That's Life!

That's Life!; drama, USA, 1986; D: Blake Edwards, S: Jack Lemmon, Julie Andrews, Sally Kellerman, Jennifer Edwards, Robert Loggia

Malibu. Singer Gillian has done a biopsy of a lesion on her throat, and awaits the results, fearing it might be cancer. At her mansion, her husband Harvey, an architect, has turned 60 and is thus more neurotic than usual, fearing death. She is patient and is hiding her health concerns from him. Harvey meets a client, Janice, and she wants to have sex, but he experiences erectile dysfunction. He then goes to confess at a church, meeting his old friend, now turned priest, Baragone. Harvey then sees a fortune teller who has sex with him, giving him crabs. At the Sunday birthday party, their grown-up kids Josh and Megan show up, and Gillian tells Harvey to get a grip on his neurosis. She receives the good news that her biopsy result is benign.  

Comedy director Blake Edwards started incorporating a lot of serious topics in his later phase of his career, with a lot of autobiographical elements, especially about midlife-crisis, andropause, infidelity, fear of death, and fear of missing out on life in movies "10", "Skin Deep" and "That's Life!". The latter was not that well received, since it is a humorous drama, and Edwards' blend of melancholia, anxiety and humor is not for everyone's taste, but he shows a lot of understanding, measure and emotion for his characters, and several autobiographical elements ring true (a major plot point is character Gillian waiting for the results of the biopsy of her throat, which is eerily similar to the health issues of the vocal cords of the actress playing her, Julie Andrews). Somber and depressing, overlong, with the character of Harvey (Jack Lemmon) constantly whining until it becomes tiresome, "That's Life!" still touches upon some problems most of people will face at one point in their lives, and even has an uplifting message at the end, done through a splendid rant by Gillian. Edwards still inserted a few of his characteristically comical lines, which are refreshing in this grey film. One of them is when Harvey complains to Gillian that he will not eat one of their friends' stew: "He is the serial killer! ... It's the other stuff that gives me gout, the onions only make me fart. I tell you now, if I eat that stuff, by midnight that room is a disaster area!" Another is when Gillian wakes up in the middle of the night, until she finds out Harvey is riding the exercise bike in the next room, as he explains he wants to "bicycle himself to death". Supporting characters also have funny lines, such as Sally Kellerman as Holly ("My stomach is bigger than my breast!") and Robert Loggia as priest Baragone, who secretly drinks alcohol during Harvey's confession, or when Baragone and Holly have an exchange at the end ("Something wrong?" - "No, father, something's right"). A very specific, California-centered story, but with several universally relevant topics.

Grade:++ 

Fall of Our Summer

Jesen našeg ljeta; drama short, Croatia, 2021; D: Karlo Vorih, S: Karlo Vorih, Aneta Grabovac, Lidija Penić Grgaš, Marko Bičanić, Klara Rihtar

Karlo moves in with his girlfriend Lidija. They don't know how to clean the fish, so he brings the fish to his dad to clean it. On his way back, Karlo meets an old friend, Aneta, who came back after studying abroad. During dinner, Lidija and Karlo listen to their friends lamenting about moving to London. Karlo goes for a walk and drink with Aneta during the night, chatting with other youngsters downtown. Later, they go to her apartment, and they kiss. Afterwards, Karlo leaves and wonders the streets during the night.

