Save your father and save yourself a hero.
Vitka Chesnok lives in an ordinary Russian city, works at a waste processing plant, does not love his wife, does not love his son, drinks a lot and fucks young girls. In the hope of arranging life with his mistress, he tries to take out a loan for housing, which he is not approved of. At this moment, fate throws the orphanage Garlic a chance - his disabled father returns to the city from prison, who has his own apartment. Hoping to get her by inheritance, Garlic intends to surrender his father to a disabled home, on the way to which they face a lot of difficulties.
How's the description? Depressive? You can't figure it out. On the one hand, a film with quite understandable and familiar characters, on the other hand, you are horrified how the characters are for you relatives. Good or bad, it is not up to me to decide.
Hunt has another full meter - some comedy with a non-clinging description (" Enn Robinson, suddenly you need someone), I probably won't watch it. In two of the three films, his approach to musical design is striking. He knows where and what to get from the depths of Russian music. I am personally pleased that he takes my favorite tracks, but globally his love for everything Russian very bribes. Hunt is another Russian filmmaker who shoots horror stories from our province, but does so with great awe.
I hope he shoots a lot more, if suddenly he does not get into foreign agents. I'll be actively watching. This movie is about the fact that it’s never too late to be human.
Many modern Russian viewers mistakenly believe that Russian cinema is rotten. This statement is true only in relation to blockbusters, where filmmakers are trying unsuccessfully to imitate Hollywood. If you dive deeper and look at domestic author's films, it will be revealed that this film is worthy not only of domestic, but also of world level. From Bykov’s films to Serebryannikov, a huge amount of gold is found that shines brighter than many Oscar-winning paintings. When I saw this film, I was hoping that I would also see a picture of an incredible level, especially when all your friends who have seen this work speak extremely positively about it. Alas, and ah, this tape is personally difficult to call the same gold, which I spoke about above.
This film is far from bad, never once, it is still a good picture, which is many times more useful to watch than any Attraction, but there are a couple of serious problems in it, because of which this movie is not called a truly monumental work of art, although there was a chance.
Here you should start with the pluses and the main one is, of course, the atmosphere. The creators managed to perfectly convey the atmosphere of a provincial Russian town. I’ve been to places like this many times and the atmosphere there is really very similar to the one presented in the film. It helps to plunge into the atmosphere of excellent directorship and cinematography for the debutant. All filmed extremely high quality and the construction of the frame creates visual pleasure for the eyes. This atmosphere is complemented by music and songs. Yes, many have noted the music in the film, but few have talked about how the authors approached its use. It not only corresponds to the atmosphere and is similar to the music that provincial Russians listen to, but also perfectly conveys the essence of what is happening. In one song there was a text about the Clockwork Orange, and at this time the hero of the aki character Malcolm McDowell arranged ultraviolence, in another it was about the landscape through which the main characters drove, in the third it was conveyed the emotional state of the characters. Songs here are also organically woven into scenes, as in some Kid on Drive, where the songs can no longer be perceived separately from the scenes. Even if you’re not a fan of songs like me, you’ll still love how well integrated they are.
A lot of people are probably wondering, ‘So what’s wrong with the movie if there’s been a lot of praise up until now?’ The whole problem with the film is in the script and strange creative solutions. The plot, as the name of the film says, tells the story of a 30-year-old Gopnik Vita, nicknamed “Garlic”, who learned about the existence of his father, whose name is Leha (formerly known as the bandit Shtyr) and decided to take him to the disabled house to get an apartment. Already at this synopsis there is an association with Rain Man with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, where the main character also learns about the existence of his not quite healthy relative and decides to cash in on him. In the beginning, these films have a lot in common.
The first 30 minutes introduce us directly to Vitka, who, like the hero Cruz from the above film, causes only disgust. This part of the film was the most successful scenario, because the creators manage to perfectly reveal all the negative and sometimes positive aspects of the hero. The plot is also very clear. The hero hates his father and he has an apartment, he can be quietly scarred and live for his pleasure. Everything up to the scene where the hero loads his father in his trash looks cool. But then the film begins to go somewhere wrong and it begins to slowly lose its charm.
First of all, we have a direct relationship with heroes. I understand that the author's film is primarily an emphasis on hints, and not on dialogue in the forehead, but even here it was overstated. There's too much left behind. Why did Vitya suddenly begin to show warm feelings for his father, whom he had recently accused of the death of his mother? Why did you go to save him at the end before the end? Was a couple of unflattering words from Leha’s daughter enough? Did one little childhood memory of how he wanted to eat a sandwich of fat and sugar touch him so much? All this looks too strained, and there are no other manifestations of the warm feelings of the heroes to each other, except for hints that can be interpreted as you like. Because of this, the open ending does not work. It is not clear what the authors were trying to say. Vitka got so close to his gangster father that he began to wonder whether to give him to a disabled home. Vitka realized how many mistakes his father had made and decided to consider how not to become the same? You see, due to the fact that the film spent too little time on the disclosure of images, the really appropriate understatement in the end does not work, yet even with this technique you need to be able to balance.
Some illogical scenario decisions are also embarrassing. The film so lasts only 1.5 hours, and at the end we still throw absolutely nowhere took up the plot with gangsters. Thank you, of course, for the cameo of my beloved Andrei Smirnov, but this does not negate the fact that everything is meaningless. Plus, the plot where the hero saves his father from murder looks too fabulous against the background of the previous events of the film. Although before that there were strange scenes, like Leha, whose hands and head suddenly began to move after epilepsy (very much a convention for such a film) and where the hero is waving a gun and no one asks him about it.
The actors play well, Tkachuk and Serebryakov perfectly cope with their roles (although the latter has almost all filmography and consists only of such roles) and really believe in the chemistry between their characters. But again, because of the scenario, the development of these two does not look logical and often raises questions.
Despite this, the film is recommended for viewing. Like no, and this film makes you think and ask a couple of questions about your life, and it is already worth a lot. I would also like to wish the new director good luck with further work. In them, the plot will probably already be brought to mind.
The story of an orphanage who rents his father to a disabled house for an apartment can be given to ten Russian directors, and 8 will be removed from this black woman. And if you consider that the film will play Silver, then black will turn out in 9 cases.
That one exceptional one is Hunt's. About a surreal and goofy province: attractive in its vulgarity, but only until all this phantasmagoric horror has landed. Because on earth, these stories are actually black. But not while they are in bright colors and motley music about cattle and color of bus stations of residential areas.
