Reviews

Review: Hipsters

Nice try, Russian musical

By GERALD PEARY | April 10, 2012

1.5 Stars

The first Russian musical in half a century, Valery Todorovsky's Hipsters gets rubles for trying, but what's on screen is thin and obvious, the characters one-dimensional, the musical numbers and satire vapid. The setting is 1955, just after Stalin's death, and the Communist country isn't ready for Moscow youth suddenly gone wild with Pee-wee Herman garb and a zest for western jazz and boogie-woogie. The tiny, obvious plot involves a romance between a repressed Communist youth, Mels (Anton Shagin) and Polly (Oksana Akinshina, a Michelle Williams look-alike), the flashy, anarchic-chic, uncrowned queen of the so-called "hipsters."

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ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY

REVIEW: HIPSTERS | April 10, 2012
The first Russian musical in half a century, Valery Todorovsky's Hipsters gets rubles for trying, but what's on screen is thin and obvious, the characters one-dimensional, the musical numbers and satire vapid.

REVIEW: THE DISH & THE SPOON | April 10, 2012
Dumped by her husband, an enraged young woman, Rose (Greta Gerwig), drives around coastal towns in the Delaware winter swearing revenge against her straying spouse and an ill fate for the gal who lured him away.

REVIEW: THE KID WITH A BIKE | April 03, 2012
This Grand Prix winner at Cannes 2011 is among the best films by Belgium's Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

REVIEW: THE SALT OF LIFE | March 14, 2012
The Salt of Life deftly sprinkles wacky humor in with the melancholy, and Di Gregorio is a winning talent, both as the amusing star actor and as the film's co-writer and director.

REVIEW: THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD | March 07, 2012
American filmmaker Joshua Marston ( Maria Full of Grace ) traveled to Albania to write and direct this thoughtful, subtle feature about the victims of a blood feud, with an all-Albanian ensemble.

See all articles by: GERALD PEARY

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