Reviews

A movie about slow, boring lives of late middle-age to old people in a small American town.

What I liked:

• nice shots, almost every frame could be a photo
• lots of "uncomfortable" situations. E.g. The main female character (a math teacher) has an unusually low sensitivity to other people's feelings, and almost everything she says is upsetting or offensive to others yet "she is just stating facts" (at least how she sees them)
• portrayal of old age that I've rarely seen in movies: it's almost entirely bleak, pointless

What I didn't like:

• the movie is boring to watch. That's simply because it's about boring people, boring lives, and pointlessness. It's a movie about banality. It could be probably more interesting if the movie would at least try a little bit to make fun of the banality. But there is no irony anywhere. It's just 4 hours of boredom. Thankfully, most of them die in the end. Tbh I was disappointed that the main character didn't shoot herself in the end...
• since actors are the same yet show characters at different ages (25 years' spread) it's sometimes hard to follow which year what is happening in. E.g. First the math teacher and the pharmacist have a 12-year old boy, then they have an adult son popping out of nowhere and he is getting married. I first thought they had 2 sons, and the older one wasn't mentioned at first. Apparently it's just the same people at different ages. Maybe if the movie would show the exact year, not just "6 months later", it would be move comprehensible

Why this movie caught my attention: it essentially shows what you get when you get older if you are a mediocrity. A stand-up comedian (Zhvanetsky, from Russia) once said: "If you are educated, you have an interesting life when you're old". Apparently, this movie shows the other side: what your old age will look like if you're a lazy person with no goals, no major interests and no desire to help others or improve something. The female protagonist ultimately reaches her final state in life, the result of everything she has been doing before: a husband who spent 4 years as a vegetable and finally died, a son who doesn't want to talk to her, a dead dog, an empty house, no hobbies, no friends, no interests, and even no fake consumerist crap like yoga classes or traveling. There is a glimmer of hope in the final shots where she finds a similar guy (who can't make peace with his daughter because she dared to be a lesbian). So, it's kinda open-ended.

A subtle comedy that presents carefully crafted, unusual situations where routine, optimal behavior patterns of the upper middle class just break in unexpected ways.

The main character is a successful guy who sells fake but respectable quasi-art to the rich. His clientele, mostly old people wearing expensive clothes, lack cultural sophistication to understand art but still want to buy their right to be associated with something intellectual. The movie mocks this charade delicately.

The guy's wallet and phone get stolen. He follows advice of his employee who is an immigrant and much lower than him in social hierarchy - only to find himself in circumstances that could ruin his career and reputation that took his whole life to build. And then, in an unrelated event with an ill-thought ad for an art exhibition, his career is really ruined as he fails to pay attention while dealing with the first crisis.

You might think at first that the authors of this movie take a moralizing stance like how selfish the rich are and how good the underclass is. But the movie is well above that simplistic garbage. The characters are far more nuanced. You could easily use this movie to make cases for both the left/right political agendas. I even had some of my own beliefs challenged. The movie also has a powerful ending: the guy wants to "right his wrongs" (though he actually didn't do anything wrong really, at least not on his own will) but that's denied to him. We're left in the void, with moral ambiguities and open loops, no comfortable closure or "happy end".

The movie explores multiple topics that I think I never saw handled in cinema. For example, there is a female journalist who gets attracted to this guy (because power looks sexy) and essentially throws herself at him. How should he react? He doesn't want sex with her and says that at the start - but is there a way to reject her advances? There is an amazing scene where he doesn't want to let go of a used condom. Took me a while to guess the reason! Amazing. There is a hint: 2 daughters from his previous marriage who are quarreling "for no reason" (well, projecting the conflict between the parents).

The movie doesn't tell things directly to you, and it's also one of it's messages. The polite upper middle class existence that's like a minefield where no thought can be expressed openly for fear of consequences. The main character has to navigate interactions with people who have nothing to lose while he needs his reputation to keep his charade going and maintain his wealth.

