Leningrad Cowboys Go America

One of my favourite films, ever. The idea of a dreadful Soviet rock band flogging their music around the USA appeals to me, especially as I liked the music that was supposed to be so dreadful. The humour is deadpan and droll, much like Kaurismaki himself. Also interesting for an outsiders look at America. Definitely up there in the Top Ten of Finnish Rock Band Road Movies!

This is without question one of the greatest rock and roll movies ever made. It's sort of THE BLUES BROTHERS meets STROSZEK with some MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON thrown in. Aki Kaurismaki has to be admired for making this gutsy and crazy film. There is not much of the European "art film" here, nor is there any real serious social commentary or aesthetic stunts underneath the comedy here either. There is also no condescension toward America or Americans. In fact there is a wide-eyed, dreamy fondness for America, especially its messy landscapes that hug the interstates and its simple, likable working-classes (but definitely not its prick cops). Here we get to meet the immensely likable dreams, music and attire of the Leningrad Cowboys, the misunderstood, maligned, salt of the earth band that comes to America to live out its rock and roll dream. Personally, I simply admire the actors for driving around the American South wearing those fantastic mullet pompadour quiffs and pointy shoes. That takes guts.

Kaurismaki has a special fondness for characters with big dreams but little or misunderstood talent, who can scrape up just enough cash just get by. Here, as in his another of his great comedies, LA VIE DE BOHEME, there are some characters who are unambiguously untalented (in LENINGRAD COWBOYS: the singers; in LA VIE DE BOHEME: the composer) and there are some characters who have some or much, but quirky, or misunderstood talent (in LENINGRAD COWBOYS: the band; in LA VIE DE BOHEME: the painter). All of the performers and artists are immensely likable and amusing and their patrons and audience are just as suspect as they are in their taste, but great to be around nonetheless. Moreover, their detractors are cold, a-hole jerks.

Jim Jarmusch makes a funny cameo as a used car salesman. Matti Pellonpää, probably Kaurismaki's favorite actor, is hilarious as Vladimir, the band's beer slugging, tyrannical manager. I love the scene early in the film where he meets with the New York "cousin" of the Finnish talent scout (who also, by the way, has a "cousin" in Mexico). When the New York band booker tells Vladimir that he needs to hear the band play, Vladimir says, "Is that necessary?"

Anyone who loves rock and roll comedies, weird hairstyles and movies about little people with big dreams need to see this film. If you like Kaurismaki films then you may or may not like this film, depending on how square you are. I say check it out. I think it's one of the funniest films I've ever seen. But then again I have had some crazy hairstyles too.

Reminiscent of some of the best Eastern European comedies, this absurdist Finnish look at the foibles of both Communist and capitalist attempts at reality is not going to change your life, but it is an enjoyable way to spend 79 minutes. A rousing oompah band from a small Eastern European village travel to America to find their fortune. They all have hairdos like Buddy Holly on acid and wear the pointiest-toed shoes you've ever seen. In New York City they buy an old Cadillac and get a gig to play a wedding in Mexico. On the trip there they also travel through rock, blues, country, and mariachi, and meet people almost as strange as themselves. Most memorable moment: Igor, the village idiot, catching up to the band out in the middle of the Texas countryside, carrying a very large fish.

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.

The most politically inclined and intellectual viewer would analyze this movie as a political satire, and they would be right. However, this movie is more enjoyable if seen as a road movie and a look at America through the eyes of a foreigner. Funny and poignant.