"Fall of Our Summer" (also translated as "The Autumn of Our Summer") has a conventional story, but still enough honesty while tackling the topic of a young generation trying to start a new life on their own, while still feeling that longing for the past "wild days". Directed by and starring Karlo Vorih, this short film benefits the most from aesthetic cinematography consisting out of huge close-ups and warm, yellow colors, giving it a distinctive look. Too much of its scenes are arbitrary, random and "improvised", meandering a bit too far into the trivial, yet it strikes the right tone of nostalgia and confusion of what to do with this new stage of life. The protagonist Karlo is content living with his girlfriend Lidija, but it seems he is not truly happy, since the viewers can sense he feels their joint life is just standard. He thus goes out with the girl he knew before, Aneta, who reminds him of this past and feeling that goes with it. One of her lines is funny ("She is pregnant, her stomach is up to her teeth!"), and one scene is wonderfully poetic (she asks Karlo to help her untie the knot on her hair behind her head, after which they feel chemistry). The story is thus a contemplation on the paradox of never truly being happy with one situation, since it always excludes other situations, and the notion that even people in a relationship can long for something better than what they got, and since it is based on the mood and feelings, it succeeds in its task.

Grade:++ 

The Dead Don't Die

The Dead Don't Die; horror comedy, USA, 2019; D: Jim Jarmusch, S: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Danny Glover, Steve Buscemi, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez

In the small town Centerville, police chief Cliff runs a police precinct with police officer Ronnie and Mindy. On the news, they hear that polar fracking caused an axis tilt of Earth, which in turn triggered a zombie apocalypse. The three police officers battle zombies by either shooting their heads or chopping them off. A local morgue owner, Zelda, uses her sword to battle zombies, and disappears in an UFO. The zombies eventually surround and kill the police officers.

After tackling vampires in "Only Lovers Left Alive", director and screenwriter Jim Jarmusch took on the zombie genre in this horror comedy, but neither of these two films managed to make something new, creative or inspirational out these tired horror tropes. "The Dead Don't Die" works the best in the first 30 minutes when it has several charming jokes, but after the zombie apocalypse starts, the story debases and devolves into a standard, typical zombie horror featuring cliche decapitation and shooting, making the whole second half tiresome and inert. The opening scene is amusing, featuring police chief Cliff (Bill Murray) going to investigate a stolen chicken in the forest, knowing the perpetrator is Bob, hiding behind the bushes, so Cliff goes: "We kinda can see you." Later, upon observing the corpse of the alcoholic Mallory, Cliff cynically adds: "Even dead, you reek of Chardonnay," after which he talks to his two police officers and comments further that Mallory "isn't getting any older". Steve Buscemi has a hilarious cameo as the ultra-conservative Frank with a red cap saying: "Keep America White Again". Unfortunately, most of the characters are wasted: Selena Gomez plays a guest, Zoe, who visits the town, but is then killed by the zombies, just like many other characters, who are thus underused and without a point in the end. This is a pity, since Zoe had potentials: in the scene where the geek Bobby asks for her name, the camera shows Zoe in a close up, and as she says her name, for a split second sparks appear around her head. That these two never connect in the story is a waste, as are many other plot points which lead to a dead end. The film is a sardonic satire on self-destructive capitalist exploitation of Earth until its breaking point, since the zombies could be seen as a symbol for climate disasters, but all this could have been said with better jokes and more inspiration.  

Grade:++

The Lion in Winter

The Lion in Winter; historical drama, UK / USA, 1968; D: Anthony Harvey, S: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, Nigel Terry, John Castle, Jane Merrow, Timothy Dalton

On Christmas eve of 1183, Henry II (50), the King of Britain and western France, summons his three sons Richard, Geoffrey and John at his castle in Chinon, Touraine to choose a heir. He also summons his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, locked up in another castle as a punishment for supporting a revolt against him ten years ago. Henry wants his youngest son John to succeed him, but Eleanor favors Richard, a military genius. King Philip II of France promised his sister Alais to the future heir, but she has been Henry's mistress for years, and if she is not wed, her dowry, the county of Vexin near Paris, will be retracted. Henry is thus in a pickle. Finally, Henry decides to divorce Eleanor and marry Alais to get another heir, imprisoning his three sons, though he eventually lets them go. He gives up on his plan and embraces Eleanor, whom he sends back to her prison-castle.