Quick movie. With a lot of sounds, with some arrhythmic action, without which it would be better, with such a finale that resolves the final fork in the least vulgar way (although the fork itself is boring and behind it you can not see the most interesting - motives of sympathy).
It's an interesting movie. National cinema, alternative Hollywood - in "Vitka Garlic" there is everything that you want to watch indie movies (and digging in the popular courtyards of music).
This debut film is better than Interseason. At least because the characters here are personalities, not archetypes, and the film is primarily a film, and not a social proclamation.
I will immediately clarify that one point is at least for raising the topic of disabled people and a good illustration of it. Towards the end of the film, the truth is that there is empathy even for such an “invaluable” individual. The film is about how a child orphan learns that his father is alive, but has become disabled, and in order to get his apartment he plans to hand him over to a disabled home. At the same time, according to the classics of the genre of road-movie there is always something to go wrong, a number of adventures arise on the road. Spoiler! It was the part that gave strength to the film just before the end of the film, I caught empathy for this topic, but it was the moment when my father was delivered to the disabled house that looked strange. I may not know what the author was trying to say.
I've heard about this movie for a long time, but I never got to see it. And here it is. I will talk exclusively about my impressions through the prism of the appearance of films of this genre. In general, before us is a typical Russian art house with a specific cinematic language and barely readable images-symbols against the background of realities that are quite recognizable to every Russian person.
In the center of the story - Vitka-Garlic: a 27-year-old hobo without a father and mother, who spent most of his life in an orphanage and angry with his mafia father for a bleak childhood. However, he also projects his father unconsciously, and meeting him is a kind of closure of the gestalt. Vitka is a hooligan who managed to marry without love and give offspring. He does not love his wife, cheats on her, drinks a lot, works in a factory. He wants to get out of this circle and live like a man. But he has no intelligence, no talent, let alone honesty. And now he has a chance: suddenly he finds out that his father Leha Styr is alive, out of prison and immobilized. He needs care. And he's got something, but an apartment. And that's where the fun starts. How do you get your dad into a disabled home and into his living space? You don't get a mortgage. Friends, the same hooliganism, help Vitka load his father into the car, and their journey begins. All along the way, it seems that the ultimate goal - a home for the disabled - is unattainable, and we are spoken in the language of the so-called "poetics of unattainability". The father is silent, the son takes him to certain death. But suddenly the father begins to speak, deliberately calling him not a son, but simply a "boy." The pin doesn't want to die. He bites into this being with his last strength, thinking that at least somewhere he is loved and waited for.
Essentially, we have before us a journey of two souls to the posthumous, where it is necessary to rethink everything that was done during life. And this analysis should be based on how the closest and friends will respond to you. And when Shtyr decides to prove his worth to the boy, he and we, along with the heroes, realize that he is deprived of his last hope. The pin stuck a reproach in the souls of loved ones who had left him, as he was, to put it mildly, not sugar. The criminal past has turned into serious consequences for his family, and no one wants to see him in his home. Kids don't need it. And then he goes to another "family" - to the comrades from the zone, where the gathering of authorities decides his fate, and at the same time the fate of his son. We should at least die with honor. But that doesn't happen either. Or is it happening?
In a metaphysical sense, the funeral of these two souls took place. The son finds his father. And my father dies for the life he led all these years.
Now on how to do it. Monologues here do not shine with wit or any philosophical depth. However, they are made ingeniously and show us the inside out of the average person. This inside out is unsightly: the average person, moderately injured, in whom there is no moral core, cares only about his own good, about his own skin. He can betray at any time. There are no positive characters here. There is humor Quite primitive, but real, one that corresponds to our reality.
There is Russian longing as a phenomenon reflected here in its entirety. About the same success it reproduces in the same locations Balabans. “Lord, how sad our Russia is” (Pushkin’s words about Gogol’s “Dead Souls”). This is, in fact, Chichikov, but we are in the second volume and in modern Russia. Gogol rotates in the coffin, as in a pan, but his breath here also blows. And I would say, 'How terrible our Russia is.'
Also, there’s bad music and the movie, which I thought was a bit long. But all this withstands the style of this genre. Less for the music.
But it's worth watching at least once. Paradoxically, it's a masterpiece to me.
The guests looked at the landscape
And they whispered, "Eralash."
The aesthetics of anti-aesthetics are not new. And he has a right to life. Well, someone likes to watch someone reach the bottom and knock down. In this case, we are shown a scumbag and a scumbag Vitka, who received news from his daddy, who is even more frostbitten scum, but at the end of his life. And the whole film we are worried about how finished the moron will be this Vitka.
Actually, eralash begins with the title, which suggests a cheerful comedy about fairy-tale Barmaleans like Real Boys or Kakha. Nope. We are waiting for a painful trip in the company is not the most pleasant, from which, fortunately, we are separated by the screen. Vitka Garlic is a typical character in a depressive comedy. He's all on display. Takes a loan that won't pay back. He fights to fight. Leha Styr, on the other hand, is self-contained. The first half of the film is completely paralyzed. And in the second half there is no difference. This character is more melodramatic. The movie around him is more of a drama. Or even melodrama. Only insensitive. And when the Sticker appears, comedy turns into drama. And vice versa. And you don't know what you're watching, whether it's a funny tragedy or a depressive comedy. And because of this, you disconnect from the world of the film, you begin to evaluate the performance of actors, the work of the director, the cameraman. Many in the reviews note the cool operator work. The operator should be your eye. Do you often notice how beautiful your eyes are? If you notice this, you are not interested in what you see. I'm not talking about script ambiguities. Where, for example, Vitka has a minibus and a license. He's a drunk. He was supposed to be no further than the first policeman.
Anyway, I don't know what to put. On the one hand, watching it is unpleasant and stupid. On the other hand, history is pretty catchy. If we abstract. Therefore, I will give a negative assessment. If you purposefully came, then still look, and if you wandered into this film by accident, it is better not to.
A movie with that name will probably drive a lot of people away. And in vain.
This film is about the most important thing in life - about blood. And even, I'll whisper here, race. The word 'race' by such workarounds still returned to our use. Why not use it? The race of heroes is the most politically incorrect - white, whiter nowhere.
True, political incorrectness is uranized by the fact that both characters, father and son, Lekh and Vitya - from the very bottom of society. Well, then... We don’t hear much good about the top today.
And in the bottom, perhaps something else is hidden - some of the very basic foundations of being there are still alive, still strong. And if someone down there manages to overcome 'chaos of mad passions' then... That is hope.