Then there is the central scene of the movie (which also went to the poster) where a topless muscular entertainer plays caveman at a big dinner for the rich. There are many ways how this scene could be interpreted. It's a bit grotesque, sure. After all, the entertainer would have to stay within limits of the law? He can't physically harm his audience, only psychologically harass them as part of the game. But then the line is crossed, and he actually hurts a woman. Note that the first guy who finally comes to the victim's rescue is well above 60! One of the messages that's quite common in European cinema of the last 1-2 decades: young white men have become weak/feminine, and the West has its writing on the wall. But of course it's not just that, it's far more complex.

This movie is like classical literature. It makes you think. The scenes leave a lasting impact and are like condensed allegories and demonstrations of multiple, often conflicting, political, social and psychological views. A lot of effort must have gone to construct this movie: every dialog line, every shot, every action has complex ideas behind them. It's really a treat. Watching it is an enjoyable intellectual experience. Btw the 7/10 rating here simply shows that the movie requires a certain level of maturity and education to understand. As one funny review admits, "I'm too dumb for it". Exactly. Which only proves that online ratings that most digital platforms use nowadays aren't that good as a measure of worth for real, sophisticated art.

I think it's the best movie I watched in the last few years for sure.

Being an economist, I look at this movie almost like at a documentary about entrenched poverty in the US. Of course the main character doesn't have a father. Of course his mom had her first child at a very early age (17). The movie doesn't tell but both brothers might be from different fathers. What does his mother do? She used to be a prostitute (or something like that). She probably now has a menial job with a low pay, so that when her kids steal $80 from her that's a big deal.

The dreams of these kids and their values also show that this poverty is really entrenched, with no hope to ever disappear. Some of them will die from an overdose, some will spend years in jail. At best they'll get menial jobs. Okay, there is some hope: one guy wants to be a filmmaker and walks around with a camera all the time. However, it's hard to say if he would have any success, given his lack of culture, low IQ (even his friends call him "4th-grader" because of that) etc.

I've seen movies like these a few times, and I can't help but put myself in the shoes of the government: what should one do with those people? Sadly, they also have the most kids due to lack of contraception and irresponsible sexual contacts. All this is depressing. And the movie feels very real. I recall delinquents like that back from school. Two of such even bullied me for years.

It's interesting to see the changes too. In the 90s they all wanted to get rich by becoming a famous skateboarding performer. Now they all want to get rich streaming how they play some video game or win an e-championship in League of Legends or whatever other online game that's popular.

What does one do with all this? That's a puzzle that no one has a solution to.

I so rarely give a 10 on imdb but this cartoon (clayography) is a work of a genius. I'll recommend all people I know to watch it.

The topic is ordinary people and their lives. Adam Elliot handles it at least as masterfully as Dostoevski, just in a different medium (animation instead of literature). Reminded me of "Poor Folk".

Is there something like Nobel Prize for movies? Adam Elliot deserves it.

It's a documentary about a French scientist Claude Lorius and his work in the Antarctic, and how he came to 2 discoveries: 1) measuring temperature in distant past by the predominant type of hydrogen in the snowflakes found deep below in the ice of Antarctica and 2) seeing climate of distant past by the air bubbles stored in that deep ice.

If you like science and documentaries about nature you will definitely like this film, too. But for an average spectator the film is probably too slow-paced, and lacks the typical tricks modern American documentaries like to use to keep the viewer's attention. It's a European film, so it deliberately avoids cheap tricks and counts on the viewer's intelligence.

Also, the film mentions facts about climate change. You've probably heard this many times already, and David Attenborough (and Carl Sagan) and many others have mention this over and over, but temperature is rising, and it's man-caused. And despite the Kyoto protocol et al, no one really cares. Btw due to the film's detachment for an average viewer, it won't ever be watched by deniers of climate change and basically most of the people who still need convincing.

On a side note, I liked the positive light in which the Russian scientists and the Vostok station was mentioned. Apparently, their station and drilling tech was vital for collection of massive data about past climate on Earth. So rare to see anything positive about Russia in a western film these days.

After watching this, all I wanted was to give this old Frenchman a hug and thank him for all his outstanding work. I hope we will still have enough people like him in this and coming generations.