"The Lion in Winter" received critical recognition during its premiere, but never advanced into a classic, due to some of its shortcomings in the long run. It plays out on Christmas eve and involves a family reunion, but its story is both anti-Christmas and anti-family in tone, a cynical contemplation on the spoiled people in power who always want to have their cake and eat it, in this case King Henry II, who is stuck in a sort of "wolf, goat and cabbage problem" puzzle—he wants to stay married to his wife Eleanor, but also have a mistress, Alais; he wants to keep the county of Vexin, strategically placed near Paris, as a dowry when Alais marries his heir, but also wants to postpone the wedding as long as possible to keep her as his mistress; he doesn't like either one of his three sons as heir, so he even wants to father another child with Alais. "The Lion in Winter" is adapted from a play by James Goldman, who also wrote the script, and, like most of these kind of films, feels too stage-bound, rigid, stiff and more "theatrical" than cinematic. There is little emphasis on visuals, as the only thing that matters is characters interacting. 

Its two main merits are excellent performances and witty, sometimes deliciously funny dialogues which make these "old" times feel "fresh". The three main actors are phenomenal: Peter O'Toole as the bearded Henry II; Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor, his estranged wife; and Anthony Hopkins as their son Richard. Whenever they act, they "chew the scenery", and their titanic talent practically causes the shaking of the screen. The comical dialogues are sometimes a delight to listen to. Henry has such monologues as these: "I've snapped and plotted all my life. There's no other way to be a king, alive and fifty all at once!" Eleanor's cynical comments are so powerful that she and Alais even have this exchange. "Could I hurt you?" - "With both of your hands tied behind your back!" Eleanor's mouth is more powerful than any weapon, since she mocks everyone who deserves it, from Henry who secretly prevented John from marrying Alais to have her as his mistress ("They’ve been marching down the aisle for 16 years, and that’s a long walk!") up to Richard ("I have suffered more defeats than you have teeth!"), though Henry's observations match her own: "I could listen to you lie for hours!" Here and there, Richard says some sharp lines, too, such as when Philip II boasts: "I've spent two years in every street in hell!", as Richard replies: "That's odd, I've never seen you there". Unfortunately, they botched the ending, since the last 20 minutes are wasted. They missed out a perfect opportunity to have some sort of Christmas reconciliation or catharsis in the end, which would have been a better fit than what we got here, an incoherent, unsatisfying conclusion (Henry sending Eleanor back to her castle-prison as they both smile seems almost grotesque), showing that Zinnemann's similar film "A Man for All Seasons" had a better, more harmonious structure. 

Grade:+++

The Last Roman God

Posljednji rimski bog; historical drama, Croatia, 2026; D: Božidar Domagoj Burić, S: Amar Bukvić, Slavko Sobin, Marko Cindrić, Nataša Janjić Medančić, Dragan Despot, Krešimir Mikić, Marinko Prga, Anja-Šovagović Despot

284 AD. Diocles is a commander in the Roman Army. The Roman Empire is jointly ruled by brothers and co-emperors Carinus and Numerian. While escorting Numerian's closed coach near Bithynia, Diocles smells a stench from inside, but the commander of the Praetorian Guard Lucius Flavius Aper dismisses it as rotten meat. Upon opening the coach and discovering Numerian is dead, Diocles has Aper executed and declares himself as the new emperor. Carinus, now the sole emperor, orders the Roman Army to attack Diocles' soldiers in the Battle of the Magrus, but prefect Aristobulus defects and kills Carinus in his tent. The Roman Army swears loyalty to Diocles, who proclaims himself emperor Diocletian in Rome, but decides to divide the Empire into West and East, sharing it with commander Maximian. 21 years later, an old, retired Diocletian resides in his palace in Spalathos, hallucinating talking with the ghost of Aper.