Opinions of the audience about the film, judging by Kinopoisk, divided. The author with the red star, for example, forgetting the postulates of Marxism, believes that no one can overcome anything. (Well, this is often the case, the beginning and end of ideological movements are diametrically opposed.)
In fact, what can happen in life is not as important to art as you might think. Art forms its persuasiveness, the persuasiveness of its due, the persuasiveness of the power of blood, or the power of human despair, or stubbornness. ..
When a person does something that no one expects, he does not expect from himself. This is not the point of film art, or art in general, telling human history, to show that it can be so, it should be so, it is so right, even if it is one story in a million.
Quality Russian cinema. Without creases of hands and sunsets of eyes or blood from them. Russian urban life is shown without too much stamps, and the theme of the famous ' Russian soul' unfolded not to the crack of vests on the breasts.
Clearly seen every former orphanage Vitka Chesnok, who clearly can be imagined growing up after some time in the character ' Boomer' or ' Brigades' suddenly learns that his father, the same one who handed him over at the time in the orphanage - is alive, but with nuances. Well, the fact that his father decided to put in the home of the disabled can hardly be considered a spoiler, given the title of the film. Of course, along the way there will be sudden turns (at the thirty-sixth minute it becomes directly interesting), there will be explosions of rust, there will be chewed lips, but in general, everything is precisely verified in good measure, without tearing.
Tkachuk and Serebriakov, who, in fact, play father and son, are selected beautifully, and play the same. The director (Alexander Hunt) does not hold the audience for morons, and allows you to independently reveal all sorts of interesting behind-the-scenes secrets. Sound did a good job at mixing and picked up a moderate and, let’s say, relevant soundtrack. The operator picked up interesting angles, and at the final editing added color color, which gave an interesting story to breathe the corresponding bright colors instead of the usual gray douchnilov in the frame.
All in all, everything in this movie is young. This is an excellent strong and interesting film, devoid of the typical shortcomings of domestic filmmaking.
7 out of 10
Less hysterical and satirical towards non-Moscow than 'Chiki'. Much lighter than any Zvyagintsev. Not hysterical. With a slight touch of crime, but away from any 'Boomers' or 'Brigade'. Not trying to be a cult or art house. This. Normal. A movie. Finally!
For the debut work, Alexander Hunt stood out very well. This is the most simple picture regarding the plot, which in any case does not spoil it, rather, on the contrary, without unnecessary confusion. But it's off! Filmed just fine, the frames of the immense to the actual music make you feel like watching a clip with real actors. Moment with ' Panelka' Husky recalled the famous scene from ' Miami Police' where the main characters ride a black Ferrari under Phil Collins with views of night Miami. In our reality, it's a downbeat, tired battered faces and a crumbling Japanese van against the background of fields.
There is nothing superfluous in the film, a road movie with the most understandable dialogues that I can listen to or participate in in my neighborhood, a' charming' a bald criminal with a knife and in a red suit causes more fear than some Palpatine, because this is reality.
The characters of the film do not require empathy, rather understanding. These are the people you can find in every yard, and it’s hard to be proud of that. The film, if not for the well-coordinated narrative and beautiful shots 'noukats', could look like a sample of a typical vile household woman. And this decadent zeitgeist is 90% of the good movies in Russian cinema, is it good or bad? It's sad. To live with wolves is to howl like wolves.
The cast was also pleased. Evgeny Tkachuk perfectly got used to the role, keeping the middle. He did not replay and vice versa, did not cause doubts in ' audacity and repulsion' the main character. Vitka Garlic is an aggressive and inflated simple orphanage guy with his wife and child, evading all responsibility. All he needs is money, a free hut and a juicy girlfriend. The silver is the silver. It has long been customary to see him in such films and as such characters. This is a few words criminal with a stone face, earned alcoholic epilepsy. Secondary characters also hold the bar.
The moral of the film is not there. The film is simply a reflection of reality. Embarrassed by the motivation of the protagonist in saving the hated father. More like impulsive adrenaline heroism, it's inexplicable selflessness for a man he hated the whole movie. Perhaps this is the moral - a father is a father, but the choice he made in the end is left to the imagination of the viewer.
In general, the continuation of ' Balabanovsk school', except that even more rigid and with hopeless characters. In spirit, the film can be put in line with Bykov’s paintings of recent years. If you are tired of them or do not like them, then you should definitely not watch them. And if it is, it is necessary to watch.
It’s better than the yard gansta-rep. But the same thing.
Banal and template plot and theme. But wonderful acting and camera work.
(Note that I was in Moscow in the 90s.) But I never lived in Russia. And I am annoyed, template movie images, ' Russian criminal world', because they seem absolutely far-fetched and fake.
I would like to advise viewers with similar perceptions. Fast forward to the music tracks. If you don’t like the music, the movie isn’t much better.
What saves is that the actors in Russia are much more interesting than the rappers! Good and convincing, Eugene Tkachuk, who played Vitka. Natural and interesting actors in passing roles. Evaluating the actors who played elderly cronies is difficult. I don’t believe in the existence of such things in reality.
Interesting camera work.
Notwithstanding these merits. From the point of view of the plot - template and banal manly whining with vodka, tattoos and turnips. A connection is made between the old prison (and rather cinematic), noble romance. And modern unbridled-aggressive, intimate, street life from reper songs. (Ostensibly nothing else in Russia shines.) I didn't have a file. And such an infantile and harmful nonsense.
The nature of the film is unclear. I still feel like it was too late to finish. Or they took some template film and, without going into morality, remade more qualitatively.
This is the student work of a young director. In this case, it is justified.
But if what gansta-repers sing about is a reality for you... then watching can even be useful.
The theme of children who grew up without parents is rarely central to cinema. The reason, most likely, is its delicacy and the total complexity of the meaning that the authors will convey to the viewer. In any case, it is not difficult to understand that a person whose childhood was deprived of parental care, warmth and love, can become hardened by character and soul. This happened to the main character, in whose life the hated man suddenly returned, in the criminal drama “How Vitka Garlic drove Lekha Shtyr to the disabled house.”
Former orphanage 27-year-old Viktor Chesnokov works at a waste processing plant dreams of escaping from his unloved wife and son and starting a new life with his mistress Lariska. One day fate gives him such a chance when his criminal father, now confined to a wheelchair, returns to his life. Vitka decides to pull off a scam, handing over a disabled father in a God-forgotten boarding school, and to leave his father's apartment. However, Vitka did not suspect that the road to the disabled home would be full of unexpected discoveries and deadly dangers.
