juantheroux

While the movie deserves all the accolades, there are some flaws: 1 - the judge assigns an "evaluator" who turns out to be someone who looks like a 19th century grandma. Her long scene "evaluating" accomplishes little and we never find out what effect it had on the judge, if any.

2 - the long argument near the end concludes with Charlie breaking down and crying. It was over the top I felt, as was Nicole's reaction.

3 - the kid is not likable at all. Every time he appears I wished he'd just go away.

4 - movie is a bit too long. Cutting out the evaluator would not hurt.

This is a movie about smoking, chain smoking in fact, by people who don't even know how to smoke. Left overs from prior movies, or stuff shot when you were wandering the streets with a spare digital camera. Tie it up with shots of a woman staring out into space, walking around lost, eating. There's actually a narrative on a black & white screen like in old silent movies, except there's no story to tell.

There's actually a scene where the woman tries to get out of a bus, but some man keeps catching her and throwing her back in her seat. This is repeated at least 10 times, I guess there were 10 takes. Might as well use them all. Lots and lots of sentimental songs, shots of crumbling buildings, boats going down the river. Heard enough?

A wonderful ending saves the movie. But from the time the Russian agents enter the apartment, it's all about the F word - and all its variations, many of which are probably original. You are supposed to find it funny, or possibly a caricature of what streaming movies and TV series have become (sex, violence, profanity), but it goes on and on for the rest of the movie. Once upon a time (early 1960's) the word screw was not allowed on the air. But "screw you" has long been replaced by "f**k you", just as darn was replaced by damn. Love used to be the most popular word in the English language, mostly because it was misused to mean "like" as in "I love it". The F word is now that most popular word. I still give it a 6 rating for being a subtle character study, an inverse spoof of the profanity in Hollywood, and of course those last scenes between Igor and Ani.