This movie is very interesting to watch, I enjoyed every minute of it. Most of what's happening on the screen doesn't make sense, but it didn't bother me really. There isn't much of a plot. In short, there is a desolated factory where something is "guarded" by a 60-something guy with his strange daily routine. And then there are 3 telepathic dwarfs sent there to steal that thing. Thru the whole movie they do some weird preparations and finally in the end do it, or so it should be anyway.

Still giving it a 8 and not 10 because the ending was unexpected and left me puzzled. What was this all about? But definitely this movie has stuff which I haven't seen in any other movie, and it feels very fresh, even innovative.

This is a very interesting film about the 1990s Russia and the miserable life of a small ordinary guy in it. It continues the theme of the "small man" in Russian literature (Dostoyevsky's "Poor people"/"Бедные люди", Checkov's Akaky Akaievich) as well as in movies ("Chuchelo", "Small Vera"/"Маленькая Вера"). The main character is not only unattractive, poor, unintelligent and weak. In some social state like Germany or Sweden he would probably just live a small quiet life without much to talk about. However, in the harsh realities of the planned->market economy transition and the rise of crime in the Russia's 90s, he is also constantly abused by everyone around him. His grandmother dominates him and forces him to eat as if he were a 3 year old, controls his every step and picks clothes for him to wear; random punks on the street insult him for no reason and punch him in the belly; even the state, represented by KGB officers, uses him for an experiment without payment and even explaining the possible dangers of the experiment, and then threatens to put him in jail for the attempts to find out the truth. This movie is a sad portrayal of the less pleasant things "small people" face in their ordinary lives, especially in less stable societies. A good watch for psychologists btw. I'm giving the movie 8/10 and not 10/10 because of the shaky camera (the whole movie must have been shot with a hand camera) and the muffled sound (did they even work on the sound? Seem like they've just recorded it with that very hand camera and that's it).

Frankly, while watching I didn't understand the element of the plot that the characters get their doubles created in the TV world. Maybe it was due to somewhat messy English subtitles. Still, the movie was very, very enjoyable. It was funny and smart. The humor was well on the level of the greatest French comedies. Pretty refreshing after all the loads of cheap, stupid humor you get in American comedies where they would throw pies at each others' faces. This movie definitely deserved more attention. I hope someone makes a similar movie on a bigger budget and with modern visuals about the today's obsession with social networks. E.g. every time someone opens their Facebook page, their life energy gets sucked out. Such a "modernized" remake would be a hit for sure.

I fully agree with other reviewers that the film looks more like propaganda for the main character's teachings, without direction, critique or any second opinions. And indeed, many of the ideas of this futurologist can be criticized.

Still, it's nice to hear once again the things he says about science, belief and that we can change most things. The guy is smart. He will make you feel good and strengthen your belief in progress :)

The film is pretty inspiring. It's a great watch for everyone related to science or engineering, though the viewer should resist the charm of the main character and take it all with a grain of salt.

For everyone who liked this film I also recommend the book by a Polish futurologist of the 50s Stanislav Lem "Sum of technology" (Станислав Лем, "Сумма технологии") which is still pretty actual and presents another great set of retro-futuristic views by a very smart man.

This show uses a cheap trick to lure you into watching it. It puts a lot of questions and shows lots of sci-fi puzzles in the 1st season. It throws in even more in the 2nd and 3d season. Then it drags the whole 4th season, re-bounces in the 5th season due to some time- traveling stuff, and finally ends up as a pile of mythical garbage in the last, 6th season. The ending is horrible. The holes in the plot are all over the place. The behavior of many characters is illogical. Some characters switch sides almost randomly. There are lots of boring scenes, especially about relationships. Many less important characters die without any meaning (also from the hands of the main characters) and no one seems to care. I still give it a 4 and not 1 because I admit the show was pretty interesting to watch as long as they didn't offer they answers to the questions they initially posed. It pretty much looks like they didn't know themselves what their story is about and just threw in stuff on their way as the show progressed, and in the end they didn't really care about the ending and the explanations because the show had monetized itself well anyway already. Welcome to the new type of TV series. I surely don't watch any stuff of this type again.

