Lumea e a mea

No pun intended - since I am not too aware of the Romanian film/movie landscape I am not going to pretend to know if this is just another movie that tries to shock and is in the same vein as the "others" ... I just am not able to confirm or deny this allegation I read in another users review. I'll take that reviewers word for it ... but can't rate or see it in his or her eyes.

Talking about perspective, the movie is told from the perspective of a teenage girl ... one that is more than just troubled. The issues she has are not just from the outside (be it family, friends, school, boys, girls and other stuff that she has to deal with), but also from within herself. So it won't be easy to completely identify with her I reckon ... and the ending will not really seem like a resolve of much ... you'll have to make up your own interpretation of what the very last frame is telling us ... is it literal or metaphorical? I'd say the latter ... but feel free to disagree.

This movie is plagued with the same problems as virtually most Romanian movies. It tries to be an ultra-realistic depiction of reality, exaggerating (up to an extreme) the social and mindset problems of Romania. It follows the same format as every other Romanian movie released in the last two decades - you know it is a train-wreck, you know that it is going to end up bad and yet, you can't take your eyes away from it.

Have you've ever watched a movie just because of nudity? Or because of violence? You know that the movie is crap but yet, something keeps you there. Well, this is what this movies does too. It keeps you not by being shocking but rather, by trying to be a social commentary of the Romanian society and making it so black and white that you can't but watch. You know that it is stupid but you'll keep watching anyway.

It is good to watch if you are actually doing something else, as you don't need to pay a lot of attention but generally, I've found it so full of clichés and that I can hardly say this is a quality movie. It is sensationalism, the equivalent of a tabloid in movie format and I'm sorry to say, but I haven't seen any good movie from Romania for way too long.

I only write a review for this because the other review here is unfair, and I'm ticked off by racist slurs like "gypsy criminal music" for Manele, which doesn't appear that much in the film. And there isn't much profanity, don't get your hopes up. My guess is the reviewer was outraged at the "gypsy sweet-talks stupid girl and then dumps her like garbage" plot element. It doesn't really matter though that the guy is a Rom, and there's a more vicious scumbag later in the film who is not of that ethnicity.

It's true that this is a very predictable "rebellious teenage girl's descent into hell" story, a genre Romanian film deals with a lot because it works well with film festivals. And indeed, this won best debut feature at the two main Romanian festivals, which means some people think the director might be the next Porumboiu or Puiu. I hope not because of the cliché water symbolism and weak script, but all these new Cinema Verité guys started out with stories like this.

In short, this is not a disturbingly misogynist teen girl film like, for instance "WebSiteStory", and not a careful portrait like "American Honey". It's boring standard Romanian realist film festival fare.