In this vein, it should be noted the stunning duet of Evgeny Tkachuk and Alexei Serebryakov. Tkachuk, in principle, is one of the most promising young Russian actors who play, rather than show off on screen. Here, the actor perfectly got used to the image of the classic gopnik Vitk Chesnok, a 27-year-old guy, a former orphanage, accustomed to living according to the principles of “First I do, then I think” or “If you do not like something, immediately hit the bells.” His character is simply not capable of showing love, and therefore the imaginary race for the cherished happiness only turns into additional problems. Serebriakov perfectly got used to the image of the hardened criminal Lekha Shtyr, who, probably, in principle, is not capable of showing any feelings, only on the verge of life and death found in the depths of that remnant of fatherly love, which contributed to at least some reconciliation.
Some may think that “How Vitka Garlic Driving Lech Styr to the Home of the Disabled” is a typical sentimental drama about the awakened feelings between father and son. However, I assure you that there is no place for sentiment here, because this is a classic male movie in the style of the 90s with a touch of our time. Hunt paints a world recognizable by the domestic viewer, where love and sincerity simply do not exist. People here are used to lying to themselves, forcing them to live according to the foundations simply because everyone has lived and still lives like this. In the midst of all this, a drama unfolds, in which there is a mutual hatred between a guy who has hardened himself through years of suffering and without love, and an adult man who seems in principle incapable of expressing feelings. True, in a long thorny path, something begins to wake up, but the harsh past of one of the heroes, those very cartoon images of “brothers”, which here look really frightening, because they are used to solving problems only with a knife blade, interferes here. As a result, the story of the heroes also ends quite dryly, only as if hinting at a ray of light in this serene darkness.
The story takes place in a small provincial Russian town. In the center of attention is a 27-year-old Gopnik named Viktor Chesnokov, who received the nickname “Garlic” from childhood times. Vitya himself is an extremely callous and cruel person who does not care about the feelings of relatives and friends. He does not love his wife, and certainly does not have any fatherly feelings for his little son. His usual daily routine is working at a waste processing plant, drinking in a local diner and “shura-mura” with his mistress Lariska. Vitka dreams of escaping from his family and even applies to the bank for a mortgage loan, but for obvious reasons is refused. Here, for no reason, the long-forgotten father of a criminal, who abandoned Victor and his mother when he was still a child, is announced. Note here is the dilemma: the father left the zone disabled, and if he is handed over to a special boarding school, then Victor as the legal heir will get his father’s apartment, where the hero will finally be able to build his long-awaited “happiness”. The main character decides to pull off his plans, but on the way the father comes to his senses and pulls out a hidden gun, setting the condition that he agrees to go to the disabled house if Vitek helps him finish some business. It so happens that these cases are closely related to the criminal past of Lehi Shtyr (that is the name of his father), which puts the heroes in a deadly situation.
The result of “How Vitka Garlic drove Lech Shtyr to the disabled house” is actually a noteworthy domestic picture. It is noteworthy that it lacks pretentious sentimentality and deliberate morality. The main characters grew up in cruelty, and their paths will eventually cross with the world of cruelty. But it is in these conditions that the characters finally begin to appreciate what they have, including the short time they have been together.
The story of how the “gopnik” became the main character
“Well, why are you clinging to life? What the fuck do you want? You're half dead! What do you think someone needs?
As with this phrase the plot begins – the journey of the main characters, Vitka-Garlic and Lehi Shtyr, to the far reaches of the Russian expanses in order to search for the very “home of the disabled”, so with this epigraph I begin my narrative about this film, not so much positive, but also not at all negative. Just nothing.
Let's start with the plot. The main character, who is known for the typical inhabitant of the district in a provincial town of Russia, namely Vitka Chesnok, who spent 12 years in an orphanage, is clearly dissatisfied with his life. He was insulted by his wife, to whom, by the way, he never experienced sublime feelings, and the child, who turned out to be an accident in the lives of both parents, ceased to be something important at all - in the film he is shown only in a couple of scenes. Detached from his displeasure with the help of alcohol, senseless fights and sexual relations, he harbors a small dream - as soon as possible to get rid of all these everyday torments and own his own apartment to start a different life. And kind of trying to make this dream come true, making a trip to the bank for a loan, where he is of course denied. At this point, the hero could be hammered to forget about the bright future, but suddenly, like snow on his head, the news about the appearance of his father in the city falls! Even more heated situation when Vitka learns that his poor, sick relative has the same cherished apartment.
I will say right away – for me, the film initially caused misunderstandings and disappointments. Why are heroes so one-sided and trivial in their behavior? In their dialogues and actions there is no reasonable explanation, only groundlessness (conversations of the hero with his new mistress or with a companion, what is it at all?). Only occasionally, Vitya says the truth to his wife, then to his father, with a typical hit, “What the fuck are you doing?”
And the secondary characters were not revealed to the end – what kind of people took Leha Shtyr and tried to execute him? For past sins or at the request of Chesnokov? What happened to the nurse Larisa, who told the secret about the apartment? Why did she still help pack things for the disabled?
Usually, such inefficiencies and open endings allow themselves films in the style of “art house”. But where is at least some art here? In base instincts and obscene expressions for no reason? Well, the share of morality in the picture is still present, a kind of formation of personality - after all, Viktor Chesnokov, who, by the way, exactly repeats the fate of his father, and he hates him since childhood, eventually comes to the true path, finding salvation in forgiveness. He breaks this vicious circle of unhappy families in the offspring of the Chesnokovs (Hopefully).
No one will ever be happy, having a secret resentment against their parents and blaming them for all their sins. It happened to you.
To justify my first impression, this picture is the debut of Alexander Hunt. Which means the picture isn't so bad in terms of that fact. When I had to review it a second time, I began to notice the positive aspects, less and less rejecting the work of the director.
First, the acting of the main characters. I didn’t get a chance to think they were fakes. These are real people, just caught in the camera. It happens.
Second, musical accompaniment. These authentic tracks, popular on the Internet among young people, have done their job – complementing the image of the main Gopnik, they played an important role in understanding the plot. What is the soundtrack of the Husky “Panelka”?
Thirdly, the transmission of the picture of what is happening and professional transitions of personnel. I once read the opinion that bright and acidic colors give comicality to everything that happens in the film. And I began to notice that these bright yellow fields, a screaming red car and clothes Vitka with green stripes cause a smile. She also noted interesting changes in episodes, when the director begins to focus on details, for example, a picture of a child on the wall, where Vitka-father is painted detached from the whole world, flying in emptiness.
In short, you begin to reassure yourself that everything is not so bad.
