The Trotsky

The Trotsky is a teen-comedy with a hint of Goodbye Lenin's political satire and Charlie Bartlett's humour/plot. Although some of the acting seems mediocre, I enjoyed the film.

You don't need to understand the biography of Leon Trotsky, it explains it in a subtle way that is enough to enjoy the film, but doing research beforehand might be a decent idea.

Don't take this film too seriously, just enjoy it for what it is. It isn't like a normal film, it's sort of a modern teen-comedy about revolting against injustice, although the injustice is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Well-done, worth watching, but only if you have an open mind and enjoy quirky films about adolescent injustice.

Leon Bronstein (Jay Baruchel) is a gawky teen who idolizes Leon Trotsky and wants to unionize his father (Saul Rubinek)'s business. He hounds leftist lawyer Frank McGovern (Michael Murphy) unless he agrees to help. He meets older woman Alexandra Leith (Emily Hampshire). He is convinced that he is the reincarnation of Trotsky and she is Leon's first wife Aleksandra. Mocking his Trotsky reincarnation, his father takes him out of boarding school and put into a Montreal public high school. Principal Berkhoff (Colm Feore) runs a tight ship and they soon become adversaries. Leon needs to find his Lenin and joins the student union. He finds fascism in detention and tries to unionize his high school.

This is chalk full of charm. It's very cute with the awkward Jay Baruchel. He is adorably delusional. He's never annoying even though his character is stubbornly uncompromising. It could use a more comedic touch with the writing. The socialist references may go over most of the general public and it's not wacky enough for one of those crude teen comedies. It doesn't really fall into an easy category and it doesn't help that it is so laden with Canadiana. When it does go into wacky territories, it doesn't really do it in a LOL fashion. However its heart is in the right place and like Alexandra, one can't avoid the Leon storm and accept his insanity.

I went to see the film with no preconceived notions, having read no reviews and seen no previews, other than the one-liner in the newspaper.

I laughed very often during this hour and a half, in a good sense. Maybe it's because I'm an iconoclast, and I love political conversations in general but I thoroughly enjoyed the film, from the very first moment to the very end.

Youth today are often accused of being apathetic and this is a recurring theme here. Other than the fact that the main character seems a bit loopy, he remains adorable and not cartoonish as the other commentator posted.

On comparing this teenage flic with others, as a mature adult, I must say I liked this 10x more than even the best teenage flics, save one or two, such as Juno. The director refrains from delving TOO deeply in politics and drama, BECAUSE it's a teen flic. IMO the exact right amount of political insight was included.

Other than the main character, we get to see a distinct progression in the students' level of interest and involvement in their own destinies. This, even more than apathy, may be our society's greatest challenge, to allow youth to take part in the political game, in order that youth may sense that there IS hope for our future.

I read some really bad reviews of this movie before going to see it. In the end, I liked it better than I thought I would. However, a lot of the political humour is very basic and wouldn't make sense to people with more than a passing knowledge of communism, activism, etc.

However, as a teen comedy, not to be taken seriously as a political film, it works very well for the most part. A lot of the scenes, acting, and one-liners are quite funny.

Some of the acting done by secondary characters is not really up to par. Even Leon's character or that of his co-stars (his parents, principal, would-be wife, etc.) tend to be one-dimensional. I think this film could have been improved by occasional moments of self-reflection or doubt. As it is, Leon's character tends to come across as a quirky cartoon a lot of the time.

Still, as a light form of amusement, it works quite well.

I watched "The Trotsky" for Jay Baruchel and I'm not disappointed - his acting is great. He's funny and smart at the same time and he can deliver these qualities in a pretty good way. This is a strong side of that movie but here's a weak one - the scenario is too flat and too overextended.

Idea is pretty simple, movie could be more hilarious and less pretentious but director lost that chance.

There isn't a lot of political stuff because story focused mostly on one guy, his behavior and way of thinking, which is very well-played by Jay Baruchel.

For me, as Russian, all that pseudo-Soviet stuff in the movie is okay however there's just a small bunch of real Soviet artifacts with no any meaning or explanation to watcher and I wonder if they can decode what all these songs or posters or what radio voiceovers mean.