Tag: Soviet Union

TETRIS – Review

Okay, so we’re mere days away from the release of an animated CGI feature based on one of the biggest video game properties. Y’know about the two plumber siblings? Perhaps you’re needing another big “game” dive, but don’t want to try and stream the recent Sonic flicks, or any of a dozen movies lifted from the very successful gaming franchises. Well. we’ve got a new film all about that late 80s game where you try to fill in a wall at the bottom of your screen with a series of four brightly colored blocks. Really, a flick of those downward-floating bricks? They couldn’t grab the rights to Pong? Oh no, this is all about the creation and marketing of that game, and it’s almost a cold war thriller. Don’t roll your eyes, because there was a lot of high-stakes intrigue in the story of TETRIS.


After a nifty 8-bit graphic intro, we’re transported to the “go-go” days of 1988, specifically Vegas, baby, for the big Consumer Electronics Show. Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) isn’t seeing much traffic for the game he created for his own Bullet Proof software firm, “Go”. BTW, his name really is Henk, no typo, as he was born in Holland, raised in the USA, and now has his own family in Japan. Seems everybody is checking out Tetris, a computer game born in the Soviet Union. After trying it, Henk understands. Back in Japan, he tells his bank loan officer he needs more cash because he scooped up the right to distribute Tetris there. But Henk has bigger plans, and after securing another risky loan, he flies to Seattle to try to interest Nintendo. But they have a surprise for him. After Henk signs an NDA, the execs give him a test plan on a “hand-held’ video gaming system dubbed the “Gameboy”. And nobody’s nabbed the hand-held rights to Tetris. Since another “agent”, Robert Stein (Toby Jones), has wrapped up most of the rights for Britain’s Mirrorsoft owned by media magnate Robert maxwell (Roger Allam) and his son Kevin (Anthony Boyle), Henk has to get over to the USSR and strike a deal with the game’s creator Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov). The trouble is, Laexey created the game while working for the government computer division, Elorg, so Henk has to get around his greedy supervisor Nikolai (Oleg Stefan) while evading sinister KGB enforcers, since he lied to get into the country, stating to officials that he’s a tourist. As he’s put everything on the line, can Henk strike a deal…with someone. But more importantly, can he get out of Mother Russia and back to his wife and kids in Japan in one piece? Or just …alive?

Though the title refers to the “object of desire”, the tale’s real focus is Rogers who is imbued by an almost foolhardy determination by the compelling Egerton, sporting a pin-point trimmed mustache. Henk will not let anything, not even the still ferocious Russian “bear”, deny him his “brass ring”. Through his expressive eyes Egerton shows us how this hard-charging software hustler, is always trying to stay two steps ahead of his rivals, and looking for the nearest exit. He’s always “in over his head”, but we can almost hear the gears clicking in his noggin in order to try another angle. But Egerton conveys his softer side as he regrets the broken promises made to his daughter. Oh, the main rival is the terrific Jones as Stein, who he portrays with a “Willy Loman-eque” pathos until his suppressed rage explodes. The “big boom” happens when dealing with the Maxwells. Allam as Maxwell senior is a “profit whale” looking to gobble up any item to satisfy his greed, while deflecting chaos by expert “record-juggling”, and never loosening that tight near-choking bowtie. His son Kevin, played with his own anger issues by Boyle, yearns to prove his worth and get the respect he thinks he deserves (“You will call me, sir!!”). Efremov as inventor Pajitnov may be the most sympathetic and tragic character in the saga as the mastermind behind the game who is denied any of his labor’s fruits, yet still, believes in his homeland’s original goals. Unfortunately, they’re now twisted by sadistic goons like the black-suited Valentin, whose constant caustic sneer is provided by the intimidating Igor Grabuzov. Happily the film showcases two great actresses: Sofya Lebedeva as Henk’s frazzled but supportive interpreter Sasha and Ayane Nagabuchi as Henk’s equally supportive but very frustrated wife and company partner Akemi.


