Adults in the Room

A clear view from within the eurogroup during the Greek drama. Gavras is bold and shows high tensions, clear colors of the circus we live in, luck of democracy, solid reasons for criticism of an amateur leftist government including Yianis and a great Lulis acting this role. The finale though is weak imo. A solid 6! - but we must revisit the film a few years later. Gavras takes the risk and makes the movie from his and Varoufakis point of view and gives a true atmosphere of the time. If you watch the film watch it trying to stay out fro m political parties and personal views. Discuss it later.

As far as the real events, i watched what I was expecting even me not having read Varoufakis's book. So almost nothing special here, no surprise. So, despite the "outsider's" role of Varoufakis, expected some more "insider's" information.

I liked the performance of almost all characters. They are totally in line with the actual person's image to the public, in a dramatic and brutal realistic way together. I would say it is Gavras style with a bit of Nikos Perakis'...

I liked the photography. Lighting and colors are top notch in bright and dark scenes. Especially the darks in Varoufakis' house or the semi-lighted scene when Varoufakis speeks to british bankers. Composition and perspective are also excellent. However, there was some lens distortion in the wide internal shots that could have been avoided. DOPs have managed this decades ago shooting film, so no excuse have them shooting digital nowadays, except it was a choice not a compromise, however i can see no reason for this in those particular shots.

As far as the screenplay and editing. Did not like it very much as a whole. Nice cuts, fluid scenes, but many important events are a bit squeezed at the end. Like the editor suddenly realised that he aproached the movie's time limit and had to exclude takes, or the producers suddenly run out of money. Maybe that is how Varoufakis book ends? Do not know, but it is a movie not a book and I believe great Costas Gabras could have done better here. Final documentary titles also seem to try and fill this gap, with no success in my opinion.

Honestly I couldn't believe starting from the first scenes of the film that this was a Costas Gavras film. It screamed "quick and dirty" approach through out the entire movie. Bad direction, bad lighting and photography - almost amateur. It's really a pity that such an acclaimed creator made this work... Nice surprise from the Loulis in the role of Yannis Varoufakis, at least he was ok to watch.

I know no other film that takes you behind the scenes of EU politics like this one. A must see if you are interested in European politics or if you are inclined to read the politics section of any serious newspaper.

First of all, I will start by mentioning the obvious: The negative reviews are by not-so-bright Greeks who can't review a movie for what it is, but for what it shows. The summer of 2015 was a pretty heated period in Greece, and many people have not forgiven the politicians involved.

About the movie. Don't expect a masterpiece. It is not. However it is a decent representation of Varoufakis's point of view, which on each own, is extremely interesting. Loulis's performance as Varoufakis is the strongest asset of this movie in my opinion. Bourdoumis was very good as well as Tsipras.

Photography was good. Editing was good. I found the sound editing irritating, like I do in most Greek movies (why is that? Any greek production sounds weird to me, like they can't keep steady the volume of the voices spoken).

7/10 from me.