Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
ivyssauro
Most low reviews are from people claiming they didn't understand the movie, if you didn't understand it, it's your problem man, but giving it a low rate? it's like saying mathematic is a shitty* subject because you can't understand it. ridiculous, these people probably did not like Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros or 21 Grams, which are far more intricate movies. the movie is a Dostoevsky like tale about a man who take a wrong turn and ruins forever his life, showing the miserable and depraved evil that man are capable of. how authoritarian and merciless, and that sometimes the thief or the killer is a better friend than a cop. it also alternates time lines without a hint, which is genius and done in this way to emphasize the movie 'moral'. it's really great if you like depressive art. for me, a sad masterpiece. a movie about how miserable life is. too complicated for some.(IMDb didn't let me write the curses, great.)
john-hanshaw
I don't think it's a 'social commentary' or a 'statement of the human condition' - it's a mess of a movie made by a potentially very skilled director who seems to get bored with the (admittedly rather boring) storyline and tarts it up in the last 40 minutes with a whole lot of disjointed events which we are left to piece together ourselves, however we may. Perhaps he couldn't think of a sufficiently clever ending and (just the same way as Picasso got bored with doing half-decent paintings) decided to let the New York Art House Set name it to be a work of intellectual brilliance (just in case it actually was). Worth watching for the Ukrainian scenery and faces and for masterful camera-work - but only once unless you want to learn the style.
timbirchard
Extra warning: absolutely contains spoilers.I've only watched once (so far), and I'll admit that it took some serious concentration to follow. And I'm not without questions.But.For all the reviewers who said that it was simply a bunch of unrelated, disconnected short stories about violence, you didn't watch carefully enough. There IS a main character. The scenes support the story of this main character throughout the whole movie (only if you WATCH the whole thing, of course), all the way to the end.Our truck driving friend gives a lift to some random old man... a man who has lost his name (and his bride) in the war. We see the old man's story. And our truck driving friend has no idea that he will become just like this old man.Our truck driving friend runs out of diesel and ends up getting set upon by three men who are desperate... one of whom is mute. Our truck driving friend has no idea that he will become just like this man who is mute.And, contrary to one reviewer's perception that this all happens 'in a few days', we see a sudden shift from summer or fall to winter. It's our truck driving friend who is lying there in the woman's house, unmoving. It is he whom she takes advantage of physically, while he's unconscious.It is he who becomes imprisoned. He who stumbles out of prison when another inmate breaks out.He who waits by the side of the highway, finally to be picked up by a very talkative driver. And he who snaps at the end.I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started watching this movie. After one viewing, I'm looking forward to owning it and delving deep into its layers, unraveling it as best I can to learn more and to answer some of the questions I still have: what was the time period of the teacher and his young son? And is the son, orphaned and left sitting on the bench at his house, also the same old man who saves our truck driving friend from freezing by taking him home on his horse-drawn sleigh? I have no problem with not having all of the answers at the end of my watch. A movie of this magnitude is certainly worth repeated viewings. If you feel the same way, I recommend this movie to you.
magus-9
Certainly one of the best films of the year, MY JOY depicts the journey of a truck driver through contemporary Russia. The journey is full of detours, some of which take in scenes from the past, from 60 years or so ago, in the time of World War Two. In beautiful, lyrical mise-en-scene, the director shows scenes of brutality, rudeness, corruption and violence; this is a poetical portrayal of ugliness... Whether it is intended as a depiction of the brutality of conditions in contemporary Russia, or whether it is intended more as a general portrait of the human condition is not entirely clear to me, but, whatever it is, this is strong, haunting film-making, skillfully depicting a disjointed world of violence and degradation.
