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The Moscow girls make me sing and shout ...
Back in the U.S.S.R.
-- The Beatles
They didn't know how lucky they were, boy -- back in the U.S.S.R. of 1973, when a Moscow girl named Lyuda made them sing and shout. Collectively, of course.
Lyuda leaves the West behind, but her best-bud beaux at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute sure don't. Cocky freshmen Sergei and shy Stepan share no character traits, just the Big Three generational obsessions: sex, drugs 'n' booze, and rock 'n' roll.
The first two revolve around the third. Music is everywhere, in and out of the pseudo-proletarian garage-band clubs where kids flock to dance and drink. Everybody is scrambling for the latest Western albums at rip-off rates on the black market. Hottest items: Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and the Beatles' "Abbey Road."
Sergei blows a bundle to buy the Stones' "Goat Head Soup" for Lyuba, who is more amused than disappointed when the disk inside the cover turns out to be "Swan Lake." That's the kinda cool girl she is, and this is the kinda bittersweet love triangle that comes from two childhood chums falling for the same coolly beautiful girl.
Which of them -- if either -- is worthy of her? "The Vanished Empire," however, has more to offer than coming-of-age hijinx. Serious sub-themes involve Sergei's single mother and his famous academic grandfather. The title empire is an obvious metaphor, of course, but refers to the ancient Persian kingdoms of Khorezm, obliterated by Genghis Khan, in present-day Uzbekistan -- part of the sweeping geo-canvas that was once the U.S.S.R.
Director Karen Shakhnazarov is one of Russia's key film figures, whose father Giorgy was a close friend of Mikhail Gorbachev. He's a director who can perfectly capture an extinct era. (The best version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" I ever heard was by a Ukrainian Gypsy band in Kiev in 1971. Just thought you'd like to know.)
He also captures warm, believable characters, thanks to charming Aleksandr Lyapin -- who looks like Evgeny Malkin! -- as Sergei, a guy more interested in male-bonding than in tending to his courtship, and to wonderful Lidiya Milyuzina as Lyuda, a semi-tragic figure in a country where, it is often said, women are deeply loved but not deeply respected. The cryptic epilogue is more bitter than sweet. Shakhnazarov creates a nostalgic paean to Soviet life during the Brezhnev 1970s. Nostalgic for Brezhnev? Oy-veh. Not him personally. But in that cozily corrupt system, a beat-up Sony portable radio served as "bail" to get you out of police custody.
These days, you can almost (if not quite) miss the Communists -- a kind of endangered species, almost like whooping cranes. Those days, their life-defining ideology was crumbling and their country was about to disappear.
Imagine if suddenly, within a year or so, there was no more United States and you found yourself living in the Republic of Pennsylvania -- or Nebraskastan.
Rated R in nature for sexual themes and subtitles.
-- Barry Paris
Post-Gazette film critic emeritus
'Beeswax'
Andrew Bujalski's new film "Beeswax" is a seemingly inconsequential story about a vintage clothing store owner's legal dispute with her co-owner.
But, as usually is the case with Bujalski's films, plot is secondary to the characters, their insights, personalities and ways of communication.
That's the essence of the "mumblecore" genre for which Bujalski, who also directed "Funny Ha Ha" and "Mutual Appreciation," is well known. In these films, the focus is on characters' mannerisms more than on narrative, on improv more than on fixed scripts and on the mundane more than on the mind-blowing. But that doesn't make this film any less interesting.
"Beeswax" is a simple slice of the lives of twin sisters Jeannie (Tilly Hatcher) and Lauren (Maggie Hatcher), who live together in Austin, Texas. Jeannie, the owner of the clothing store, is experiencing problems with her friend and co-owner Amanda. She's also wheelchair-bound, but the film doesn't make a big deal about it. And it shouldn't because the wheelchair is not central to who Jeannie is. She's professional, reticent and wants to resolve the spat with Amanda so the two can successfully run their business.
As much as Jeannie is serious, Lauren is lighthearted and carefree. While Jeannie tends to think through her decisions, Lauren is spontaneous. She's a teacher who decides, on a whim, to take a teaching job in Kenya. Played by real-life sisters, the two are unprofessional actors, but, like the rest of the cast, they deliver refreshingly realistic performances.
-- Elham Khatami for the Post-Gazette
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