It is unusual that a first time director knocks it out of the park for their first feature film, especially below the age of 30 and fresh out of film school, but Buslov did it with "Boomer" (that is the correct way to pronounce it, not Bummer or Bimmer).
The story is pretty strong, it has substance and body unlike many other crime films. There is no attempt at comedy here, no desire to laugh at the expense of victims or the bad guys, nor is there action just for the sake of action. Boomer reaches into the criminal dilemma, as said by one of the criminals in rebuke to a woman who accuses him of being a bad person: It's life that's this way. The characters are real and their journeys are credible. Their environment is also effectively put across: Russia's confused 90's landscape with the criminal world on the one side, and the "suckers", the populace on the other which is suffering from poverty and alcoholism.
The cinematography by Daniel Gurevich is excellent: sadly he was to die before the film was released, together with talented Russian actor Sergei Bodrov (Brother, Brother 2) who had also seen rough cuts of Boomer and had been supportive. The music is likewise effective, blending Russian folk themes with pop music. The cell phone ringtone ended up being such a hit that composer Sergei Shnurov ended up netting $1MM in royalties from it alone (comparable to the film's initial box office performance).
To me, this is how crime films should be done - more focus on the human condition, with action as an accompaniment, not the goal.
The story is pretty strong, it has substance and body unlike many other crime films. There is no attempt at comedy here, no desire to laugh at the expense of victims or the bad guys, nor is there action just for the sake of action. Boomer reaches into the criminal dilemma, as said by one of the criminals in rebuke to a woman who accuses him of being a bad person: It's life that's this way. The characters are real and their journeys are credible. Their environment is also effectively put across: Russia's confused 90's landscape with the criminal world on the one side, and the "suckers", the populace on the other which is suffering from poverty and alcoholism.
The cinematography by Daniel Gurevich is excellent: sadly he was to die before the film was released, together with talented Russian actor Sergei Bodrov (Brother, Brother 2) who had also seen rough cuts of Boomer and had been supportive. The music is likewise effective, blending Russian folk themes with pop music. The cell phone ringtone ended up being such a hit that composer Sergei Shnurov ended up netting $1MM in royalties from it alone (comparable to the film's initial box office performance).
To me, this is how crime films should be done - more focus on the human condition, with action as an accompaniment, not the goal.