In this regard, I want to summarize for myself:
1 Never jump to conclusions about paintings, especially on emotional grounds! First of all, you need to weigh everything and put it on shelves, and it is better to watch the film 2nd time. Then you can talk about something.
2 – When creating your own film, pay attention not only to the director who can enjoy his presence with the help of shots and musical arrangements, but also to the poor screenwriter who hides in the far corners of the hero’s subconscious. So that the film was with meaning, and not just like that.
5 out of 10
It so happened in our culture that good Russian literature and good Russian cinema are, for the most part, works in the style of Russia for the sad. A small man in the millstones of the system, widespread disunity and indifference, everyday hell and other things. To be honest, I'm pretty tired of it. Try to list the good or at least good Russian films of recent years. What do you think? “Fool” Bykov, “Dislike” Zvyagintsev, “Arrhythmia”, “Text” ... Different films, different authors, but the aura plus or minus the same – no positive, all black, the cruel realities of Russian reality, Russian fatalism, self-digging and other Russian “joys of life”.
When I heard the title “How Vitka Garlic drove Lech Styr to the disabled house”, I immediately made a note in my memory – I need to watch this film. I always try to watch movies from scratch, without reading reviews and synopsis, without watching trailers, so as not to clog the perception of others' opinions. I knew absolutely nothing about the film. And the name, frankly, hinted if not at the Buddy Movi comedy, then at least at the road Movie. I was hoping to see something interesting and positive.
I don’t like the movie because it didn’t meet my expectations. When I realized that I was watching another heavy film about Russia, I was a little disappointed (not the film, but the collapse of my hopes), but I watched the film honestly. I admit, it wasn't easy. There are too many such provincial blacks in our everyday life: people who are distraught from hard life and hopelessness, goats, drunkards, convicts, complete devastation of social spheres, street children, whom their end parents launch into the same damn wheel. So you want to get away and watch a good movie. Why do we make a good movie in Russia? That’s right, about the reality from which you want to rest.
In short, you want to go to the Russian field, fall on your knees in the rye, spread your arms and shout a rhetorical question into the cloudy sky: why, why should we in Russia not shoot a good, easy, positive film without vodka, obscurity, toilet jokes and homage to Gorky and Dostoevsky?
Okay, this is not a claim to a particular movie, just a cry of the soul. It's empty. Why didn’t I like another black woman movie so much, even though I appreciated The Fool and other similar movies? Because of its ideological content and the messages that the author put in. In fact, Vitka Garlic and the Bull Fool live in the same environment – the bottom of a provincial town, where surviving people descend and degrade along with all the surrounding infrastructure. However, the Fool is the Fool who, in spite of everything, tries to change at least something. Vitka Garlic is its complete opposite. He's like a fish in the water. Behind the orphanage, during the day the factory, in the evening a loafer in a local burp, fights and drunken hookup with a local marama wash. At home - an unloved wife, a hated mother-in-law and an unwanted child in a cramped Soviet apartment.
The peak of his ambition is to take out a loan (which he is not going to repay) and escape from his wife to a separate hut with his mistress. And then he appears – the Silver Man (yes, the same one who in all films eats vodka buckets and roams around the camps). The man-Serebriakov turns out to be the father of Vitka, who was such a typical Russian father: he beat his mother, left his family, regularly went to rest in the zone. A respectable man, in general. By his grace, Garlic thundered in an orphanage, and now the father appeared in his life in a new status: with a disability and a hut that can be squeezed.
In fact, this becomes the main motivation of Vitka Garlic - what else to expect from a person so insignificant. Then the heroes go on a journey – physical and metaphysical. Physically, Garlic is lucky to take the Prick to the same disabled home. Metaphysically, heroes must also go through a certain path of development, for this is how dramaturgy works. Most often, according to the results of the journey, the hero experiences a certain catharsis, or at least makes some conclusions. In fact, for me personally, the main drawback of the film is precisely those changes that occur in the worldview of Garlic. He met with his folder and made sure that he was a selfish scum. He watched all the treshak and clearly appreciated all the charms of criminal romance. And so, personally, I entertained a small hope that at least after such a high-aged idiot would still think of comparing his life with the life of his father. It may come to him that while he is complaining about his orphanage past and bad folder, his own son is abandoned in front of his healthy father. Perhaps painful memories of his father’s brutish attitude toward his mother will make him think about his attitude toward women? Perhaps a pathetic, stinking nothingness in the form of a father will make him think about the direction he has chosen in his life? No. Vitka really wakes up tender feelings - only not for his son, not for his wife, and not even for his mistress. Who, then? Guess it once.
What's this movie about? About the "apple from an apple"? About the Russian continuity of generations? Or that there is no hope and all is lost? If so, there is some logic to this story. But the author, as I understand it, saw it quite differently. Many critics wrote about “a touching journey through modern Russia”. It’s about “forgiveness and rethinking our values.”
And you know what? To hell with Rus. To hell with those values.
For a novice director, the first job is extremely important. And as a rule, it is often ' raw' and unfinished. Along with the rest of the newcomers around the planet, Alexander Hunt was also very nervous, doubtful, and wanted to make it happen. Which is actually normal. And given that the crew had almost no training, the young director and not envy. The more pleasant surprise is that the film of a recent VGIKovets looks not just bold, but precisely experienced and skillful. After all, the theme chosen by the creators is not easy in itself. The relationship between father and son, who do not have special feelings for each other, against the background of modern provincial Russia. Wrapped in a road movie. We don't have that kind of movie. The picture takes its naturalness, and reliability. The dialogues are mainly based on the current, courtyard jargon. Expressed which is a huge mass 'bad-community', it seems in every second region of the country. Many episodes carry songs of the appropriate direction. There's about 20 in total! For good or bad, this amount of music is up to everyone. It's on the amateur.
Young Hunt's unexpected maturity is reflected throughout the film. It does not bother him that the plot does not pour bright events. But looking at the screen with boredom is not necessary. History does not go completely into any genre. Depriving yourself of the sin of becoming too hard, soft, or funny. ' Vitka garlic ...' holds exactly ' Director' level to the final credits. And they all have their own way to each other. Everyone has the right to think of it in their own way. It doesn't slide entirely into tearful lyrics with a happy ending. It's a very controversial movie. But alive. Including an interesting operator.
