Benutzerrezensionen

My Joy is a combination of several stories, centered on a period of the life of a truck driver, who looses his way in the road and comes to some events that ruin his life, leaving him as an insane and mindless man. It is a dark and cold movie, artfully made, concentrating on the wickedness of the people in a society, esp. wickedness which comes from abusing the power mostly among police forces and army men. It also portrays a society in which most people don't care to others and only seek their own interests. We see different periods of times, past and present, and different characters that are woven to each other beautifully. In whole, a very good yet cynical, sad and dark film about human's evil and violence.

No Sergei Loznitsa...it was my joy. In his first fictional feature Loznitsa captures in a Kafka-esque adventure the joys (few they may be) and ills of post-Communist society. It is scathing, funny, horrifying, insightful and everything in between. The writing is impeccable and never dips off or drags for a moment. I watched this film when it was first released and there was no doubt I would watch any and everything Loznitsa would make.

To start with, for direction, cinematography and photography this is a very very beautiful film. The plot tells a tragic story that crosses the trip of a truck driver, a story of violence, moral and material poverty, injustice, corruption, which will involve himself too as a victim.

Certainly one of the best films of the year, MY JOY depicts the journey of a truck driver through contemporary Russia. The journey is full of detours, some of which take in scenes from the past, from 60 years or so ago, in the time of World War Two. In beautiful, lyrical mise-en-scene, the director shows scenes of brutality, rudeness, corruption and violence; this is a poetical portrayal of ugliness... Whether it is intended as a depiction of the brutality of conditions in contemporary Russia, or whether it is intended more as a general portrait of the human condition is not entirely clear to me, but, whatever it is, this is strong, haunting film-making, skillfully depicting a disjointed world of violence and degradation.

Most low reviews are from people claiming they didn't understand the movie, if you didn't understand it, it's your problem man, but giving it a low rate? it's like saying mathematic is a shitty* subject because you can't understand it. ridiculous, these people probably did not like Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros or 21 Grams, which are far more intricate movies. the movie is a Dostoevsky like tale about a man who take a wrong turn and ruins forever his life, showing the miserable and depraved evil that man are capable of. how authoritarian and merciless, and that sometimes the thief or the killer is a better friend than a cop. it also alternates time lines without a hint, which is genius and done in this way to emphasize the movie 'moral'. it's really great if you like depressive art. for me, a sad masterpiece. a movie about how miserable life is. too complicated for some.(IMDb didn't let me write the curses, great.)

First of all, I want to say that the film simply blew me away. This film, Sergei Loznitsa's first feature is not only the best film (and discovery) of the year, but one of the biggest and most important works in cinema of this century.

Before, Loznitsa was a documentary film maker and this effect can be seen in his fiction film. It is not only true and violent, but also very unconventional, different (truly ascetic, and here can be seen influence of Loznitsa's mentor, Robert Bresson), Loznitsa's use of long take is truly remarkable, in Russian cinema, long take has been used very ofter, beginning from Tarkovsky, then Shepitko, Sokurov, Zvyagintsv... but Loznitsa's use is different and unique, he absolutely refuses style (there is no disgusting exploitation of manner, that spoils Zvyagintsev's overrated, stupid and pointless "Vozvrascheniye"), he doesn't have style as a director, the film itself creates its style and language (and trust me, it's much difficult and much remarkable).

And Loznitsa does very bold thing: he destroys notion of deep shot. Yes, Kiarostami shot films with digital camera (as Loznitsa does), but his shot is extremely static and Loznitsa makes very long travelings with hand held camera, what's truly new thing and it also creates a feeling of claustrophobia, of closed circle, of No Exit and it's really conceptual use of primitive cinematic method.

It's extremely difficult film, but it's not art house and it's not the proud film, so called "not for everyone". It IS for everyone, but on the other hand, it should be watched very carefully: consider that you'll be shocked and maybe even depressed but I have one very useful advise: if you decide to watch this TRUE masterpiece, be patient and watch it till the end.

It's really worth it.

Three main issues = (1) Incredibly irritating to follow unless you know beforehand that the movie is composed of a series of short stories from different time periods. What adds to this problem is that the characters are mostly rough looking bearded Russians sometimes shot in dim light, therefore, it's hard to tell when a new character is being introduced or if it's the same rough looking bearded Russian as before. (2) The short stories themselves aren't really stories but a series of violent occurrences. (3) Since the film is not plot driven it must be making some type of statement or social commentary; unfortunately, that statements been made many times before in better fashion.

This is a rich, beautiful, sad film. A really brilliant take on Putin's Russia. As for the critics who think it's a "mess" or doesn't have much to say, "POOH" to them. Again I have to say this: just because you don't understand something doesn't make it a bad work of art. I've noticed a lot of people on this website really lash out at films they don't understand. It doesn't make you look smart, believe me. I don't know if I fully understand what this movie is saying, not being from the Ukraine, but that just makes me want to re-watch this beautifully made film. It obviously isn't for people who need constant action or a Hollywood ending, but I think the world will survive without another film like that.

Regardless of the good casting, acting and camera work, I left at 2/3 of the running time. Same did 20 others before me. Yet, no real exodus was at hand. I left roughly 750 viewers behind, and I did see no restless moves of potential followers. Am I wrong??

The story began as advertised with a truck driver who has a long journey before him. He has to deal with a lot of people underway, all with no good intentions whatsoever. At first that seemed to be the intended framework for this movie: a series of adventures in different areas as building blocks, having the truck driver and his journey as binding element.

However, I got lost after 1 hour. New stories appeared with new people. The common denominator of showing people with bad intentions stayed the main theme throughout, but the connecting truck driver was missing. That got me confused. I am prepared to accept that I may have missed something essential.

Aforementioned main theme was depressing. Maybe there was a happy ending, or some moral to tie it all together. If so I missed it, due to my leaving early. So be it.

I don't think it's a 'social commentary' or a 'statement of the human condition' - it's a mess of a movie made by a potentially very skilled director who seems to get bored with the (admittedly rather boring) storyline and tarts it up in the last 40 minutes with a whole lot of disjointed events which we are left to piece together ourselves, however we may. Perhaps he couldn't think of a sufficiently clever ending and (just the same way as Picasso got bored with doing half-decent paintings) decided to let the New York Art House Set name it to be a work of intellectual brilliance (just in case it actually was). Worth watching for the Ukrainian scenery and faces and for masterful camera-work - but only once unless you want to learn the style.

Very depressive movie. Title is wrong--there is NO joy!! Movie shows Russians as bad people on purpose. People who made this movie obviously hated Russia and Russians. Do NOT waste 2 hours+ the time can be better spent! Seems they requre more about just how bad this loser is so here goes--there really is NO story just jumbled up scenes that don't seem to have any relation ship to each other! You simply can't follow what is happening or what has happened in the past or is it supposed to be flash back? No well known Russian actors or actresses as no self respecting Russian would play in this depressing loser of a film that seems to run great Russian motherland down !!