Consider this quirky true (pretty much) tale an unexpected gem. Much of its impact comes from the tight confident directing of Jom S Baird, who also gave us a very different but equally excellent true tale a couple of years ago in the criminally underrated STAN & OLLIE. Who’d have thought that a story involving a video game could be a nail-biting cold war thriller? Really, instead of a micro file exposing double agents or a chemical weapon formula, the big goal is grabbing signatures to obtain usage rights to the wall-building “time-waster” (one supervisor bemoans all the work hours lost by his staff). The first act is fluffy fun, playing with 1980s fashions and excesses with treks to London, Seattle, Vegas, and Tokyo, but the tone quickly shifts in the USSR. Though we observe its slow crumble (long market lines), there’s still danger around every dark dreary corner (the color desaturation really works). We also see how the younger generation is straining to break out of their elder’s oppressive shadows. Hey, there’s even an engaging sequence involving the big May Day parade and then-leader Gorbachev. And somehow all the contract wrangling never gets confusing or dull, thanks in part to the cleaver screenplay by Noah Pink. Throw in the aforementioned fun 8-bit animated graphic establishing shots and “scene-bridgers’ with the appropriate techno-synth score, and we’ve got a surprisingly compelling pop culture thrill-ride that is just as engaging as any video game, including the original TETRIS.


3 Out of 4

TETRIS streams exclusively on AppleTV+ on Friday, March 31, 2023

FIREBIRD – Review

Tom Prior and Oleg Zagorodnii, in the romantic thriller FIREBIRD. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.

Set in Cold War-era Estonia, then occupied by the Soviet Union, a two young men, a soldier and a pilot, fall in love, a dangerous relationship forbidden by homophobic law, in the English-language romantic thriller/drama FIREBIRD. Appropriately, this moving film is debuting in St. Louis just as Cinema St. Louis’ QFest, its celebration of gay-themed film, kicks off on Friday, April 29.

Sergey (Tom Prior), Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) and Volodja (Jake Thomas Henderson) are an inseparable trio, in military service at the Soviet Air Force base in Estonia, and as the film opens, the three friends have sneaked off to swim on the rocky coast. When a Soviet security patrol catches them, Volodja’s family connections keep them out of trouble but the tension of living in 1977 Soviet-occupied Estonia is made clear. Also made clear in the scene, as the three young people play in the sea, is that beautiful Luisa is infatuated Sergey, while Sergey is far more interested in Volodja.

The opening scene leads us to expect this be a romantic triangle but this fact-based story takes a different turn, with the arrival of a new pilot, Lt. Roman Matvejev (Oleg Zagorodnii). Private Sergey Serebrennikov has just informed his kindly commander Major Zverev (Margus Prangel) that he intends to leave the military, to return home to his family farm to support his widowed mother, but Major Zverev gives him a last assignment, as the driver and assistant to the new lieutenant. Sergey quickly discovers they share an interest in photography, theater, and Tchaikovsky, and the pilot encourages Sergey to pursue his deferred dream of attending acting school in Moscow. The pair really bond over a trip to a performance of The Firebird, where Sergey drives the lieutenant over the border and stays to watch the show from a back row while the lieutenant joins friends up front. The ballet is a revelation to the young Sergey, as is a secret embrace and kiss in a forest near the border where they pause when returning. Well aware what they are doing risky but deeply in love, the tension of their situation increases when an anonymous note is sent to the camp’s KGB officer Colonel Kuznetsov (Nicholas Woodeson). The KGB agent becomes determined to catch and expose the pilot and his unknown lover.

Again, this true story veers from our expectations, as it becomes increasingly complex. But it remains a tense, and ultimately heartbreaking and tragic romance as it unfolds. FIREBIRD is led by a fine performance by Tom Prior as Sergey, well supported by the rest of the cast and director Peeter Rebane’s nuanced direction. Prior and Rebane co-produced the film and co-wrote the script from the story by Sergey Fetisov.

