Translated material
If youth knew
Watch from August 19 on Moscow screens
“Scott Pilgrim vs. Everyone” (USA, 2010, Edgar Wright). The first Hollywood project of the incredibly gifted Briton Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), an adaptation of the graphic novels by Brian Lee O'Malley. Twenty-two-year-old Pilgrim (Michael Cera - "Superbad", "Juno", "The Beginning of Time"), a dreamer, a mumbler and the bassist of a third-rate indie band, finally meets the girl of his (and not only) dreams - Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead -- "Final Destination 3", "Black Christmas", "Die Hard 4"). But his happiness is hampered by the fact that before he can get the miracle young lady into his undivided possession, he will have to fight with the magnificent seven of her exes, among whom there are very eccentric personalities of different ages, nations and even genders. Amazingly and inventively shot (the surrounding reality in it is stylized as games for antediluvian video consoles and clips from the heyday of MTV), a strange film that deserves the closest attention. The generation of twenty-something hipsters and nostalgic older infantiles seems to have acquired a new cult. Also starring Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, Alison Pill, Jason Schwartzman, Ellen Wong, Satya Bhabha, Mark Webber, John Patrick Amedori, Will Bowes and Abigail Chu.“My girl doesn’t want...” (France, 2009, Christophe Honore). After divorcing her husband (Jean-Marc Barr - "The Blue Abyss", "Dancer in the Dark", "Red Siren"), the mother of two children Lena (Chiara Mastroianni - "Nowhere", "Hotel", Once Upon a Time at Versailles) decides cope with life's difficulties independently. And she almost succeeds... if not for her compassionate and very active relatives, who are sure that they know much better than she herself how to make Lena’s life happy. A well-acted drama about a midlife crisis and the iron embrace of family. Composer Alex Beaupin, who constantly works with Honore (A Parisian Story, All Songs Only About Love, The Beautiful Fig Tree), was nominated for a Cesar award for best film music. Also starring Marina Foix, Marie-Christine Barrault, Jean-Marc Barr, Fred Ulysses, Louis Garrel, Alice Buteau and Caroline Siol.
“Keeping Up with the Joneses” (USA, 2009, Derrick Borte). A satirical tragicomedy, quite wittily ridiculing the current society fixated on rabid consumerism. New settlers, the Johnsons, appear in a provincial town - the living embodiment of an ideal American family. And no one even suspects that they are not a unit of society at all, but advertising agents hired by a powerful marketing company, designed by their example to encourage ordinary people to hysterically buy new models of sneakers, plasma TVs and golf clubs. For the time being, everything goes well, but in the end, simple human feelings begin to take precedence over sales ratings. The film went virtually unnoticed at the American box office. Starring David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Ben Hollingsworth, Gary Cole, Chris Williams, Catherine Dyer, Steve Barnes and Lauren Hutton.
“Move Your Fins” (Belgium, 2010, Ben Stassen). A 3D cartoon about a sea turtle named Sammy, who hatched from an egg in 1959 and over the next half century circumnavigated the world's oceans against the backdrop of slowly but surely advancing global warming. In the domestic box office, the three-dimensional marine life was dubbed by Maxim Averin and Timur Rodriguez.
“The Karate Kid” (USA-China, 2010, Harold Zwart). Not so much a remake as a very free variation on the theme of the cult film of 1984: twelve-year-old Dre (All of Us, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Day the Earth Stood Still) is forced to move with his mother from Detroit to Beijing, where fully experiences the difference between the two cultures. Only the ancient art of kung fu in the rather rumpled face of the plumber (and at the same time martial arts master) Mr. Han (Jackie Chan - “The Forbidden Kingdom”, “The Spy Next Door”, “The Big Soldier”) can help him cope with the “difficulties of translation”. . Uneven and drawn out in places, but the closer to the end, the more and more attractive the film, which, unexpectedly for its creators, collected almost $180 million at the American box office. Also starring Taraji P. Henson, Han Wenwen, Yu Rungan, Wu Zhensu, Wang Zhichen, Van Genven and Jared Minns.
“Compensation” (Russia, 2010, Vera Storozheva). A heartbreaking crime melodrama from director Storozheva (“Sky. Airplane. Girl”, “Greek Holidays”, “Travel with Pets”): after the death of their mother, two provincial sisters are kidnapped from their father who abandoned them a long time ago (Gosha Kutsenko - “ Mummy from a Suitcase”, “Antikiller”, “Love-Carrots”) of a child from a new marriage and demand “moral compensation” - a million for each. Also starring Lyubov Tolkalina, Vladimir Epifantsev, Irina Gorbacheva, Anna Shcherbinina, Polina Kutsenko and Anfisa Medvedeva.