There are tons of movies with 80s music. Tons with 70s, 60s & 50s music. Alas, what about the poor 90s? Apparently the 90s was such a musically unidentifiable decade that imdb doesn't even have a soundtrack listing for this movie. But to anyone who remembers the 90s, the music is the key to this great flick. More on that in a sec, first let's talk about the plot.
In this 3rd film of writer/director Ricardo Trogi's epic autobiographical saga, we plant ourselves in the year 1991 at age of 21 as our hero "Trogi", a socially maladjusted college kid from Quebec, impulsively runs off to Italy chasing the (3rd) girl of his dreams. The story unravels in a quirky, comedic way as he deals with the pains of lone travel in foreign countries, a swiftly evaporating budget, a premature bald patch, and of course a girl of his dreams who seems far more interested in shady Spanish men than him.
I probably just named a bunch of things that don't apply to your life (unless you happen to be a prematurely balding 21 year old wandering around European train stations), so you might be wondering why you'd want to watch this flick. Well, back to my original point about the music, that's what bridges the cultural/age gap and pulls us into this great nostalgic trip even if we've never been there. With its opening scene of a girl annoyingly lip-synching Technotronic's "Move This" ("Shake that body"), to the ironically sexy use of Enigma, to heartbreak à la Roxette ("Must Have Been Love But It's Over Now"), the music is what connects us to this story. Songs are given to us in generous doses, not just a 10 second clips here & there like in most throwback films but in a way that really pulls us into the experience as if it's our own; we all remember where we were when we first heard these songs, and this film uses that device to powerful effect.
As the story unfolds we realize that, despite its specific time and setting, this tale is timeless and universal. It's about the awkwardness of young adulthood, the awkwardness of being a fish out of water, whether you're a French-Canadian stuck in Italy or whatever/wherever you may be. Like the 2 films that preceded this one, this is a story with a lot of heart even though it's presented as a quirky fast-paced comedy. The themes aren't limited to laughs, love & growing up, but here they begin to develop into questions of one's purpose in life. "We're going to change the world!!" one character shouts in a memorable scene as a crowd looks on silently and dismissively. The subtle message being, I'm guessing, that before you can change the world you have to figure out who you are.
I highly recommend the entire Trogi-logy ("1981", "1987" and "1991") which by the way you can watch in any order and still enjoy. Looking at my watch I'm thinking it's about time for "1997" to be released, in which case I'll be in the front row waiting to hear some Nirvana, Ace of Base, and *cringe* Oasis "Wonderwall".
