The new-fashioned youth Russian comedy āGraduationā (reviews of the film are extremely contradictory) is now positioned by the majority as an answer to all the infamous āAmerican Pieā. And the indication on the poster of the film debut of ex-journalist Vsevolod Brodsky: "From the creators of" Gorky "! - It works unmistakably attractive, but also obliges to something.
Pioneers and followers
Comedy "Bitter!" opened a special, we can say secret door to the publicās self-awareness, turning inside out, legalizing everything shameful, but also allowing it to be openly admired, laughed and proud of. The combination of such on-screen truth, unsightly frankness with inexorable reckless humor shocked many. The creators managed to combine the disgusting with the sweet and touching, the terrible - with a painfully familiar, native. "Graduation", reviews of the 2014 film, proof of this, advanced further, not only revealing the realities of the festival in a purely Russian spirit, but also raising the eternal problem of the relationship between fathers and children. The basis of the storyline and intrigue for the film becomes a graduation party in one of the ordinary provincial schools. Everyone understands that graduation is a āticket to adulthood,ā but the creators managed to give the whole action a specific domestic background. The film "Graduation" (reviews are unanimous in opinion) is the "American Pie" in Russian. After watching, you finally understand that the time of sterile, censored verified Russian comedies has sunk into oblivion, the new project allows you to meticulously consider all the unsightly sides of Russian reality and laugh at them, albeit rather viciously.
An apple from an apple tree ...
And what could be expected from the filmmakers, including Sergey Svetlakov (Our Russia, Comedy Club) and Alexander Nezlobin. So the project they did not get boring, painstakingly varnishing reality. This is not the "Class" of Elmar Raas, not the "School" of Valeria Gai Germanicus, this is a picture of the "kings of humor", the "inhabitants" of TNT, a channel that does not differ in its provocativeness and scandalousness. It seems that Nezlobin and Svetlakov in this movie just mock some stereotypes, decide to cancel the usual taboos. Here he is - a modern graduation party. Reviews of the 2014 film were written in a negative way only from the side of fierce zealots of morality, which indicates acceptance by a wide audience.
Loss of virginity is not the main thing
It is not entirely clear for what reason (mentality, tradition?) In Hollywood films like āCan't Wait,ā āAmerican Pie,ā etc. the American graduation was clearly associated with a mandatory loss of virginity. But the creators of the Russian version of Graduation are more realistic and are aware that modern teens are not so stupid as to combine the loss of innocence and graduation. Our graduates are worried about a different problem - how to bring alcohol to the holiday! In advance, the heroes of the movie "Graduation" (reviews emphasize this moment with a red line) are developing a cunning scheme to get what they want, they manage to recruit a school watchman, but it wasnāt there, the teachers confirmed their qualifications, they would do everything if they werenāt for yesterdayās students kicked ".
Summary
Regular school number 14, which is located in glorious Nizhny Novgorod, is actively preparing for the celebration. The naughty guys from 11-A class, having planned everything in advance, load an impressive amount of booze into the ship hired for the night. However, the director learns about their tricks and transfers the banquet to the walls of his native school. But the children do not intend to give up, they tuned in to the ābestā evening in their understanding, therefore, as one classmate, they embark on a famously twisted scam. It is no coincidence that the film āGraduationā 2014 was awarded the audienceās reviews with the title āGuide to Action, Instruction for Future Graduatesā. The heroes of the picture at the very height of the banquet invite all parents and teachers to the basement of the bomb shelter school, motivating this walk with a surprise prepared there - after which they are locked all of them there, and they themselves have fun. However, young people underestimated the capabilities of the older generation, which, āarmedā with the attributes of the Komsomol youth, made a breakthrough and arranged such a party, a brawl that the children's ābacchanaliaā irrevocably faded in comparison. Here's a graduation. Reviews about the film do not understand who they condemn - either fathers or children.
main characters
Naturally, this youth comedy was not without stereotypes regarding the main characters. There are two smart teenagers in love with each other, and there is an approaching tragedy for young hearts: they want to send the girl (Kristina Isaykina) to Sarov, and the young man (Victor Grudev) to the University of Rotterdam. To avoid separation, the young man comes up with a ālegendā for an explanation with his father - he declares that he feels pleasant excitement when he sees naked guys, so he definitely should not go to Holland. However, he does not suspect that his dad is a latent homosexual, and he is familiar with this very āpleasant excitementā. Here it is worth noting that the āGraduationā (reviews of the 2014 film also indicate this) is rather delicate, and not in the spirit of the Comedy Club, manages to present the dull theme of ādissolute Hollandā.
No less colorful
The remaining heroes are no less charismatic and colorful. What does the very ānaked graduateā in a sexy lace dress cost (Yana Enzhaeva). And the musical duet of the local Black & Black spill (Nikita Karpinsky and Danila Vakhrushev)! The rap-reading guys will invariably be remembered by the viewer, if only because the whole point of their text certainly comes down to one phrase: āwe will definitely fry the heifersā. Their successor and follower (Sergey Pokhodaev) makes a video with the provocative title ā100 Popā. The hormones at this trinity just gush, bounce off the walls. Even the queen or the high priestess of local informals is ready Julia Noch (Sasha Makarskaya), she is a ātoadā, although she constantly threatens to commit suicide, at the graduation party abruptly jumps abruptly of her cheerful classmates. The film āGraduationā 2014 (critics' reviews are mixed) also manages to go through corruption, because during this outrage, fathers and officials all think how to grab a piece of themselves more from the state funds allocated for the restoration and construction of bridges across the Volga. In a word, the eternal theme of hypocrisy, pretense and doublethink, with which modern adolescents come into conflict, is quite successfully solved in the movie.
The final will put everything in its place
Still controversial film "Graduation"! The audienceās reviews condemn its climax and agree with it. In the final episode, the main character, contemplating the launch of balloons into the sky and listening to the drunken oaths of his ex-classmates, very succinctly, articulating shows that most likely they will neither meet nor be friends. And this is atypical not only for the "good" domestic comedies, but also for the "scorched" Hollywood ones. It is difficult after this to assert that the semantic load of the picture gives away āprovincial caaveshchinaā and does not fit into the outline of the plot.
Not ideal, but warning
Having read all the above, itās not worthwhile to assume that this picture is a breakthrough in Russian cinema, far from ideal āGraduationā. Reviews of the film shatter this assumption. After viewing, there remains an annoying aftertaste - the authors of the picture, choosing between soulfulness and dashing mischief, drive, chose the latter. The consolation is a strict age rating, perhaps the picture will be useful for a certain category of youth, preemptive, if you will, not allowing the current eleventh graders to spoil their graduation. Reviews of the film position comedy as a guide on what to do and how to find a common language for generations of fathers and children.