We were just filming the meager lives of some ordinary kids. Unprofessional director. Outside actors. No script. Camera.
Judging by the interviews of both the participants of the process and the rapper Basta (the composer of the project, however pompous it may sound), the purpose of creating “Unreal casting” was to show the real life of two Rostov guys. The provocative and innovative approach was probably a reflection of the harsh life of ordinary non-capital youth. Valeria Gai Germanika is immediately remembered for some reason, and not only due to the similar style of shooting: the title of each of her films, including short films, clearly indicates the content itself. For example, if we make a series about school, it is called that, and there it will be. In the case of Ruslan Kechedzhyan, it is not the opposite, but somehow different. First you think the movie is about casting and its consequences. Then you just hope that this is something defiant, truthful, giving all the colors of scandalous reality from the screen. You soon realize, no, it's a lot easier. These people don’t know what they’re making a movie about. Oddly enough, there are even obvious outlines of the plot, where love, betrayal, forgiveness, and betrayal are mixed (although in the context shown, the terms sound, again, too high-pitched). The mixture of the “dirty” and “pure” characters in being gradually becomes not something consistent, but a mediocre chaos of reproduced scenes. The actor’s “game” of “naturalness” and “easyness” towards the end seems quite staged. And at some point, all thoughts about the soundness of such an idea fade away: nothing provocative, nothing bold and nothing truthful. The "cool corners" were cowardly bypassed.
“Unreal casting” is also reminiscent of the popular reality show “House 2”: we watch the characters, and they do all sorts of obscenities, find out relationships, are often nervous or in an erotic state, stand before the Important Choice and blah blah blah. Surprisingly, the whole story is forgotten ten minutes after watching. Some details remain in memory, and it becomes difficult to characterize the picture completely. It is sometimes thoughtlessly "stuck", as on "House 2", but neither emotional nor psychological load, neither of them carries. Heroes are equally absolutely indifferent, their problems are fun, but not so much as to have fun, but so as to safely miss.
After the "Unreal casting" Ruslan Kechedzhiyan went further and directed a similar experiment series called "We with Rostov". I suspect he's just as hopelessly bad and indistinct. After all, the canons of cinema are sacred: the script, directing, acting feats, the work of other participants in the shooting ... Can this be replaced by a dubious and scandalous experiment in which the pseudo-documentary approach is not fully disclosed? I’m not saying the movie has zero chance of anyone liking it. And there's a couple of good things about it. However, in general, “Unreal casting” is not giving any clear impression failure on all fronts.
Not fun, not sad, not at all.
2 out of 10