FIREBIRD starts out feeling more like a basic gay romance with the added tension of the time period and place, but quickly deepens to something more, exploring other choices in life and the price others might pay for our choices, in addition to its political commentary on the fall-out of homophobic policies on individual lives. Peeter Rebane directs this complicated tale with sensitivity but a firm hand. There is a recurring use of water and swimming, with its symbolism of birth, rebirth, and the natural world, but the water also provides some romantic scenes with bare bodies and an extra frisson of excitement, without being particularly explicit, therefore making them more romantic than erotic. The acting is fine throughout, although the focus is very much on Tom Prior’s Sergey, but Diana Pozharskaya is a standout as well as Oleg Zagorodnii. The toxic influence of secrets runs through this tale.

FIREBIRD opens Friday, April 29, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema, the Chase Park Plaza Cinemas 5, and other theaters nationwide.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

THE DEATH OF STALIN – Review

(left to right) Dermot Crowley as Kaganovich, Paul Whitehouse as Mikoyan, Steve Buscemi as Krushchev, Jeffrey Tambor as Malenkov, and Paul Chahidi as Bulganin. Photo by Nicola Dove. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.

Tragedy plus time equals comedy, the old saying goes. THE DEATH OF STALIN, oddly, is a comedy, a mix of political satire and farce built around the days before and after the death of Josef Stalin. Anything about Stalin, the Soviet Union’s brutal longtime strongman ruler, hardly seems like fodder for comedy yet director Armando Iannucci manages to replace Karl Marx with the Marx Brothers in THE DEATH OF STALIN. Iannucci is no stranger to political satire, having helmed television’s VEEP, and assembles a splendid cast of mostly British and American actors, many skilled in comedy, for this often hilarious English-language dark comedy.

That strong cast includes Steve Buscemi, Jeffery Tambor, Michael Palin, Paddy Considine and Jason Isaacs, as well as Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend and Olga Kurylenko. The fearsome Soviet Union dictator was known for his purges and gulags but this film plays the fear and paranoia of the era for laughs. Many of the events, absurd as they are, really happened although everything is re-framed as farce comedy, with just enough chill of reality underneath.

A France/British/Belgian production based on the graphic novels of Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, this droll, dark comedy follows the jockeying for power among Stalin’s inner circle after the death of the long-time leader. Steve Buscemi plays Nikita Khrushchev, a talkative schemer who nimbly keeps his footing with a constant string of jokes to distract moody Josef Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin). Stalin’s daily list of executions and detentions are carried out by Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale), the blood-thirsty head of the security force NKVD. Jeffrey Tambor plays Stalin’s hand-picked successor Georgy Malenkov, a dour, dithering man seemingly chosen for his lack of any threat to “the boss.” The rest of the inner circle, the Central Committee, includes old revolutionary Molotov (Michael Palin), Kaganovich (Dermot Crowley), Mikoyan (Paul Whitehouse), and Bulganin (Paul Chahidi).

Under Stalin’s rule, people at the top have honed staying alive to a fine art. The insanity and paranoia of life under “Uncle Joe” is illustrated in a little prologue based on a real event. In this crazy bit, Stalin requests a recording of a Radio Moscow classical music broadcast. The head of the radio station, played hilariously by Paddy Considine, does not dare tell Stalin that the live performance was not recorded. Instead, they hold the audience and musicians and, after some difficulty with the piano soloist Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko), they repeat the performance to record it.

This strange but true incident is one of several peppered throughout this clever, smart, and funny film.

When Stalin suffers a stroke in his room at night and falls to the floor with a loud thud, the guards at his door are too afraid to investigate so he is not found until the next morning. The members of the Central Committee gather but are more concerned with who is in charge than Stalin’s health. Finding a doctor is a challenge, since Stalin’s purges have exiled the best doctors in Moscow to Siberia or worse. As the unconscious Stalin lingers, power shifts back and forth among the politicians, creating panic among them when he momentarily regains consciousness. Once he dies, the serious maneuvering for control gets underway, with plotting and shifting alliances. The committee sends for Stalin’s children, emotional Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough) and drunken, crazy son Vasily (Rupert Friend), as they prepare for the state funeral. The funeral also brings in the leader of the Soviet army, Field Marshall Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), whose power struggles with Beria’s NKVD interjects a new level of crazy.