Despite all these advantages, ideal criticism of journalists (as in this case) without a cool acting, would not be worth waiting. Rarely will you see in our cinema such a strong harmonious existence of the duo in the frame. A.Serebryakov is consistently expectedly good in the role 'Lyohi Styrya'. A great artist, able to really pull any task. But Zhenya Tkachuk (playing Vitka garlic itself) became a real discovery for many. The exact hit in the image in which he came out on the set. Over facial expressions, movements, manners and jokes, you can laugh long after watching. How can you believe in that tracksuit that he's not a dormitory bum? Even the throw of a nut at his next ' hit' looks natural. Also very valuable is the participation of the excellent Soviet director A. Smirnov. The director of the well-known 'Belarusian railway station', plays only with his daughter Dunya. Well, or Zvyagintsev himself.
It is very important to find your viewer. With this film, the audience grew every week. We can say that ' Vitka garlic...' went with his phrases and scenes to the people. Many thanks to the production center 'VGIK-debut' for trusting A. Khant. It is not known whose idea, decision, or approval was to leave the right of editing for the director too, but these most frenzied phrases as ' She is my bride', ' Your eggs came ' or extended 'Pazaaan' Lehi Stick - we probably wouldn't have seen it. Few Russian paintings a hundred copies collects 5.6 million rubles. Just like our content with similar capabilities and budget ($400,000), it hits the American box office! Any domestic director can only dream of conquering such peaks with his debut. Adding to them a prestigious award in the Czech Karlovy Vary, and other international festivals.
After awarding 23 prizes to the film, Hunt was less ashamed that he was hiding behind the camera, not knowing the answers to Serebriakov’s questions. Which, according to rumors, worked for free!! And to find answers to the questions of the crew members, the director is obliged. No one knows more about a painting and its characters than its author. It is said in any film school in the world at the first lecture. Obviously, most of the viewers who have seen this movie are waiting for his next project 'Interseason' Interesting story on real events, with young non-professional faces. I wish him luck again and that the tape is of the same high quality.
Special thanks for the scene when 'bad boy' sisters get away with friends on Lada 2114. Gopnik car. I wish they had opened the trunk. It would clearly be packed with autosound, the price of which would exceed this 'Car'. This is the mirror of small towns today! Movies end differently. Sometimes a song or song in the finale. Oddly enough, but this detail affects the overall impression. The last drop can leave at least a small, but precipitation. And if the song hits you, after a moment of relief, there is satisfaction. The belief that... It is hardened like steel.
Watch Russian cinema. Trust the newcomers. They're often lucky. Although in this case, it is still in a quiet, modest word - skill.
8 out of 10
The plot is as follows: the main character, Vitka Chesnokov ' Garlic', an ex-children's homeowner, lives in a provincial city, trying to get a loan for an apartment and get rid of his wife, mother-in-law and son. One day a police officer comes to work with a message that his father, Leha & #39; Styry & #39, is in the city and offers to go to him. During the visit, the main character learns that his father has become disabled, but Vitya refuses to take care of him. The next day, he receives information that he can get his father’s apartment by renting it to a disabled home and does not want to refuse the given chance and collects documents for his father’s departure. After that, the main character takes his hated parent and goes with him to his destination.
1. Actors:
Eugene Tkachuk perfectly embodied the image ' Provincial Gopnik' Vitki Garlic: manner of speech, emotions, behavior - impeccable work. And you're really sitting there, believing that an actor is a gopnik who lives in your neighborhood. Anyway, Bravo Zhenya, great game. And of course, it is impossible not to say about Alexei Serebryakov, we all know how he is able to show an excellent acting and this film is no exception, well presented himself in the image of a jailed criminal, Lekha Shtyr, who, due to his relationship with his relatives, remained useless to anyone.
2.directing work:
Alexander Hunt, together with his team, did a great job, which is visible in every detail. To begin with, what immediately catches the eye - these are bright acid colors. The depressive atmosphere is diluted with such tones that betrays the entourage of this film and there is a feeling of absurdity of what is happening. The next point is the news coverage of the arrest of criminals, which also shows how everyone is involved in crimes. And of course, I want to praise the operator, who found interesting, for the eyes, angles: a close-up of the faces of the characters of the film, mise-en-scene.
3. Musical accompaniment:
Most of the tracks personify the inner world of the protagonist, his thoughts. A great example of the film language. Compositions ' Husky' pleased with their presence, and most importantly, that they were in the theme.
Summing up, we can say that this author's film is an excellent road movie on our realities with an open finale, which gives the viewer a lot of space for reflection. It is a pity that in our country very rarely something travels like this movie. From me
In general, I watched 'How I stopped being afraid and fell in love with Leha Shtyr'.
It was an interesting experience. The film was both worse and better than I expected. At least it was not a simple road movie, which I expected from the picture.
It seems that if the film industry as a whole is not doing well in our country, then everything is definitely good with at least one thing in the art of cinema: with the cameramen. The movie is stupidly beautiful. God, thank you for the resourcefulness and creativity of everyone who had a hand in the visual of the film. All these divine general plans, panoramas, camera movements (when there was shooting from top to bottom while the car was driving down the road vertically upwards, it is incomparable), all this literally deserves a separate reward. But it's not that simple.
The worst part of the film is its first third, which tells the life of Garlic and generally makes an exhibition. All the characters shown in the first third of the film (that is, before the promised in the title began to happen - before Garlic began to carry the Pits), grotesque and kitschy. That the Glavger, that all his surroundings is either an attempt to make a comedy, or an attempt to deceive the viewer. For a long time I could not understand in what years the film takes place, and only stylish sneakers Glavge-I made it clear that the screen is not the nineties. Village life, boys, wife-creature, hero-moron, yes, I already understood that the hero is cattle and lives among cattle, why try so hard? In short, it was much simpler and shorter, especially considering that the last two-thirds are never like comedy, but rather dramatic.
The second problem of the film is the strange decision of the antagonists in the climactic scene. It's just silly, real people like the antagonists in this movie would never do that. Everything is fine, but the scene is key.
The third and main problem of the film is the soundtrack. It wouldn’t be a problem if the creators didn’t noticeably count on it. ' Patimaker' and Mushrooms are a special level of misplaced stool. I understand that whether I want to express myself with musical taste, or I want to do it authentically, but in the end it turned out just bad and rural, at the level ' Bitter & #39;. It was not the cattle in the frame, but the sound of the film. The huskies in this film just sound silly, albeit authentic, but that’s probably because he reads on serious scales, not as the author of the “Patimaker” & #39; or Mushrooms. But the worst of all is not them, the worst is the song ' I'll be there' bands None of your business. No more inappropriate music can be imagined. And if she's playing in the middle of the movie is bad, then she's playing in the end of the most intense and important moment of the movie - it's super bad. The feeling that instead of music in a very dramatic and serious moment just put a record of liquid flatulence. Maybe it was a joke. Like 'Damn, and let's turn on some slag at the end, that'll be hilarious!'
