All of Kaurismäki’s interests are here: Down-and-out characters, cute dogs, Kati Outinen, lovely shots and colours, horrible music, old American cars, etc etc.
It’s a fine, solid movie, but I do feel that Kaurismäki is coasting here… there’s nothing new?
[the end]
I loved about half this movie: It’s such a likeable cast, and such an entertaining plot. But I felt like half the scenes had no reason to be here, and I grew distracted.
I’m just plowing through the remaining Kaurismäki movies. Only four more to go!
This is the first movie (I think?) after his first… unsuccessful movie? I mean, none of them were huge blockbusters, right, but Leningrad Cowboys Meets Moses is the first one that disappointed his fans, if I’m reading imdb correctly.
So is Kaurismäki doubling down on his aesthetic or is he trying something new?
[forty minutes pass]
This is such a sweet movie — quite reminiscent of Kaurismäki’s earlier trilogy that ended with The Matchstick Factory Girl, but more… assured? If there’s ever been characters in a movie that you yearn for a happy fate, it’s these two, and it’s just incredibly efficiently Kaurismäki made the audience feel for them.
The cinematography’s lovely, in a slightly super-real way, with sharp shadows and sets that look just a bit more real than reality.
[the end]
I laughed, I cried… well, mostly the latter.
It’s a crowd-pleaser of a movie for sure, and I’m happy to be one of the crowd. This does make me somewhat suspicious, though:
OK, whatever problems the first Leningrad Cowboys had, it had spirit. This feels like it’s over even before it begins — like it’s apologising for existing… which perhaps it is? It’s a followup movie to Kaurismäki’s hugely successful movie, and… he’s a bit embarrassed by that or something?
Instead of being stupidly inspired, it’s just… stupid?
[twenty minutes pass]
I have to admit, I just kinda lost interest here, and started shopping Eclipse box sets from the Criterion web site. (I got box 2-10, except the one that was sold out. Box 1 was “Early Bergman”, which I’ve already seen.)
OK, concentrate on this movie now!!!
[more time passes]
No, this just doesn’t work. Everybody involved tries hard to make something happen on the screen, but it just doesn’t gel.
The Moses/Marxist stuff is funny, of course, but it’s not enough.
