jalilidalili

Yes, once again we're faced with a movie about social criticism by Sasha Choen... OK, we're used to that.

Already Ali G. (which passed us by as another silly teenage comedy - but is actually much deeper), Sasha kept digging deeper and revealing the curtains of the truth we don't want to see in the homes of people around us.

But this time... well it just got beyond all that.

The "nude humor" is nothing else but a heap trick to gather some more "contraversy".

The "heart breaking" moments - like the flashbacks while taking away the baby - are nicely timed in order to confuse the public and get them to see that you don't need to cry your eyes out every time some sad music is playing and some slow motion memories are being shown.

The swinger's party scene with the mistress is... well a miss. I mean, if it were in a "normal" situation, him wanting to meet her father and being shy could have worked - but it just doesn't work here. I mean it would be just like going to a boxing match and covering your eyes and ears every time a punch would be thrown.

Also the psychic scene, at least in my opinion was needlessly prolonged. We got the point - the "adviser" is about to tolerate anything, just to get paid and even wishes him luck in his life, although he is obviously groused out. But only a few people with certificate they have limited mental abilities (I've worked as a teacher for six years now) have been (both of them) acting like that every once and again, to show the rest of the class their wet dreams - and surely enough, it was in bad taste then too.

Overall it shows Sasha was running out of material and was trying to fill the time with the lowest possible publicity stunt, that's not even original - put sexuality and nudity on screen in order to get people to take another look.

I'm not for censorship, but apart from being idiotic... what was the point of his sexual games with the midget steward boyfriend? Sorry - this movie was a let down, because except for some four, five highlights it was just trying to justify itself being made. There was maybe enough material for some 40 minutes of interesting, humorous and socially critical eye-opener, but the rest of it was just a cheap attempt of manipulating the masses, so one could say something in lines of: "Oh you intolerant conservatives, you can't handle raw sexuality on the screen."

I decided to write this review purely because I've red the one written by lapratho from Tacoma, WA, USA - and I totally disagree about this movie! Sorry to say I've bought it, not sorry that I've seen it, just sorry I can't erase it from my memory.

There are a few laughs in this movie as well, although I would never sort this under the category of comedy.

There are some very interesting shots with the camera, the storytelling aspect of this movie is at least interesting as it uses the motion picture as a new form of media - but the most basic component of any movie is missing... You will require a lot of will power to sit this one through from beginning 'till end and if you'll decide you need a break from it, the chances are, you'll never return to watching it.

It's not a film you'd watch to pass the time, or be amused. It's a film that is trying to present a satirical point of view about certain aspects of life, so if you will be able to penetrate under the pointlessness you'd get from simply watching it, you might even get a few ideas it's trying to convey. But you really have to dig deep and just by watching it, it offers nothing which would make you want to dig deep into it, to get to the point.

So a very low mark, as it is (at least in my opinion) an existentialist comedy that might work in the theater of absurd performed live (right after Waiting for Godot), but it doesn't work at all on film.

OK, I'm bias, I have to admit. Being a patriot and the actor who plays the main character is from the same one-horse-town as I am (we lived just two blocks apart) and I do know the guy personally (got drunk with him on more then one occasion), I really can not be completely objective to this film.

It is still a good film. I have to say some things about the background of the movie. In Slovenia there are almost no independent films. There are only three or four films made every year (and that's if the year is good). They are usually funded by the state and very crappy. There have only been two watchable films in the last ten years.

This movie, however, is independent and was a huge success at home. Matjaz Javsnik (in the lead role) has already made a name for himself before. He is the person who brought the improvisational theater to Slovenia and had some other stage hits with which he toured all over the country.

So once he started making this movie, there was great interest in it. He was able to get enough money for it (in comparison to other Slovene films, this one wasn't really low budget - regardless of what you might think).

And the dark humor you see in this movie is actually a way of life around here. People are full of black humor and nothing is really sacred. Slovenians are unfortunately among the most suicidal nations in the world (we overtook the Japanese in these sad statistics somewhere in the early eighties).

So enjoy the movie, even though it starts of really idiotically, after about twenty minutes it starts developing and by the end of it, you'll get the feeling you have really seen something worth while.