Khrustalyov, My Car! Is a film verging on exceptional, that, much like director Alexei German, fell just half a notch, just a finger's tip short of greatness. German, as a whole, had a career that stops, sadly and for whatever reason, just short of remarkable. I struggle to piece together the plot, if ever there was any, since the movie flits dreamily between episodes and vignettes in the bumbling life of its protagonist, General Klensky (Yuriy Tsurilo, fantastic in the role) as he navigates a seemingly labyrinthine, unfocused, and meandering plot (just now, as I write this, I've had to look up the plot summary - he's a doctor, terrorized by Soviet authorities in the waning days of Stalin's regime) that mostly seems an excuse to show off lush black-and-white photography (and I am absolutely more than fine with that). The movie is also labeled a sequel of sorts to German's earlier My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985) (a movie pretty damn great in its own right, especially for something that clearly aspires to be a bit of a Mirror (1975) imitation). The only caveat is that at nearly two-and-a-half hours, Khrustalyov can crawl along at a snail's pace.
All gushing and p!ss-taking aside, Khrustalyov may be a perfect movie; which makes it all the more a bummer that it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
All gushing and p!ss-taking aside, Khrustalyov may be a perfect movie; which makes it all the more a bummer that it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.