Leningrad Cowboys

Total Balalaika Show
Unrated
1987, Facets

I would not call many contemporary filmmakers a genius, but Finland´s Aki Kaurismki is one of them. The clichés are that Nordic cinema is grim and without humor. While Kaurismki can be serious, perhaps one of the more serious filmmakers working today, he also knows how to have fun. He shows his knack for absurd comedy with Leningrad Cowboys: Total Balalaika Show, a sequel to his series of Leningrad Cowboys movies, about a misfit Rockabilly and Baltic Pop band.

The Leningrad Cowboys, with their clownish pointy black shows, high-rise pompadours and retro suits are one-joke characters, but Kaurismki makes the joke fantastic and surprisingly engaging. Total Balalaika Show reveals a filmmaker willing to push a gag to the extreme, creating an elaborate outdoor concert in Helsinki during 1993 where the Leningrad Cowboys perform with the Red Army Military Band in front of thousands of cheering fans.

In a previous interview, Kaurismki admitted, I´m schizophrenic. I go from making a serious picture to an off-the-wall one -- and back.

Granted, his best movies are connected to the rural-set Finnish dramas of the ´50s, mostly tales of the unemployed trying to make sense of their melancholy lives -- Ariel, La Vie de Boheme and Drifting Clouds, his great masterpiece.

Part Hollywood musical and part post-modern concert film, Total Balalaika Show shares the absurdist spirit of Kaurismki´s early comedy, Calamari Union. The best numbers in the film include a rousing rendition of the Turtles´ Pop tune Happy Together and a surprisingly rousing take on Those Were the Days, a nod to one-time glories of the former Soviet Union.

Bonus features include a series of shorts and quirky music videos that confirm the detail Kaurismki brings to the Leningrad Cowboys mythology.

Irony reigns supreme in Total Balalaika Show. But beneath the funny costumes and silly cover songs lies a heartfelt humanism similar to all of Kaurismki´s films. And the Rest
Director Roger Michell -- best known for the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts comedy, Notting Hill -- does justice to author Ian McEwan's novel, Enduring Love (Paramount), and the result is the most gripping opening sequence imaginable. Joe (Daniel Craig) helps a young boy trapped on a hot-air balloon, but the tragic accident leaves a deep scar. His relationships with his girlfriend, Claire (Samantha Morton), and his Oxford teaching colleagues suffer. Adding to his turmoil is Jed (Rhys Ifans in a powerhouse performance), a drifter who tried to help Joe on that fateful afternoon and now won't leave him alone. Michell continues to build a diverse and impressive body of work, but Enduring Love is his best, most nuanced film yet.