Magnus

A weirdly rushed finale followed by the most unnecessary explanatory epilogue since Psycho makes foreign distribution unlikely unless the film is re-cut in its entirety. Persistently weak dialogue throughout the whole motion picture. I believe Kousaar tried to shock the viewers by focusing on gloomy Soviet sexual perversions like for troubled Magnus seeking a blowjob from his own sister. I thought that most of the sexual connotations were too explicit and unnecessary. As for the young Magnus, mostly he wanders about smoking and gazing at the sky with a puzzled expression to the sound of someone trying to murder a cello. When he phones his sister to tell her that today's the day he plans to die, she tells him to get on with it. Sensible girl.

It's beautifully told story about dark side of our life, about love (or lack of it) and life (or lack of it). But not only, it will give you some food for thought in many many areas. It's not ready-made fast food, you have to think along and thinking is not always easy thing to do. Being a parent will probably help you a bit. This film will tell you a lot if you care to listen.

There is something this film does not tell you but it may be good to know - Estonia is one of the top countries in male suicides per capita and by large talking about suicide is considered to be taboo. That may explain negative attacks toward film and director in reviews.

Technically it's not perfect movie, but it's good enough not to notice it while watching. Given virtually non-exciting budget - team has done excellent job there.

Give it a try, it's not for everyone, but it's well worth seeing.

"Magnus" by Kadri Kousaar was a film chosen for Un Certain Regard, one of the side festivals of Cannes, but not in main competition. It was visually interesting, but the characterization and particularly the dialog were weak. It undermined the story. Especially as it is a true story about a father and son relationship and the father plays himself in the fictional film, and then gives a documentary testament in the final five minutes. In my opinion it was a very uneven film, beautiful in many regards but undercut by so much on-the-nose sturm-und-drang and weak character development (most of them didn't have names outside of Mother, Father, and Sister, and these were major characters).

Being an Estonian myself, I have to begin with by saying that this is one of the very few Estonian films I've seen that I WOULD watch even if it was not an Estonian film - in my opinion, it was well done, especially considering it being Kadri Kõusaar's first film ever, and yes, she is hated in Estonia, but no, I didn't feel her showing off in this film not once. It was Magnus's story and it was told in a beautiful and subtle manner, at times it was a bit artsy and might have contained too may scenes of Kristjan Kasearu (who surprised me quite a bit as well, as I really do not care much about his music) looking all dreamy and disturbing, but overall, it is a film that gets you hooked and does not let go. The bizarreness of dad-son relationship, the easiness with which the film treats the most difficult of subjects (and thus makes them shout and stand up even more), the haunting music - I was taken aback. On the other hand, if you're the type of person who minds when characters are unreal in films (don't have names, for instance) or is shocked by sexual references, it might be a good idea not to watch it after all, I suppose. But I think that for many people, this film makes sense, it clicks, and no, you don't have think that Magnus or his dad are normal or cool or whatever for this to happen - there are other layers to it than just the plot line! Oh yeah, and all the fuss about ethics and court banning the film - I would just like to know where to draw the line. To me, this film was a piece of fiction, probably even more surreal than what one usually gets in a mainstream blockbuster. Of course I'm not involved in the actual story and I have no idea how the mother of the actual boy feels, but it seems to me that now, with all the media attention, it might be even harder for her - and people will want to see the "forbidden fruit" even more. And they will.

... when I arrived for this film 30 minutes before start time and saw five people in the ticket holder line and a dozen in the pass holder line that something was amiss. This is a stinker of film that collapsed under the weight of its pretensions. I gave it two stars for the beautiful shots of scenery but minus one star for the dearth of story, subpar acting and the director's pretentious tomfoolery with the camera angles, filming some scenes upside or from odd angles or through distorted reflections. Yeah, I get it: it was to reflect the state of Magnus's mind but a five minute shot of water or a three minute shot of Magnus staring off into space does not further the story and was ultimately boring and sleep inducing. Too bad too, because there were some great characters in the self absorbed modeling agent mother and the drug addict purveyor of porn father. BY FAR THE WORST FILM I've seen at the Seattle International Film Festival so far.