One of the most expensive and ambitious Croatian films at the time of its premiere, "The Last Roman God" is the culmination of writer, producer and director Bozidar Domagoj Buric's fascination with historical events crossing paths with Croatia (TV historical docudrama series "Republic", "Croatian Kings", "The Age of Uskoks"), in this case a biopic about the Roman Emperor Diocletian who came from Solin and later retired to live in Split (Spalathos) in his residency, making hereby his "debut" in cinema. Filmed in HD cinematography entirely in Latin language (!) to authentically depict the era of 3rd century Roman Empire, "The Last Roman God" looks impressive, almost as a Hollywood film, with opulent set designs, costumes, excellent actors led by Amar Bukvic, and sense for transmitting this chaotic, primitive and brute world realistically to the audience (among others, people even swear in Latin!). However, its structure is messy, uneven and chaotic, unnecessarily constantly flip-flopping between three time periods, "Past" (Diocletian as a soldier), "Present" (Diocletian preparing for a coup d'état) and "Future" (Diocletian as an old man) in non-linear narration, instead of simply telling this story chronologically. 

Another problem is that the story spends too much time on questionable episodic characters (a war veteran complaining that he received bad land, so he urinates on Diocletian's monument, is arrested and sent to death in the arena—is this episode truly essential for the story?), taking away too much time from Diocletian, who becomes a supporting character in his own story at times. Even more perplexing is the puzzling decision to only show Diocletian during the coup d'état and retirement, but nothing about his 21-year reign. True, it is mentioned that he persecuted Christians in the arena, but except for that, certainly it would have been interesting to not skip his entire reign and just jump to him as a retired old man in his Diocletian's Palace. A dream scene and a bizarre ending that tries to imitate a sort of Nolan-style "plot twist" should have been simply cut. Buric even takes after "Game of Thrones"-style rawness and roughness while showing the decadence of Roman Emperor Carinus, who spends his time in an orgy room or watching the execution of Christians in the arena, hinting at why the Roman Army and Senate would support Diocletian to replace him. This leads to some of the best moments: while the battle is waging, Diocletian is relaxing near his tent, eating, explaining to his nervous friend Maximian: "Most are always nervous during a battle. I am not, because I already know the outcome". Soon, it is revealed what he means, as one of Carinus' own soldiers will betray him and defect. The comment of a Senator about Diocletian is now almost iconic and an instant classic: "There is only one thing worse than a mad tyrant: a sane tyrant". Forcing too much weight on superfluous episodes, and placing too little of others which would have been more logical to understand the protagonist better, "The Last Roman God" is uneven, without a truly engaging story until the last third, but its themes of the scramble for power ring true. 

Grade:++

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One; action, USA, 2023 D: Christopher McQuarrie, S: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Esai Morales, Cary Elwes, Pom Klementieff

Russian submarine Sevastopol activates a highly advanced AI system, the Entity, which becomes sentient, escapes into the Internet, and tricks the submarine into sinking after a torpedo attack. The world governments are trying to find two keys which could control the Entity, so Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt and his team, Luther, Benji, and former MI6 agent Ilsa, are sent to find it first. Ethan wants to destroy the Entity, fearing its powers could cause grave danger for the world. After several chases in Rome and Venice, the team sends thief Grace to put on a head-mask and play Alanna "White Widow", an arms dealer, go to a train near Innsbruck, and find out who is the buyer of the key: it is Kittridge, former IMF director and current CIA director. A secret killer, Gabriel, derails the train, but Ethan and Grace are able to survive and obtain the key.

