ThiefHott Too much of everything

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

perica-43151 This is a brilliant if dark movie. Showing corruption of the Soviet system in stark and horrific colors and the high price it put on the human soul, this cynical piece of movie making is based on a true story. And it rings true. More horrific than most horror movies, it is well worth a watch. It may scar you, so beware. But it is one hell of a great movie.

runamokprods Unique, deeply disturbing combination of 'Last House on the Left' type horror, pitch-black political satire, and fury at the sickness of one's own society. The film was said by it's director to have been explicitly made to combat the growing nostalgia, fueled by Putin, for Soviet era Russia. Based on true events that occurred in 1984, as the Soviet Union sank ever deeper into the Afghanistan quagmire ('Cargo 200' is the code names for bodies being brought back from the war), this depiction of a 'Deliverance' type grotesque family who sell illegal booze to finance their fantasy of one day creating a utopia in the middle of nowhere, and the complete psychopath of a police captain 'friend' who protects, but ultimately turns on them, and ends up committing murder, along with rape, torture and kidnapping of a young girl who happens by – all while being paid by the government. The slow build is handled pretty brilliantly, and we're surprised over and over at exactly who turns out to do what – although the feeling of doom hovers over the film from it's first moments. By the end of the film, the depravity is so insane, and depicted in such a matter- of-fact way, that the only reaction one can have is to laugh a terribly disturbed, uncomfortable laugh. It's as if Balabanov took torture porn, but turned it into the darkest possible comedy performance-art by having it comment on the world in a bigger way (but isn't that really what all the truly great horror films do?) The cinematography is also 'beautiful' in its almost loving framing of ugliness, both human and industrial.Major plot questions are left unanswered, but that doesn't feel like sloppy film-making, but rather an intentional (if frustrating) method of making us ponder what we've just witnessed, instead of being able to walk away and forget. Some of the acting is awkward, but there are images I that will stick with me a long time, and I have the feeling the film might grow even deeper on repeated viewings. It isn't often you read various critics comparing a film to both the Coen bothers and 'Saw', or a critic saying 'it made me want to puke, and I mean that as a high complement', but it's that much a one-of- a-kind film.

Peter 26 It's a horror film about maniac with details of his crimes. It's not about the USSR and it's not a historical movie. The director pretends on a great depth of meaning but really it's horror in "social realism" style. If you never live in the USSR in 80th you can think that the whole life was the same like in this movie. I.e. maniacs, criminals integrated in the police and in the society. But reality differs from this like Charles Manson differs from usual man. Balabanov is a good provoker. He wanted sensation at any cost and he received it with naturalistic acts of violence and with decomposing men bodies. It's a very cheap way but if you haven't talent and ideas just remake "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in another surrounding and call it drama instead of horror and voilà - you are modern fancy new wave director!

erikweijers Now I remember why I like attending sneak previews so much. The absence of expectations from the audience. How does a curious movie audience react to the blackest of comedies slash nightmare? When I entered, some 200 people were in the audience. When the movie had ended, some 120 were left. The people who left, did so in the second hour of the movie, after having giggled the first hour. The talent of the filmmaker. I stayed and enjoyed one of the best movie theater experiences ever.The Soviet Union, 1984. That can be displayed even more horrible than you thought. It all starts out kind of cute: a boy with a Russian disco hairdo, a professor in 'atheism', a captain of the Russian army, an innocent girl. But lemonade glasses of vodka pass through these people. And not everyone is so kind. It results in a fly plague...It can't get any worse, but it does. And I kept laughing, although without much joy. I witnessed the people leaving around me. And I wanted to shout: Waiter! More Vodka! More! The best black comedy of the year. I even remembered the name after leaving the sneak preview, which is very rare...