For the efforts, the picture and the unexpected drama
8 out of 10
The film disappointed. Not “I didn’t like it,” but rather disappointed. I watched the first third with great attention. The magic of the movie worked and I sympathized with the main character. The scene where Vitka picks up the mount became for me the most emotionally intense moment of the film. I'll remember the movie for her. After that, everything fell apart.
I'll explain.
Vitka is a scumbag and son of a scumbag. His life is the quintessence of manifestations of the lowest human qualities. The scumbag Vitka whole and deliberate, quite conscious villain (albeit a small spill, but a villain). He understands and accepts himself as he is. That's why charisma is a kind of "clockwork orange" with Chertanovo.
Aware of himself and his past, Vitka makes it clear to us why he is. And who am I, with my full-fledged childhood without beatings or suicides, to moralize him? I accept his nature, believe him and everything that unfolds on the screen, paying no attention to the weak play of the supporting actors and minor flaws of the plot. I believe until the most cherished moment with mounting.
But the clock strikes midnight and the carriage turns into a pumpkin. After talking to Vitka and Lehi in the woods, I woke up from a cinematic dream, paused the film and asked myself “what was this pancake now?” At one point, all the shortcomings of the plot and the ill-considered dialogues manifested themselves with such force that you do not look any further. I, quite predictably, did. The strength of the impressions was equal in module, but opposite in sign. Disappointment and frustration.
Part of the story is that if you’re an experienced killer and you need to kill two people in cold blood again without getting caught, you’re not going to separate them, thus doubling your chances of unforeseen circumstances and weakening your position; etc. Partly in the dialogue - given the plot plot, Vitka simply must be able to explain his words in the scene with the bandit, or he would simply not rush, acknowledging his lower place in the rigid hierarchy of the structure, which he is well aware of, judging by his party; Lehino "for what?" in general killed - "Nothing, kid, and you know it perfectly well"; well, etc. However, the most important failure in my opinion is that the director did not master the image of the inner transformation of the main character. And the reason for this is one - in the circumstances presented, transformation is impossible.
Transformation is impossible because nothing leads to it. Vitka himself is not going to change. After all, we have a man capable in a sober mind of deliberately killing his biological father for the sake of material values. Moreover, within himself he commits it (the archetypal emotions of paricide and a strong scene in the forest). The ability to empathy for Vitka was not noticed - he is absolutely indifferent to his own son (if he beat him - it would be better for the plot), and therefore it is not clear why he suddenly imbues Leha with filial feelings when the second family rejects him. He doesn't even have the kind of fond memories Leha has. One darkness before Vitka. And he walks into it with a hedgehog.
For me, do not make the director an application for the psychologicalism of the film, but stop at the level of Guy Ritchie’s “Big Kush”, everything would be much better. Or let Vitka already kill Leha, hide, and then, drowning in decomposition, accidentally recognizes him as a strong family man. And from this shock, the assemblage point will shift and the legs of internal transformation will grow. It's neither. They put a gun on the wall, and take it, and sag the whole movie. Somewhere Dostoevsky is sad and does not believe Stanislavsky.
The film is saved by the wonderful play of the main actors and an open finale without moralizing, as if the director, finishing the picture, realized the salvificity of this artistic tool in the current situation.
This film is definitely doomed to widespread success with a simple and inexperienced audience not only in Russia, but in general as an imported fairy tale for other countries.
Not to say that this work has some keys to understanding the era of the 90s in Russia. The context of some evil events here is more to contrast with the general unassuming fabulousness of what is happening. Comparisons with the amazingly authentic and powerful film ' Alien' where the main role was played by the same Eugene Tkachuk, this picture will not stand very well. Comparison with the now fashionable Yuri Bykov, who shoots low-social horror stories, will stand quite well, and the comparison will not be in favor of Bykov, because the film about Vitka Garlic is much lighter and encouraging for the viewer.
If you remove the context of the 90s that is convenient for all sorts of parodies, you will get a calculated production film that shamelessly exploits people’s craving for bright and kind fairy tales about eccentrics with a big heart. The legs of such a movie do not grow from any complex contexts and their problems, but from a galaxy of fairy tales with a joyful and kind of suffering happy ending. Their name carries numbers, and they are all of course hits: ' Pretty Woman' with Julia Roberts, a French hit '1+1' where an Algerian from the slums returns the joy of a simple life to a rich disabled person, ' Toy' where Pierre Richard as a fool returns the joy of life to a child, ' Madam Maid' with Jennifer Lopez, well, and of course everyone is necessarily beloved 'Knocking through to the sky' Where a simple guy shows how to have fun before he dies.
There is nothing wrong with such a movie, but it is sure to be called incredibly intelligent and soulful, simply because it touches on the kind of complex problems that are visible in life at every bus stop.
There is nothing wrong with the fact that the director-debutant simply in fact decided to shoot a huge video for the songs of his favorite band & #39; Not your business & #39; and various modern rap pieces, otherwise scoring on the nuances of the plot and in principle not much interested in them. The plot in general can be cut off in a half-word in each scene, and where it is frankly not invented. The main thing here is that the mood of a kind and slightly disturbing musical is correctly conveyed to the viewer, who, like a child, will say: 'Yes, exactly, and this does not happen. '
Now, two years after the premiere of Alexander Hunt’s debut film with an unsound and long title “How Vitka Garlic Driving Lech Shtyr to the Home of the Disabled”, when the enthusiastic noise around him calmed down, it is time to talk to him objectively and understand what he so pleased both critics and the general public. In contrast to the acute social reflection of the Bull, there is no explosive filling in Garlic, this is a private story told in a human way warmly, with a soul, and with great skill.
It is virtuoso directing that is the main thing that unites the debuts of Akopov and Hunt, that mature possession of the audience’s attention, that ability to build a narrative without lacunae, that high artisticity of each frame and episode, which is now not even in the masters of cinema (directors-masters shredded and often work over their sleeves, without caring about the viewer). These two debutants gave their all, because they knew that if their first pictures do not pay attention, the second films they will not make.
Unlike the demystifying gloom of the Bull, Vitka Garlic leaves a bright, grace-filled impression after watching: it does not attack illusions, does not criticize anyone, but the ironic, mocking intonation, a good sense of “black humor” brightens up even the most joyless episodes. Hunt turns the brutality of the criminal theme inside out, while achieving comic effect, but without banter, satire and grotesque. Except for "Garlic" except that in "Arrhythmia" the life of the province appeared in all the artlessness of everyday survival. Hunt is not the author of the script, the more amazing how well he grew up with him, how organically he took it, as his own, as his brainchild.