Part 7 of the "Mission: Impossible" film series is a surprising jump in creative levels, thanks mostly to the plot concept which hit the nerve of time: an AI system gaining consciousness, disappearing in the Internet, and threatening the world. This made "Dead Reckoning Part One" actual and subversive, dwelling on the ever popular AI-human conflict. However, this concept was not developed fully, since numerous potentials were left unexplored (probably left out for part II). The best bits are thus when such an AI threat is shown in two scenes: in one especially creative one, the AI is "erasing" a secret agent live from surveillance cameras, with Luther only discovering the man's reflection in a mirror; the other is when the AI takes over Benji's microphone and voice, and falsely directs Ethan into running into a dark alley, where an ambush awaits him. More of these kind of tricks and ploys by the AI Entity would have been welcomed in the story. The rest is a bit standard, though the chase sequence across Rome is dynamic and effective; whereas the excellent Pom Klementieff is well used as an assassin: almost every one of her kick and fight moves are a stylistic feat on itself. Vanessa Kirby is also a standout as arms dealer Alanna. "Dead Reckoning Part One" should have gone an even darker route, and dared even more, but its concept is highly stimulative (even CIA and FBI are willing to work with enemies to get the keys to control the Entity), hinting at a proto-Techno-Cold World of the future, thereby giving a messages besides the action.   

Grade:+++

Close-Up

Kluzap, nema-ye nazdik; art-film / documentary, Iran, 1990; D: Abbas Kiarostami, S: Hossain Sabzian, Mehrdad Ahankhah, Monoochehr Ahankhah, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Abolfazl Ahankhah

A reporter follows police officers in a car driving to the house of the Ahankhah family, where they arrest a certain Hossain Sabzian, who falsely claimed he is the famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, gained trust of the family, borrowed 1,900 tomans from them for a taxi, and pretended he is rehearsing scenes for his next film with their sons. At the trial, Sabzian admits he is not the director, but during a bus drive, a woman asked about the book he was reading, and he claimed he wrote it because he is Makhmalbaf. Sabzian expresses remorse and says he did not intend any burglary when inspecting the house of the Ahankhah family. The plaintiffs ultimately decide to forgive Sabzian at the trial. Upon his release, Sabzian meets the real Makhmalbaf, drives with him on a motorcycle with a flower to the Ahankhah house, and apologizes once again. 

The director Abbas Kiarostami crafted this peculiar, almost experimental film which defies genres, revolving around imposter Hossain Sabzian who falsely posed as film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf: one half of the film is a documentary, where he filmed the actual trial where the judge and plaintiffs discuss with Sabzian; the other half is the fictional re-enacting of part of this incident, with Sabzian and the Ahankhah family playing themselves (!) while acting these scenes out. This hybrid of docufiction and documentary is at times fascinating, though it does tend to become overstretched, exhausting itself with too much screentime given to the actual trial, with ponderous monologues, which just go on and on, instead of showing more details from this case. "Close-Up" is thus a bit uneven, overfocusing on the trial, while under-focusing on the events. The main question it poses is: why did Sabzian do this? His monologue during the trial sums it up: "They gave me their attention and respect." - "Who did?" - "The family. They did whatever I wanted. If I'd asked them to move a heavy dresser, they would have. If I'd asked them to cut down a tree, they would have. Before, no one would ever have obeyed me like that, because I am just a poor man. But because I pretended to be this famous person, they would do whatever I said". Sabzian therefore played this charade to gain some significance and importance which he lacked in his ordinary life where nobody noticed him before, acting like "chameleon" protagonists from the movies "Catch Me If You Can" and "Zelig". Directed in a minimalist, calm, restrained and subtle manner, "Close-Up" is both a contemplation about unusual people around us who seek attention in the most inappropriate ways and an ode to the power of cinema, whose illusion can even spillover to real life. Too bad Kiarostami didn't film some events described during the trial, since they would have been quite interesting on the screen (for instance, the Ahankhah family read in a film magazine that Makhmalbaf's new film received an award at the Venice film festival, but Sabzian pretended he was not there because it was only for the music category, which awakened their suspicion).

