Review of You I Love

Introduction

For those of us who haven`t seen (m)any examples of Russian cinema, our general impression of our comrades garnered from film is one of spying, vodka, inept socialism and not liking anything associated with the free-market West. It`s fair to say that hip-and-happening young homosexuals who work in advertising don`t really conform to the stereotype that we`ve lumbered our pals in Moscow with, and so in that respect, `You I Love` certainly gets off on the right foot.

Examining the bisexual and gay scene in present day Russia, the movie initially sees a very traditional and almost consequently dull meeting between a man and woman which then takes a bizarre twist and becomes something much more interesting, if not superior in believability.

Timofei (like the shampoo), played by Evgeny Koryakovsky, is a young man around his late twenties, who makes TV commercials for Pizza, Cola and any other junk food you can care to think of. It is coincidentally in a canteen that he meets Vera (Lyubov Tolkalina), a slender TV news presenter and extremely attractive broad (is that word sexist these days? Or is it charming?) who has a food fetish/obsession, depending on how sexy you want to make it sound. They become lovers, not expecting (and reasonably so), to have their commitment tested by a man falling from the sky. Literally.

Uloomji (Damir Badmaev) is an Asian-Russian Zoo worker whose entrance into the plot is made by falling off a wall onto Timotei`s (sorry) car. After taking him home to nurse him back to health, they fall for each other and reluctantly pull Vera into their web of saucy shower scenes and poorly decorated interiors. The ensuing mayhem runs to three way sex in a toilet and the un-death of a loved one, by way of a reindeer. See, Mr Regan was right, Communism rots the mind.

Video

Such is the still relatively intriguing look of the post-Soviet landscapes of Eastern Europe that the production team would have had to do a bit of a botch job to mess this one up. Thankfully, they`ve managed to deliver a movie as quirky in look as it is in substance, and the opening sequence of Uloomji asking a number of people in animal suits for work is a piece of inspired art-nonsense!

The widescreen presentation itself is adequate. There are a few tiny visual blips, and so from that point of view it is not perfect, but as the Chinese proverb states, `A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections`. To paraphrase, a good DVD with picture discrepancies is better than anything starring Adam Sandler.

Audio

The soundtrack consists of a mix of handbag house and lift muzac, and so unless that`s your bag, then it has to be met with an unequivocal `uh-uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh` (think Family Fortunes) from our studio audience.

I was rather impressed with the overall audio quality, the sound being crisp and well delivered.

Features

We are promised Cast and filmmaker interviews, Deleted scenes and Behind-the-scenes footage. May I take this opportunity to say that, and I think I speak on behalf of us all her when I say that we`re fed up with promises that DON`T! AMOUNT! TO ANYTHING!

… sorry, I thought I was in the house of commons there.

Conclusion

It`s not just the title`s syntax that throws caution to the wind - the entire film is more a series of interesting set pieces that make up a bigger picture, than the more progressing plot that us western capitalist pig-dogs are used to. Whether or not this is indicative of a new artistic feature of the Moscow film scene remains to be seen in subsequent movies from the Russian Capital, but `You I Love` ambles along pleasantly enough to give it eighty-minutes of your life.

Of course, we should have expected this really. After the Polish Solidarity movement gave the eastern Bloc a good kicking, eventually seeing the collapse of the USSR in 1991, that area of the world has seen a great many changes. The influence of Western culture over the pre-existing and ingrained Russian ideals, has meant a collision of film worlds, which ultimately presents itself as a sparky, quirky design applied to the template of more `standard` style of movie-making.

Vera`s femme fatale demenour, later finding herself out of favour and replaced by a teenage boy, is well portrayed by Tolkalina, but her male opposite is slightly, what`s the word? `Деревянный` (in English - wooden). Whilst an array of odd sentiments and gimmicks are displayed thoughout (Vera`s food obsession, Uloomji`s zoo job), Timofei remains relatively `normal`. Ok, so his character is probably supposed to be as such, but you find yourself crying out for him to just get a bit sillier.

`You I Love` is no work of art, nor is it a waste of your well earned leisure time, it`s somewhere in the middle of the road. As a taster of what`s to come from modern Moscow cinema, then it is a bit of a teaser; promising a bit more than it actually delivers. What we really want is a bit more caution to the wind - an all out `stupid-a-thon` - but for now, it looks like they`re leaving `that` to the state circus.