It's a cartoon series with dark humor which is absolutely fun to watch. The series shows the UK (which is in most respects quite similar to other EU countries) from its dark "insider" perspective, something you would rarely see on TV or in movies. Here you will find a gay guy who struggles to find a partner, a wrongly accused murderer who spent 27 years in prison and forgot how to live a normal life, a hilarious "classically trained actor", a group of "wankers" who talk about completely useless things, then another group of idle young people who have nothing to do or talk about and end up playing Russian roulette, a suicidal father and so on. The images are frequently very violent which might turn off some people. But actually I would recommend this series to everyone except maybe small kids. Most characters who die in some of the episodes are alive again in the next episode - typical for comedies, it's more like a cycle or a snapshot of reality rather than a long story split into scenes (although some of the sub-plots do develop across episodes). The satire here is very smart, really British-level smart. E.g. I could hardly imagine such a series appearing in the US, for comparison. Some jokes here have very deep meaning and stay in your head for a long time. This show is so great that it totally deserves to be released on DVD, translated to other languages (German, Russian, Spanish etc). It's a true gem! Frankly, I am happy that in case of this series the artistic genius totally prevailed over suits, marketing and political correctness.

This movie is beautiful and really pleasing to watch. The title of it says exactly what it is: "microscopic world". It's like a different universe which you may never have noticed right under your feet. Vibrant colors and astonishing beauty where you may never have expected it.

Though it's not really a movie, more like just a video, I'd still call it one of the best movies I ever saw. If the world would be ending and I'd have to escape Earth in a spaceship and could only take a handful of videos with me, this one would be on the list.

If you haven't watched it, do yourself a favor and watch it.

As a teenager I recall not liking this movie. I found it too slow. E.g. in many points of the movie you'd be looking at a nearly static image. In one case, the main characters ride along the railway and the viewer has to watch the same scene for 2 (or maybe 3?) minutes.

One certainly has to grow up and mature enough to be able to understand and then to enjoy the movie. Re-watching it in the age of 26 or so I liked it much more. Maybe I will like it even more again when I'm 50. That's exactly the pattern which works with the greatest, classic works.

There are lots of messages in this movie including: 1. weakness is great, not strength 2. when the characters reached the room where wishes come true, they didn't wish for anything

Interestingly enough, this movie manages to create suspense and horror feel with very little means.

This TV series is a must-watch for anyone interested in movies. Although, as a TV show, it's pretty low-budget, the plot is strong and the actors' performances are so good that overall the movie is simply great.

It's interesting that the portrayal of Caligula is somewhat different here from the one in the Caligula movie from 1979. This series shows the degradation of Rome in much greater detail and at a much larger scale.

The main character, Claudius, is a very likable character. Even though I watched this series years ago, I still have the phrase in my head which one of the imperial advisers says to the young Claudius: "Do you want to live a long a happy life? Exaggerate your stuttering..." Says it all.

As a programmer and an app entrepreneur myself I absolutely liked the first 2 episodes so far. I hope this will be a great series overall.

Btw I also like other Mike Judge's works: the Beavis & Butthead cartoon series and the Idiocracy movie.

I've never been to California and never worked for Google or Apple but I know this western IT culture pretty well, and the series makes good laugh of it. The main character should have taken 10 million :) Now the whole series will be about how he gets trampled over and over by the vultures of capitalism. Should be fun to watch.

On a side note, it's great to see movies finally catching up with the new realities of life. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - these words now play a vital role in lives of the vast share of the world's population, but movie directors have been far from these areas until now. Good work Mike, keep it coming! :)

I have given this TV series a 10 at first but after watching the last season I have to change it to 9.

The individual ratings for seasons: 1st - 10, 2nd - 9, 3d - 6, 4th - 10, 5th - 9, 6th - 9, 7th - 8, 8th - 5.

Overall, it's a great series. Production values are pretty much on the level of a TV series, but the story is most of the time very dynamic and keeps you entertained. I've enjoyed this series for years and waited for the next seasons to come out.

The ending is pretty disappointing and I hope they won't go for yet another season since there is really nothing left to think up there.