Grade:++

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy; drama / romantic comedy, UK / France / USA, 2024; D: Michael Morris, S: Renée Zellweger, Leo Woodall, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casper Knopf, Mila Janković, Hugh Grant, James Callis, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Sarah Solemani, Emma Thompson

London. Bridget Jones has two kids, Billy and Mabel, but is exhausted as a single parent ever since her husband Mark Darcy was killed in Africa four years ago. She is also irritated by the too rigid school teacher Walliker. When her friend makes a Tinder profile for her, Bridget matches with the 29-year old park ranger Roxter. At first, she is scared by the two big age difference between them, but she still has refreshing sex with him. However, after a while, Roxter "ghosts" her and doesn't answer her text messages. Daniel Cleaver, Bridget's ex-lover, helps her occasionally to babysit her kids, while she goes back to work as a TV producer. Roxter returns and admits he wanted to start something with a younger woman, so Bridget ends the relationship. At a camping trip, Bridget becomes close with Walliker, and eventually they become a couple and spend the Christmas together.

9 years after the fans settled that the "Bridget Jones" film series ended on a satisfying and worthy conclusion with the 3rd film, "Bridget Jones's Baby", the author Helen Fielding wrote this sequel that changed it, and ended up with the sentiment equivalent to the one in the sequel "Ghostbusters II"—the setting is terribly wrong, but it is still an overall good film if the viewers can tolerate it. The new setting is that, after Bridget finally found the love of her love, Mark Darcy, and settled, Bridget is all of a sudden a widow with two kids, since Mark died during a humanitarian mission in Africa four years ago. Why change this? Was this absolutely necessary? No, it wasn't. It is misguided and distorted, removing Darcy to, once again, for the 4th time, have Bridget again go hunting for romance and love in life, even though at her age, this feels a bit of a stretch at this point. Nonetheless, this paved the way for a story about letting go of deceased people and still trying to live on in the world. The jokes are thin and spread between long pauses, as the more somber direction takes over. Everything is kind of more depressive and gloomy. 

The character of Bridget Jones is actress Renee Zellweger's lifetime role, a testament of how endearing she managed to create such a loveable persona that stayed in the viewers' heads permanently, but her comeback to play her again is a bit off this time around, maybe because the authors did not conjure up some especially comical bits. The only two scenes where Bridget Jones is allowed to truly be Bridget Jones again is the one where she exits the elevator to do a job interview, there is a poster of two women on the wall, so Bridget imitates the pose of one of the women standing with hands on her hips, smiling in an irresistibly charming way; and the one where she holds an improvised interview with the teacher in the classroom, to show kids what her job of a TV producer is. One wishes there were more of such genuinely charming scenes. Some jokes are nice (Mabel says to her school teacher: "I have a new daddy, his name is Roxter, and he always gives mommy a new hairstyle in the morning!"), but the entire last third, "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" is a drama. A very emotional moment appears when Bridget visits Daniel (Hugh Grant) in the hospital: "The point is, Bridge, how have I arrived at this point in my life without kin? How could I possible be kinless... So lucky you Jones. Makes one realize one's own mess ups... of the glory of what might have been." This helps Bridget realize that, despite all her problems and trials of being a parent, she still has it better in life than Daniel. The "plot twist" ending feels unearned and out of nowhere, ending the film series on a shaky note, but also sends a message that all our parents, grandparents, and grand-parents were also probably clumsy, unsure, imperfect, and in doubt, but still managed to raise generations of children.

Grade:++

Europa Report

Europa Report; science-fiction, USA, 2013, D: Sebastián Cordero, S: Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Karolina Wydra, Sharlto Copley, Embeth Davidtz

Commander William Xu, pilot Rosa Dasque, science officer Daniel Luxembourg, marine biology scientist Katya Petrovna, engineer James Corrigan and chief engineer Andrei Blok are six members of Europa One, a spaceship launched to explore Europa, Jupiter's moon. A solar storm causes a short circuit and breaks off communication with Earth. Corrigan goes outside to fix it, but gets hydrazine on his spacesuit and thus isn't allowed back inside as to not contaminate the spaceship, so he drifts out in space and dies. The mission lands on Europa and drills on its ice surface, finding evidence of microbiological life. Katya disappears below the ice. A malfunction crashes their lander back on Europa. The crew dies. The last survivor, Rosa, sends the video recordings back to Earth, showing how a black octopus-like creature attacks from the sea, before the lander falls through the ice.