The humor is mostly played straight, which heightens the comedy. Steve Buscemi is particularly good, and is often the center of the action. Other standouts are Beale’s devious Beria, Tambor’s silly, clueless Malenkov, Jason Isaacs’ imperious, blunt general, and Andrea Riseborough’s appealing, crazed Svetlana. Svetlana teeters between mourning her father and the paranoia left by her weird, restricted life.

Really, this whole cast is terrific, and especially good in deliciously funny ensemble scenes. The squabbling over titles and assignments are hilarious, as are the continual plotting and scheming when any pair of them are out of the others’ earshot. The film is often very funny and has some moments of real brilliance, but there are also moments when grim reality seeps through, chilling the humor.

THE DEATH OF STALIN is a clever, intelligent bit of political comedy, history played for laughs, that is a refreshingly change from the usual low humor comedies of recent years. It opens in St. Louis on Friday, March 23, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

GHOUL (2015) – The Review

GHOUL Still

The truth is that, no mater how great a concept is for a story, no matter how well the film is marketed, the ultimate proof is in the production pudding. How excellent is your execution? Not the capitol punishment type — even if some films make you wish for that instead — but, execution of idea from concept to completion. Unfortunately, despite all the best intentions, many films fail to find the appropriate approach.

GHOUL (2015) is one of these films. It should be quite apparent already that I am not overwhelmingly impressed with this one, but in an effort to change things up a bit and better explain my thoughts on this film, I’ll begin with the end.

[No worries, I never spoil films, even the ones I dislike.]

The final 15-20 minutes of GHOUL are, by far, the most engaging, most intense and most successful minutes of this entire film. With that said, it’s not enough to save it entirely, but merely wipes the crust from your eyes and the spittle from the side of your mouth, finishing with the subtle minty freshness of a stick of gum that lasts about as long as the flavor in a handful of Chiclets.

The story comes full circle, the twist is revealed and the special effects are admirably effective for a film of this style, genre and budget. With a running time of only 86 minutes, its not entirely inconceivable to endure to the end for the tasty bits that add flavor, but you’ll need to choke down the blandness of the meal before the dessert.

Let’s return to the start now, where the film is at it’s most uninspired. GHOUL follows a small clutch of friends turned indie filmmakers who travel to Ukraine to shoot footage and interviews for the pilot of a documentary series they call Cannibals of the 20th Century. We’ve seen it before in principle, young inexperienced aspiring filmmakers venturing into uncharted territory to make their names, danger be damned.

Roughly, the first 30 minutes is relatively boring and uneventful, failing to build much of any character development, nor suspense or even much plot. Roughly half the film is merely bickering and accusations between characters, not unlike what we see in the average “reality” TV series that litter our television sets.

What they hope will be a successful late-night basic cable cash cow, quickly reveals itself to be a bust. When their local elderly guide turns out to be unreliable. Not only do they not have anything from the survivor of the Soviet Union’s most violent serial killer and “star” of their project, but they find themselves stuck in the remote woods with their young and pretty interpreter, a crazy young Ukrainian witch, and an evil supernatural force that will not let them leave unless they do exactly as it asks of them.

GHOUL is unfocused, indecisive about what the central plot truly is about. The villain is clearly defined, but is not as central to the story as would be expected. Drama is developed primarily through the perspective of Jenny, played by Jennifer Armour, who also happens to provide the best performance of the film. Jenny has a secret she hides that ultimately plays a significant role, indirectly and metaphorically, in the film’s twist.

Overall, GHOUL is a late-night, cheap rental popcorn flick, mildly worth seeing to the end, even at the cost of submitting to the snooze-inducing first two acts, but only if you’ve already gone through all the cool films in your Netflix queue.

[For the more discerning genre fans, be especially observant of the pride taken in the humorously hokey but admirable attempt at the gory gutted cat prop used not once, but twice in the film.]

GHOUL hits select theaters on Friday, March 20th, 2015.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

GHOUL Key Art