Pusinky aka Dolls is a Czech coming of age/road trip movie following the 3 friends Iska, Karolina and Vendula. School is finished; deadbeat jobs wait for Karolina and Vendula and college with lots of strange people and pressure by the family (no freedom to choose subject etc.) for Iska. Going away to Holland appears as the solution, aiming for the land of opportunity – away from the family, easy living, freedom, drugs, money – a chance to stay together even it is only for a while.
The story sets out as college girl is vegetating in a sports camp – send there by her parents with her little brother (who is actually good at sports) to watch her. Her two friends arrive to rescue her and with all the best intentions of taking her away from there...
So what is new, why should you watch it?
Well, this is a very Czech and European movie, so the mood is can be pretty downbeat and slow moving at times. This makes it believable and gives the actors room to develop the characters and the story room to build up secrets and tensions between the three characters, which make the movie more interesting.
So the acting is excellent and the story has lots to offer, if you are OK with things being sad and taking their time. Oh and the soundtrack fits the movie quite well.
Which brings me to the 'but' – the story is about teenagers with loads of awkwardness, mood jumps and opportunities wasted. This is annoying at times and makes you think: How can they be this stupid? Well they are teenagers
this is part of growing up, making mistakes. Still, even realizing this it is not easy to watch some parts of the movie.
Then there is the feeling that the movie has nothing really new to offer – maybe I have just watched too many movies. Maybe I have missed something as I watched the movie with subtitles.
So overall, I enjoyed the acting, most of the story and was annoyed by the teenage characters. Would I watch it once? Yes. Would I watch it again? Probably not. 6 to 7 out of 10.