Independent science-fiction film "Europa Report" embodies several issues with space movies which are often incompatible with the classic three-act structure of character arc. "Europa Report" has some gorgeous scenes of space travel, but is more suitable for astronaut fans than for universal cinema lovers: all its characters are one-dimensional and reduced to only being formal. People more inclined towards space travel and exploration will thus find it more interesting, since some moments of space really are brilliant, for instance the point-of-view of Corrigan in his spacesuit, drifting away from the Europa One spaceship, seen as a distant object in the dark, or the fascinating scene of Katya making ice samples on the surface of Europa, observing Jupiter in the sky, and an especially interesting perspective here is that her face is only shown from a close-up of her eyes while she is in her spacesuit. Equipped with amazing visual effects, and crafted as some sort of "found footage" film depicting from video recordings of the space mission, "Europa Report" disappoints a bit in a few illogical moments; the bizarre ending which feels unexplored and too abrupt, in a strange and unearned plot twist; and is overall too sterile, cold and grey to engage on a higher level. Yes, astronauts are supposed to stay focused on their mission and "turn off" their emotions and private neuroses or problems, but a film needs to show more color, versatility and ingenuity, since in this edition it does tend to exhaust the viewers' goodwill in the last third. 

Grade:++

Fuss

Frka; crime drama / road movie, Croatia, 2024; D: Svebor Mihael Jelić, S: Kristina Jovanović, Sven Latinović, Antonia Mrkonjić, Luka Vondrak, Vedran Dakić

Osijek. Nika, a waitress, secretly smuggles drugs in her bicycle for gangster Petar. However, one night, someone steals her bicycle while went to a kiosk. Nika informs Petar she thus lost his drug shipment, so he demands a compensation: she has the entire night to collect money from people who have a debt towards Petar. Nika, her friend Luka, who came back after studying in Zagreb to be a dentist, and Sara, thus drive in a car and go from place to place to try to collect the money. The first debtor, Voki, is stoned at a night party, doesn't have the money, but decides to join them. They meet other characters, like police officer Marin, but even he claims he has no money. They steal a backpack from four hooligans who owe money, and they now pursue them. Petar's men kidnap Luka to put pressure on Nika. She demands to see him, and then gives him just a small amount of money they all collected between themselves. Petar accepts, releases Petar, and flees. The four hooligans catch up to them and one of them stabs and kills Voki, before they flee.  

Svebor Mihael Jelic's second feature length film, after "Zagreb Equinox", is this independent crime road movie about four people on an odyssey to collect money from debtors for a gangster, set during only one night, but a one which feels little more than just solid. The locations of Osijek are refreshing, and the main actress Kristina Jovanovic is very good as the protagonist Nika, but the whole screenplay is written almost like on autopilot, in a completely routine and standard way, without any memorable moments. Some exceptions do show up here and there, for instance the surreal scene of the "stoned" Voki imagining seeing five versions of himself, dancing in front of the police station, but "Fuss" needed more of such moments. The bizarre thing is that the story is divided into five episodes, each of which just end in the same anticlimactic way—the debtors claim they don't have the money. Chapters for each segment are bombastically introduced, such as "Police officer Marin", but then it is just a trivial episode of said Marin smoking outside the police station, chatting with Nika and her friends, and telling them he doesn't have the money. Since all of them end the same way, 2-3 could have been either cut to simply shorten this whole thing, or rewritten so that they offer something differently or more creative. A rare human moment appears when Nika's friend Luka simply tells her he wants to talk to her outside of the car, and then admits he doesn't want to participate in this night journey anymore, but she implores him since she doesn't have anyone else, which softens his heart and changes his mind. The finale is strange, with an abrupt, almost "interrupted" ending, and the dialogue is stale, yet the authenticity and depiction of Osijek's mentality was well established.

Grade:++