Inadequate People (2010) User Reviews

The importance of being inadequate

[entity2000 · 8/10 · 25 January 2011]

I happened to watch this one during the 10th annual Russian Film Week in New York back in December, and I have to say it was not a waste of time. To cut the long story short, it's a movie about a new generation Lolita and a disillusioned thirty-year-old, who leaves his small town life for some big city lights. As the plot evolves, this odd couple joins a bunch of weirdos for parties, discos and more to finally find a way - through their issues straight to each other's bleeding hearts – as they go along. You may find this movie quite moving/stirring/funny/sad/cynical at times, and as inadequate as the title suggests. I have doubts when determining the genre (what would you say to "a bleeding slice of life served cold"?), so I will put it as a movie that's worth 90 minutes of your life. Personally, I was surprised to learn that the movie was a $100,000 project of a 26 year-old Roman Karimov, who directed it and wrote both the script and the soundtrack.

And, yes, it is totally recommended to those who still see modern times Russia through the lens of antiquated stereotypes

Cheeky, funny, touching. A very good bittersweet comedy

[cat-that-goes-by-himself · 8/10 · 24 October 2017]

I just spent 90 pleasant minutes watching this movie.

The characters are extremely likable, well fleshed out in several funny scenes, and the plot manages to go from silly and cheeky to somewhat more serious in the end without sounding contrived or heavy.

It somewhat reminded me of American movies of the 80' like "The unbelievable truth" or "Bagdad café". Well above your average Russian comedy, and very well made for an ultra low budget movie.

Very enjoyable, wonderful acting

[suzie-63296 · 8/10 · 4 November 2018]

I found this film very enjoyable. All of the acting is of a very high standard. And the script is cleverly witty - some real laughs in this film.

A refreshing Russian gem

[sexyjm86-733-725445 · 9/10 · 8 July 2013]

I've never written a review on here before, as most of the movies that I liked were already pretty well covered, and also, I am quite lazy when it comes to these things. However, after visiting the IMDb page for "Inadequate people", I was immensely irritated to see that, even though the film has a decent score (7.3 at the moment), it has only 3 reviews, of which two were clearly written by bitter people (I'd use a different word, but I don't want this review to be rejected by the site) who were either having a bad day, or just generally wouldn't know what a quality movie was, if it hit them in the face.

The first thing worth noting about this movie is that the posters (I've seen two of them) do not do it justice, and neither does the trailer. Believe me, I know that modern Russian films can be quite empty and superficial, not to mention get lost in translation. If judging by the aforementioned promotional material, one would probably guess that this is just another weak attempt at comedy, with a plot along the lines of "schmuck falls for hot teen girl". Luckily, this couldn't be further away from the truth. What awaits anyone who decides to watch this nifty little low-budget movie is a sweet, somewhat unpredictable story with well-developed characters, with whom we are acquainted slowly and spontaneously, without anything being forced upon the audience, and, in my opinion, very good pacing and familiar, indie style cinematography, that I'm not used to seeing in Russian flicks.

If I had to point one thing out in particular, it is the terrific acting by both leads, and the fact that their characters might be the first that I've seen in these "troubled people from different backgrounds and demographic groups find something in common" films, who are not annoying in their attempts to show how troubled they are. They get close to that at times, but they are generally very human, and show some quite endearing qualities. I'd even say that the story is constructed in a way that it sort of leads you into falling for the female lead, after initially finding her slightly irritating. If all this does sound familiar, don't worry, it was not done in a cliché way.

No movie so far has made me actually sit down and write a review for it, so I hope this will be the best possible indicator to how much I liked "Inadequate people" and how emphatically I recommend them for viewing.

Not inadequate

[hte-trasme · 7/10 · 21 May 2014]

The basic form of the story of this film is nothing new -- a man finds a new girlfriend after the death of his previous one. But in execution it's done with some originality and style, and it worth the time.

Earlier in the proceedings, there are a bunch of elements introduced which lead to some good, deadpan-but-exaggerated humor -- and while the film remains mostly comedy it works as comedy. Things like the extremely blunt psychologist and the protagonist's sex-obsessed boss end up being good recurring funny motifs. And for the first half the male and female lead are also played for sort of grim, depressed laughs, as it's clear they are both miserable and acting in ways that should be alienating everyone and destroying their lives.

The turn for the serious a little more than half way through works, as we learn about Vitaly's past misfortune, and the film manages both to become more serious and to convince us to root for these two characters who had been introduced as such unpleasant people.

Ilya Lyubimov very effectively plays a man depressed into a daze through most of the film, which if it doesn't necessarily make for dynamic scenes, does make an impact when filmed in context. Ingrid Olerinskaya does pretty well and believably starts with a wall of insouciant sarcasm that breaks down over the course of things; it's interesting that she was completely new to acting when cast.

The fact that it's about a grown man falling for a seventeen-year-old provokes disapproval in the world of the film, but not the arrest that it would in certain parts of the world. But the filmmaker isn't really interested in this moral issue principally.

It's a witty script and good entertainment that makes itself likable on either the more serious or comedic register.

This isn't movie it is video book reading.

[McRyach · 4/10 · 8 January 2012]

I didn't know that the main actress is an amateur, but upon the end of the film I thought that she just a dumb actress with a cute face. CUTE FACE nothing more, so it appeared to be true, she was hand picked only on the basis of her appearance. The director had a major flaw. All characters just READING text, only one girl who was really acting is the boss of the guy. She was only convincing person, the rest are just a dolls of writer/director pretentious imagination that suppose to impersonate real people. If he is a real director than better to stick with making movies and leave screenplay for real writers. Great camera man work (nice picture) and make up artist, but the dialogs and whole picture worth watching only if you want to torch yourself with feeling that your'e watching people trying to make a movie, and don't see a real characters, besides one actress. In the nutshell whole picture is falling apart. Cheers!

Inadequate people

[piverba · 4/10 · 8 February 2011]

This is a tiny budget feature that is adequate and if you understand Russian sometimes amusing with reasonable sense of humor, which will be lost if you have to read subtitles. It is not particularly original and somewhat trivial considering youth of the director.

There are some feeble attempts at poetry as in "love is like walking in a snow without leaving footprints" - from the diary of main character.

The story concerns thirty-something man, who suffered loss of his girlfriend due to the drunk driving accident where he was at fault - you see how original this is. Through the advise of a psychologist he settles in Moscow and gets a job in the magazine for women. He meets his neighbor, a rebellious but clever teen, who falls in love with him and he with her. We are shown standard situations with nothing original.

I suppose, the take away idea from this film is to, when you meet someone that clicks with you, then grab them and do not let them go, no matter what age they are. The statutory rape (the girl is seventeen) is no impediment.

VERY BORING AND SLOW PACE.

[levinika · 5/10 · 28 September 2018]

If you are an Indian audience this is not for you. this is very boring movie. no proper story. no good acting. waste of time. though you can find some good life quotes . over all my rating is 5/10.