Idle Running

When I first saw V Leru (Idle Running) it felt like watching s Slovenian version of Clerks. The two films have certain things in common; they are both very well written, are about growing up or to be more exact - not growing up, have great humour and are both shot in black and white. Dizzy, the main protagonist is in his late twenties and still living in a student dorm. He is basically stuck in life but not because he lacks intelligence, he is smart but simply does not fit in a life that society dictates us. No job, no prospects, no nothing, Who does not feel that way sometimes, or maybe all the time. If you are one of these people, you will love this film even more. The characters are very well written and it is impossible not to care for them and the dialogue is fantastic. Comedy and drama mix seamlessly in this film. The black and white photography seems to capture and amplify the general mood of the main character perfectly. Truly well made film all around and highly recommended.

V leru it's not a movie about Student life. It's about being lost. Being in a position where you cannot decide where to go. But you will have to, sooner or later.

Dizzy is a man about 28 years old. Maybe 30. He has a girlfriend, but he hasn't got a job, he's not willing to get a degree, although he's not stupid, as he knows that some f......k volcano in the middle of nowhere is called Popocatepetle.

He' trapped in between choosing something (getting a job, getting married), but he's not convinced that this is something he really wants.

So he drinks with his fellow friends and follows football and wanders around - doing nothing. Then a freshman comes in his students room. 18-year old, who comes from some Trbovlje village. He looks naive and he's trying to become an electrician.

However the young roommate also has a girlfriend. A pregnant one! And this makes Dizzy, who is 30 think about what he wants to do with his life. So the story is about growing up. About taking responsibility and building something - a family, which gives a man, who feels lost, the sense of it's own worth.

It's a small but great movie and I hope many people will see it. The writing is very good and there are no fake feelings, the characters are well developed and it has excellent side stories. You'll like it!

There are a number of books which are instantly recognizable to some people by their first lines: "It was a pleasure to burn"; "It was a bright April morning and the clocks were striking thirteen"; "Call me Ishmael". I'm not so sure I can recall many films by their first lines - but of course films are primarily visual. So then last lines of films (well, maybe with the exception of CASABLANCA) might be expected to be even less memorable.

"Life sucks" might not seem to be an entirely uplifting ending for a film - I'm not sure how good the translation from Slovenian is - but closing a conversation between two college guys about the difficulty of getting quality sporting merchandise and getting caught in a bureaucratic nightmare tops off one of a number of excellent dialogues/monologues in this film.

Not only is the dialogue crisp & witty (co-written by Jan Cvitkovic, who also plays the main character, Dizzy, and the director, Janez Burger) the characters are believable and multi-faceted. Many of Dizzy's monologues are hilariously funny. He and his friends often seem totally oblivious of social mores and protocols, yet they're not *total* boors about it and we tend to forgive them.

Relationships and what drive them figure highly in the film. Dizzy seems to ascribe to the electron theory of relationships - "follow the path of least resistance" but after awhile this doesn't bode well with girlfriend Marina. Dizzy's roommate, Marko, asks if it's ok for Ana (his girlfriend) to move in, as she has no where else to go. Dizzy assents, just admonishing Marko not to bring all his other relatives too.

One of the more humorous films I've seen in a while - a dozen or so Slovenian teens were in the audience where I saw it - and they weren't the only ones laughing!

But than again, not an ordinary student movie. Since I discovered and experienced some "dorm-life", I didn't quite find myself in this movie.

Maybe was the scenography, which was 20 years out of date, or maybe was the black and white picture or maybe was just an extraordinary characters, lack of action and a depressive note, especially at the end. Beats me.

So despite that, did I enjoy this movie?

Yes. Some scenes were hilariously funny with very original jokes never seen before. Also good casting (at this point I should mention brilliant play by the freshman Janez Rus) did it's job.

V Leru is undoubtfully one of the best movies made in Slovenija for the past last years, not my favourite, but still, for originality

7 out of 10