It's as clear as the large hole in Sean Penn's head what this dumb comedy is really about and what kind of people are responsible for this immoral, unfunny, badly written farce. For viewers so apolitical that they couldn't even detect this kind of in-your-face political propaganda, an explanation follows.
This anti-western/anti-capitalist/anti-globalist/anti-democratic (i.e. communist/fascist) nonsense was produced by Emir Kusturica, a highly-respected charlatan director of "arty" Euro-trash (i.e. overrated, festival-darling surrealist malarkey), but less known for being a communist-fascist (yes, I know it makes no sense, but that's his political "orientation"). In the West, he wears a Che Guevara shirt (because that's considered PC), but while at home in Serbia he assumes the role of the flag-waving ultra-nationalist (because that's popular there). So yes, he does get to have his cake and eat it too; although, in all fairness, communism and fascism are hardly very different from one another – you know, centralized authority, concentration camps, one-party system and all that other wonderful stuff. Kusturica supported the Milosevic regime and all of the ugly "little" Balkan wars which actually helped to destroy Serbia, which makes him the last person to moralize to anybody. For Emir, Hague tribunal war criminals are heroes, whereas the 5th October revolution is a despicable event. You might know the type; there are many of those like him in the Balkans. They are the ones who shout loudest but have the least education or common sense.
That's why JUS features an ultra-fictitious (in spite of its pathetic satiric pretensions) and ultra unrealistic chain of American supermarkets which – in a most laughably B-movie manner - is supposed to symbolize the "decadence" of western commercialism (as if Emir himself doesn't get excited every time he purchases a BMW or rents a large yacht during a Southern European film festival). The movie even implies that Djindjic and DOS were marionettes of the U.S., which is such preposterous nonsense, the kind which only the most die-hard, brainwashed Serb Far-Right-wingers could possibly fall for. Not to mention the hypocrisy of Emir and his communist-fascist Balkan buddies being 100% marionettes of that other world power, Russia. If Putin ever needed any propaganda in the Balkans (and he doesn't), he'd need look no further than JUS.
The "Serbia" shown here has little to do with the Serbia I know first-hand. (Unlike Emir, I am here almost constantly, whereas he spends a lot of his time in the cozy, "rotting" West.) This is some fictitious, fake, made-up Serbia that resembles some personal "Utopia" i.e. a vision of Serbia the way certain criminally insane minds fantasize about.
This quasi-Serbia is just as absurd as that ridiculous chain of highly improbable supermarkets which is even stupidly advertised as "Yugo-American" (with stars and stripes!), only a few years after NATO bombardment of Serbia – which the vast majority of Serbs equate with American "aggression", as if no EU countries had anything to do with it.
Equally absurd is Karanovic's over-the-top supermarket manager; so needlessly exaggerated that she speaks a kind of baffling English-Serbian that I've never heard before and which I'm sure has never been applied in reality. Is she supposed to be American? Half-American? What is she? This kind of dumb farcical shtick is used in "Police Academy" movies and other such crap. Nevertheless, the stamp of Emir's approval (as this turkey's producer) might lead the more clueless viewers to mistake this for "clever satire"; such is his clout in the film world. Sure, if the wittiest thing you'd ever seen was Mr. Bean, then anything in JUS might appear as brilliant social commentary. Does any Belgrade resident know any McDonalds bosses who are American? Which use English words in their daily vocabulary? What utter hogwash.
Similarly idiotic is the fairy-tale depiction of the street mob. They gather around the embattled store and 100% of them root for the nationalist/terrorist moron/loser while booing against the cops who want to free hostages and restore order. "Dog Day Afternoon" almost looks like a documentary next to this. The mob behaves, chants and shouts just like the 2008 football hooligans who had stormed the U.S. embassy in Belgrade. Interestingly enough, Kusturica was present there as public speaker – egging on the bald-headed rabble toward violence and destruction of private and public property. Such a humanitarian.
JUS is how Emir IMAGINES "ideal" Serbia, one in which the people are all retarded and look with nostalgia to going back to the hungry, war-torn 90s. Naturally, while the Balkans burned for nearly a decade, Emir had it nice in various Western hotels and Beverly Hills mansions, totally disinterested in the suffering of others. Emir's street rabble is a mirror image of himself: primitive, hateful, violent and confused. As if real Serbs don't fantasize about a better life like any other normal people, which implies a free market and social liberty – things Emir never cared for, because he'd always been too enchanted by Marx and "Das Kapital". He is a typical wannabe revolutionary (messy hair, "rebellious, that whole phony rock image) without understanding anything about the subject; or he simply ignores all those evils because that allows him to keep romanticizing its icons and flawed ideology.
The script even manages to throw in anti-GM food propaganda. Suitably, Serbian Far Right groups had the same stance; in Belgrade one could find many posters attacking this allegedly "fake"/"poisonous" food, plastered by such extremist organizations.
Even without all the political claptrap, JUS would have still been mediocre at best, because it uses cheesy gags (such as Todorovic slipping over and over and over) and vulgarities instead of actual wit. "Less is more" isn't a comedic concept this writer/director or his producer are aware of. Extremely moronic is Branka Katic falling in love – and so quickly – with Todorovic, who is about as sexy as my underwear after I'd wiped my nose with it. This romance lacks any credibility and is quite predictable hence cliché.
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