Aki Kaurismäki’s 20th film keeps his signature humor and style. Fallen Leaves, starring Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen as lonely, meant-to-be lovers, finds the Finnish director at one of the peaks of his career, with his most recent film coming six years ago. In that time, the world has missed the droll comedy, dry warmth, and simplicity of Kaurismäki.
Fallen Leaves features everything one might want from a romcom in 2023: a cute dog, a one-liner about Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, and a singular karaoke scene in which neither of the main characters get on stage. Both Pöysti and Vatanen are wonderful, each of their characters existing in a state of hyperextended loneliness, finding one another through initial circumstance, then thrust together even when everything else seems intent on keeping them apart. Ansa (Pöysti) and Holappa (Vatanen), in many ways, need one another. Their lives are...
Fallen Leaves features everything one might want from a romcom in 2023: a cute dog, a one-liner about Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, and a singular karaoke scene in which neither of the main characters get on stage. Both Pöysti and Vatanen are wonderful, each of their characters existing in a state of hyperextended loneliness, finding one another through initial circumstance, then thrust together even when everything else seems intent on keeping them apart. Ansa (Pöysti) and Holappa (Vatanen), in many ways, need one another. Their lives are...
- 11/22/2023
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
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