It seems that the standard story of the awakening of kinship feelings in father and son (which sentimental Hollywood loves so much) is solved by Hunt without clichés, with unusual fabulous twists, freshly, in a new way, even with some Buñuelian girl. Major rap, sounding throughout the film, as strange as it does not add to his pathos, but on the contrary ironically reduces the appearance of the characters, full of conceit, but in fact – pathetic. How the debutant got Tkachuk and Serebryakov, it is difficult to say (maybe they liked the script), but the result exceeded all expectations.
If in the “Bull” the unpretentious physiognomy of novice actors work on the idea of demythologizing the 90s, then the faces of venerable actors in “Garlic” together with authentic crumbling penniless interiors and natural views create a multi-level tragicomic mosaic of Russian anarchy, where even microfinance organizations get a kick from the director. The tragicomedy of life in Russia, survival in a giant territory, where the authorities have withdrawn from control of the situation (all these floods, fires and accidents that do not come off the news screens, don’t they testify to this?) – this is what Hunt cares about in the first place, however, he does not want to create a panorama like Zvyagintsev, Khlebnikov or Bulls.
He does not read morals, does not condemn and does not preach – this is rare in our cinema, when a well-coordinated and directed film contains no other tasks than artistic. We can say, at the risk of running into surprise, that "Garlic" is pure art for the sake of art, the director loves the very procedure of the story so much, the situations and heroes shown by him look so juicy, colorful. Even the seemingly implied morality that you should not leave your parents in infirmity is presented by Hunt so carefully, so deeply hidden in subtext that it does not cut your eyes and does not excite even the hipster-immoralists, whose positive reviews of the film are full of the Internet.
“Vitka Garlic...”, like “The Bull,” does not speculate on the bandit theme, but uses it as a tool for completely different artistic tasks than justifying or debunking Nietzscheanism and the cult of power. If “The Bull” is a mathematical movie, a theorem that ruthlessly unfolds its logic, then “Vytka Garlic...” is a ballad about human warmth and the power of kinship, deploying the narrative concept unobtrusively, carefully, so as not to injure the viewer. In any case, both these debuts deserve the attention of sinophiles, because they are made at the highest professional level, rare not only for debutants, but also for masters of cinema, both Russian and foreign, who love to rest on their laurels and receive awards.
Hunt and Borodachev made a classic story, told how written about the formation of the hero. If you think the story has an open end, are you still on your way? Russian reality is only the scenery for the textbook presentation of the story by Campbell. History for all time, for any part of the world. The main thing was not to deliver a splash... They informed me, patiently informed me, and gave me the opportunity to live this hero’s path again, with new faces and characters. And at the end, that's your inner hero. As for me, the award was not only found by Vitka.
Plot: The boy Vitka Garlic (Eugene Tkachuk) has a disabled father with alcoholic epilepsy, Leha Styr (Alexei Serebryakov). Father at one time left Vitka with his mother. Mother could not stand it and Vitek spent many years in an orphanage. Hence, a fierce hatred for a lying father. But then it turns out that the father has an apartment and Vitka it is not superfluous. The adventures of Vitka and Lehi begin on the way to the disabled home.
I watched the movie and read the reviews. I conclude that some films have meaning for everyone.
And for me the meaning is: Vitka for his hatred does not notice that he is a copy of his father. In the same way, almost already abandoned by Vitka are his wife and son, the same way of life, except that he has not yet sat. And the desire to quickly surrender my father to the home of the disabled, also says a lot. And even in the course of road adventures it turns out that no one needs both of them, only Vitka Chesnok has not yet realized that this is the same ' unnecessary' and applies to him.
You can argue for a long time that Vitka has a reason to hate his father and do this to him, and then the question arises: what then is Vitka Garlic different from Lehi Styr?
As I watch the movie, there are 2.5 minutes left in the scrolling lane, and I ask myself, is this really the way it will be? Or not? Or is Vitka Garlic somehow different from Lehi Styr? Here the director reserves the right for the viewer to think independently.
Actor duo Alexei Serebryakova and Evgeny Tkachuk in this film I consider very successful. Two actors are so similar that you wonder, maybe in life they are father and son?
9 out of 10
I love completeness, but I highly recommend watching. By the way, Serebriakov and Tkachuk are not relatives after all.
In one small town, a former orphanage Vitya (Eugene Tkachuk) lived and lived: a guy worked at a garbage processing plant, after work he drank and rested culturally with friends in a local tavern, cheated on his unloved wife, did not deal with his son... And then suddenly appeared in Viti father (Alexei Serebriakov) – a former criminal recidivist Shtyr, and now semi-paralyzed disabled. The only plus in the appearance of his father is an apartment, and to get it, Vitya decides to hand over the hated parent - the culprit of the death of his mother and his orphanage childhood to the disabled house.
Road Movie in the Russian hinterland becomes for the main character a journey to himself and, as the plot develops from under ' husks' antisocial and psychopathic type (at the beginning of the film, Tkachuk’s character reminded me of another of his characters from the picture ' Winter Way'); a normal person begins to curse. This is seen by the viewer, and, most importantly, felt by Vitya himself.
First of all, this ornately named film is interesting for the acting works of E. Tkachuk and A. Serebryakov. At the same time, if the changes that occur with the character of Tkachuk are quite amenable to logical explanation, then with respect to the character of Serebriakov, there was sometimes a feeling that he played two different people, otherwise how to explain these wonderful metamorphoses of a miserable wordless & #39; Vegetable & #39; in a sane and strong person even in his physical weakness.
The sentimentality and nobility of the thief in Plato’s law, played by Andrei Smirnov, also seemed implausible. In general, this image was presented somewhat caricatured: a cutting face angle with one lips; a rustling voice; a huge scar on the neck (must be understood - this is the work of the Shtyr's hands?) Immediately came to mind and the mysterious Chief from the cartoon ' The Adventures of Captain Wrungel' and the thief Luke from ' Brigades' well, of course Marlon Brando from ' The Godfather'.
And also (I won’t spoil it), but to be honest, I was waiting for a different ending. He would, of course, also become fabulous and unlikely. Thought... Maybe if Styr had found the strength to turn to Vitka differently and even a little open to him in his father’s love (and she was in it, it became clear from the scene in the sand quarry), then the film would have ended differently. And so I was missing something, and the end of the picture was a little ' blurred '. Overall, though, it was interesting to watch.