FALLEN LEAVES (A-minus) - From Finland comes a low-key neo-noir about two lonely souls who have trouble meeting up after one chance encounter. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is an alcoholic who can't keep a job, and mousy Ansa (Alma Poysti) gets fired from her job at a grocery store for taking home expired food. They initially meet at a karaoke bar, but Holappa loses Ansa's number and doesn't know how to find her.
The movie is a series of vignettes in which the two might or might not be match in the end. One date goes horribly, mainly because of Holappa's drinking. Maybe they just are not a good fit.
The mood is mostly working-class glum, but veteran writer-director Aki Kaurismaki threads some dark comedy throughout the film. Kaurismaki crafts this as a series of blackout sketches. Vatanen has a hangdog Jimmy Stewart look to him, and Poysti does wonders with her facial expressions; when Ansaw finally smiles in the second half of the film, she comes to life as a wholly different person. Janne Hyytiainen almost steals the show as Holappa's matter-of-fact pal, mostly on the prowl for a woman of his own.
Crafting this at a slim 81 minutes, Kaurismaki ("Le Havre," "Leningrad Cowboys Go America," "The Match Factory Girl") wastes no time. The sparse dialogue plays like a series of koans. You never feel like he's wasting your time, whether these two end up together or not.
INTREGALDE (B) - There is not much of a plot to this low-key Romanian suspense film, but it is at times a fascinating examination of a how a good deed can go horribly wrong.
Radu Muntean ("Tuesday, After Christmas" from 2011) pulls off a technical achievement as he films three aid workers who get stranded on a muddy side road while trying to deliver food and supplies to rural Transylvania. The plot plays like a vaudevillian horror film, a series of mishaps, in which no good deed goes unpunished.
Muntean assembles a trio -- Maria (Maria Popistasu), Dan (Alex Bogdan) and Ilinca (Ilona Brezoianu) -- in an SUV loaded with humanitarian supplies. Dan makes the mistake of sympathizing with a drifter on the side of the road, not only lending the old man a ride but also taking his suggestion of a detour. This leads to the vehicle getting stuck on a muddy road in the middle of the woods as temperatures are about to plunge at sunset.
It's not so much the storytelling here that's fascinating as is Muntean's deft camerawork in dark, claustrophobic spaces. He wields documentary sensibilities as he tries to keep track of the three aid workers and their various attempts to get help. He also has a punchline up his sleeve, as we eventually learn what kind of life this poor old man leads. (Non-actor Luca Sabin is heartbreaking in the role.)
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