Tilt

As a coincidence I was at the age of the those guys on 1989 when the regime change happened in Bulgaria. I am sorry but my own life and the lives of many of my friends were much more interesting and dramatic than this movie characters'.

Starting from the title - Tilt has the usual Bulgarian movie title of at least 3rd 4th level of abstraction.

Boring story, so straightforward, nothing original. The love story shown within 2 minutes in sooo cliché-way succeeded with that typical sex scene in the locker room. Hey, we've seen love stories and sex scenes. This was far weak to be a basis for the rest of the movie.

Dialogs are so difficult to hear and understand and this not because of some original language, it is because of the majority of the actors just cannot act. The main character is boring, his mates are boring, the girl is boring. I remembered none of the names of the characters.

And they must be kidding by proposing this as a nominee for Oscar awards.

I was led to believe that the last few years have marked a new beginning for the Bulgarian cinema since a series of TV shows and movies have been produced and the media mainstreamed the improved acting and directing. Being disappointed of what i saw during the last 10 years I respectfully decided to give this one a chance.

On the plus side I have to admit that acting have improved, but just a very tiny step forward has been made. The performance of Baharov and Georgi Staykov were satisfactory. There are a few funny moments as well - especially the poor German translation from one of the house mates in the house in Germany. As far as I can recall this ends the advantages.

The main flaw of this movie is the clear continuation of a script lacking any challenge for the viewer, which is the main issue of the last 20 years. Too simple, predictable, boring script, lacking twists and meaningless dialogues. In my view however the successive exploitation of the political transition period in the Bulgarian post- communist film making era is the major problem- we have had enough of this. Either they are still trying to create the Bulgarian Goodbye Lenin (far far away to get there with this one) or the directors cant figure out a relevant plot. The thing is that people are fed up with this topic and they want to see something more up to date and less politically soaked. Less depressing and a little bit brighter settings could also make a difference.

That is why I can say that there has been a slow movement from the disasters produced during the last 20 years in terms of acting but the main problems still exist. As much as I want to say it this could not be an Oscar 2012 even close to a nomination. In a nutshell improved acting, bad direction and a crappy story.

I saw this product (i can't dignify it to name this a movie) with a big delay,almost decade after, and it is frustrating to find that it look exactly like all other Bulgarian BS that happened lately. as a norm period movies should look even better after ten more years, it means, if they shoot 1989-1991 period in 2010, there will be some imperfection depicting the previous epoch, so, when you get the seen after ten more years, the 90's should look little bit more real, supposing we add this 10 years on the account of historicity. So...I don't find relevant to talk about this thing here, just wanted to intervene on something else. much more abstract. This almost structural deadlock this feature that almost in every Bulgarian cinematic attempt that intent to be taken as a movie we got this constant female characters to be involved in dancing. It as a symptom for the immature stage of the idea in our art. Because we are not able to deal with cinematic movement in the plot we put some body in this simplifying motion, lacking every tension in the narrative to be aufgehoben on the level of the bodily expression, that instead to be involved in some dynamics accomplished through usual cinematic features-genre (action, film noir, suspense), movement of the camera, etc , the lack of such consciousness appears on this strange depiction of the female characters, to be made dancers.I will not mention here every Bulgarian "films'from last few years where we got female dancing, but this feature is almost omnipresent.

I didn't expect much and that's why I'm neither disappointed ,neither fascinated. We all know that the situation in 1989 was not pink. We all know a lot of stories, a lot of movies have been made about the so called"transition".And yet again the same story.I'm tired of watching the same story again and again. The forbidden love and the s****y communistic rules. The actors are new, they are fresh and may be they made me like the movie a little bit more that the others. So as a final: Not bad movie , could've been much better, but ... we can't change it now . It is not total crap , it is not an Oscar winning movie.

TILT is not surprisingly the Bulgarian entry for the Oscars in 2012. The film is beautifully shot, the story intriguing depicting the changes in Bulgaria in the period 1989-1991 in a fresh, non-political manner, with outstanding acting performances.

As a European production the film has the distinctive characteristics of independent films, however, it is not annoyingly artsy. Moreover, the visual style is distinctively creative, which a novelty for Bulgarian cinema.

What I found especially noteworthy is the humor with all the serious issues of the story are presented, not diminishing their significance, moreover highlighting them that makes the film also very entertaining and pleasant to watch.

The main premise is a love story that that however does not make TILT suitable only for younger audiences. The years the film is set to depict are important for Bulgarian history and familiar to a number of generations.

Overall, I recommend TILT to various audiences that enjoy quality filmmaking.