Replay: Hipsters

The movie Hipsters is currently playing locally.  It was in 2009 that I saw this story at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Two groups of 1950s Russian youths butt heads: the young Communists headed by Katya (Anton Shagin) who has a secret love for her colleague Mels (Anton Shagin), and the hipsters, a group who wants nothing more than to dance, drink and dress in decadent Western ways. During a raid, Mels sees the beautiful Polly (Oksana Akinshina) and it is love at first sight. He secretly becomes a hipster, pursuing her although she is at first coy and cold. He becomes more bold within the hipsters and no longer hides his secret persona among the Communists. Katya's revenge is just as much about Communism versus the West as it is that of a woman scorned.

There are a few songs and dance numbers but I am not sure that is enough to make it a musical. The film is a commentary about young people being individuals, as portrayed in the last scene where it takes us to present day with punk rockers, people in goth clothes, kids of all types.

This conflict continues even today but the film portrayed it in an exciting new way, with humor and music which is kind of unheard of. I liked the visual style and the musicality.

Olympic Dreams--The Winning Season

This is a typical underdog sports story starring Sam Rockwell in a type of role he is good at, the loveable loser. It's a sort of a comedy version of Hoosiers (that movie is referenced in The Winning Season, which also takes place in Indiana). The writer of this movie (also from Indiana) wrote Lonesome Jim and Grace is Gone and so you can see the "sad loser" feeling seems to be a theme.

Rockwell is Bill, a divorced, alcoholic, middle-aged dad working as a busboy. He seems to have had some promise as a high school basketball player, but that dream didn't evolve. The principal of a local school who was a friend of Bill's asks Bill to coach the team. Bill is excited--until he finds out it is the girl's team. While Bill and the girls learn about each other, both don't think the other can do the job.

Bill seems too laid back but his training is smart, although it depends on the girls working hard, which is something he has trouble motivating them to do. Like his own first reaction, many think the girls are not worth very much.  Most of the players (one is Rooney Mara, the new Lisbeth Salander) have some kind of trait or storyline so you can tell them apart. Bill also has trouble relating to girl problems, so hires the female schoolbus driver (Margo Martindale) as assistant coach to help him in this aspect. She becomes both a mother hen as well as a pretty good legitmate assistant coach.

Olympic Dreams--Victory

It's a VICTORY! For Sylvester Stallone that is. He gets top billing and glamour shots throughout this WW2 plot of Allied POWs and German soldiers in a soccer match, meant to show Germany's physical superiority. Despite not knowing soccer (the actor or his character), he manages to finagle his way into this film and on the team, despite better actors such as Michael Caine and Max von Sydow, and better players such as Pele and other well known soccer players, and for crying out loud, this was directed by John Huston. Obviously Stallone had parlayed his Rocky success into this payout. Also, Bill Conti did the score (hmm, wonder how HE got this job!) Let's hope the potential remake I've heard about will cast athletes who can act as well.

From what I can see, life in this POW camp is pretty glamourized. Throughout the film I don't recall any atrocities like in other more realistic films. The premise is that Max von Sydow, playing German major Steiner, sees some Allied POWs playing soccer and recognizes one of them, Colby (Michael Caine), as a well-known British player. Steiner decides, for propaganda, to plan a match between the two sides. Meanwhile, some Brit commanders in the camp in charge of escapes learns that Hatch (Stallone) has planned an escape via the prisoners' showers. When the team gets extra benefits, it screws up Hatch's shower plans, so the Brits help him out so that he can escape and contact French resistance, not exactly something Hatch wants as he just wants to escape. When the French send him back for some reason or another, he has to rejoin the team.

Of course there is the rousing game where Steiner is disappointed to learn is somewhat fixed for the German side; he wants Germany to win legitimately. The Allied players are more intent on winning the game than carrying out the escape plan, which puts everything in jeopardy.

Past seven days

The heat is keeping me indoors!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Big Fan
Cafe de Flore
Dark Horse
Gaumont Treasures: Emile Cohl
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
The Man Who Never Was
Possible Loves
Resurrect Dead: Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Olympic Dreams--Whip It!

A Texas teen (Ellen Page) discovers roller derby, but her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) would prefer her to be a beauty queen. Bliss sneaks out of the house to attend a match, meeting a cute musician (Landon Pigg). She has found her true calling and is encouraged by one of the pros (Kristen Wiig) to get a spot on the team. Bliss becomes "Babe Ruthless," and soon becomes very good despite her amateur status. This helps the team because they've never won a championship.

Bliss continues to sneak out, juggling her waitress job, pageant duties, lying to her family, as well her budding romance. Rival skater "Iron Maven" (Juliette Lewis) later finds out a fact about Bliss that jeopardizes her place on the team as well as the success of the team.  Also, her family finds out about her extracurricular activity, which also forces Bliss to choose between the loves of her life--her family or her sport.

Daniel Stern is Bliss' dad; Drew Barrymore plays another teammate (she also directed and co-produced); Jimmy Fallon gives additional humor as the play-by-play announcer; Andrew Wilson is Bliss' team coach; Alia Shawkat plays Bliss' loyal friend.