Something Useful (2017) User Reviews

A Beautiful Road Movie

[aleladebirali · 9/10 · 10 November 2017]

One of the best Turkish movies I have seen in a while.

As the train the movie's point-of-view character (Leyla) took moves forward to its destination, the plot thickens. We see some of Anatolia from the train and on the train. 'The Blue Train' has a cozy atmosphere in which Leyla and other passengers who are like a summary of the Turkish society engage in simple but also interesting conversations. Tea, the road, everyday problems, secrets... Almost everything about life is on that train so that we could learn more about death and why anyone would come to desire it.

The movie is so full of lovely poetry and literary references in Turkish that I do hope the subtitles can live up to them.

I strongly recommend it. It's best to watch it in a chilly day and critique it afterwards with friends at a café that is as cozy as 'the Blue Train', which is exactly what I did.

life and death and poetry

[dromasca · 7/10 · 4 February 2018]

'Ise yarar bir sey' by Turkish director Pelin Esmer is a combination of art and road movies quite different from the other films (not too many, unfortunately) that I have seen coming from Turkey. If I am to compare her style with a cinematographic school that I know better, I would pick the Romanian 'minimalist' cinema of the last 10-15 years. Pelin Esmer's focus is very much on the details of everyday life, her actors are all very well selected and directed and the insight to their psychologies and motivations is deep and sympathetic. The overall vision does not avoid symbolism, as well as a critical but not necessarily direct approach to reality.

The heroes of the film are two women belonging to two different generations, who meet in a railway station before taking together the train on an overnight trip to a remote city on the seashore. The elder one is in her 40s, she seems confident and cultivated, and likes to observe life and other people with an empathetic look. She declares to be a lawyer, and we later understand that she is also a poet, a detail that we discover gradually and which plays an important role in the story. The younger one is in her 20s, she is a nurse who dreams to become an actress, vulnerable and under stress because her trip has an unusual goal - helping a friend of a friend to die. Somehow obliged at the beginning by the closed enclosure of the traveling train (where more than half of the action takes place), the two women forge a dialog that helps them know each other and us understanding piece by piece who they are. At the end of the train trip the poet joins the younger woman in her deadly mission. Is this by curiosity? Maybe to understand what makes a man want to die? Or rather to avoid his death and the potential torment that the young woman would go through if she performed the deed - forbidden by conventional moral and by laws?

I liked the film, but I should warn other that this is not easy stuff. Pelin Esmer has a sure hand as film director, the cinematography is beautiful, the acting is excellent. There is a lot of quality of the poetic kind in this movie, but it is slow developing, it asks to be discovered, and some of the best stuff comes by the end, and is buried in characters development, in off-screen or loudly read text including some poetry, with situations that are interesting on the psychological plan, but far from spectacular. One scene, the 25 years reunion of the high school colleagues that the elder woman attends (that was the initial goal of her trip) offers a one shot very sharp view through the middle class of the Turkish society, and this is the one that reminded me similar scenes in two Romanian movies. It's beautiful and interesting, but somehow detached from the rest of the film. There is also no decisive conclusion to the story, the message seems to be about life and death being part of the same unique universe, but this is left to the viewers to reach. It may also say that beauty is in the details of life as observed by the principal character, but it may not be worth clinging to it at any price.

It's like watching a poem

[deryauzum · 8/10 · 31 October 2020]

Basak Koklukaya is beautifully carrying her character in the movie and I am totally drawn by the poetic language of the film. Turkish's cinema is fed by their strong literature and that shows us you do not need to spend million dollars to make a good movie.

Poetic.

[Yuskuluk · 9/10 · 19 May 2020]

The most beautiful movie i watched at last times. And one of the best of Turkisch cinema. Basak Köklükaya's acting was really impressive. And the story got us in. Congratulations to director Pelin Esmer, actors and all team. They made a really quality movie.

The poetry of life

[Eeyore123 · 9/10 · 12 February 2020]

Jon Kalman Stefansson once wrote that "some poems take us places where no words reach, no thought, they take you up to the core itself, life stops for one moment and becomes beautiful, it becomes clear with regret and happiness. Some poems change the day, the night, your life." This quote perfectly captures the essence of "Something useful". Such a beautiful and poetic film will inevitably touch your soul and will haunt you for days after the last scene.

Good and success

[selcukry · 7/10 · 15 November 2019]

The movie was surprisingly good. it flowed like a novel.

I have never cried that much while watching a movie...

[Ferideniz · 9/10 · 28 January 2018]

I have no words to describe my feelings about it. It is a must watch! I couldn't keep my tears till the end for this movie. It moved something very deep within me and touched the roots of my heart.

One-sentence review

[nakrugt · 7/10 · 2 November 2017]

I know this will be a little too early and a little too short.

Nevertheless, here it is for your information:

"The film is basically a bird-eye look towards Anatolia by an urban poet on a train."

Hope this will not undermine the effort put in making of this film.

Photography is phenomenal, acting is so natural that it looks effortless (but obviously an example of mastery).

105 minutes of pure cinematography.

Something useful

[enis-basol · 10/10 · 15 November 2019]

It's so easy to pity a person paralyzed from the neck to the toe that one can never bother to truely understand the reason behind his decision to have himself killed by someone. One thing is for sure: the decision was made. Lucky for him, he has his executioner accompanied by a poet of his liking. A story so moving that you can't even cry because of the urge to empathize with the three main characters.

Enjoyed it

[lau_ri · 7/10 · 30 August 2021]

I'm used to watch Hollywood movies and I really liked to begin diversifying my taste with this movie. It kept you waiting for the development of every character and how the story would advance. Made me reflect on your choices in life.

Pelin Esmer

[yusufpiskin · 9/10 · 1 December 2021]

This movie became one of my favorite Pelin Esmer movies, as someone drowned in herself in her own life.

The effect of Baris Bicakci is felt.

Basak Köklükaya and Öykü Karayel became a wonderful duo.

What can i say, here is Pelin Esmer.

[Coshua · 10/10 · 19 January 2018]

I watched this great job couple hours ago. Director has came too. She answered questions after movie. Pelin Esmer is really pretty, successful and kind woman.

After last scene, I was like "That's it. Perfect."

Viewers of this movie has to decide, is Yavuz gonna die or not gonna die in their minds. That's the point.

Perspective of coincidences

[tekintaskin · 10/10 · 16 December 2019]

The film starts as a random meeting of two women: A poet going to 25th anniversary of high school graduation and a nurse planning acting career. Traveling via train, unexpected secrets unravel, making these two women a different kind of comrades. The narration and art of most scenes are binding. The plot is intriguing. The flow is mild, some can think it's boring, but watching this movie at the evening after a work day is soothing. A must watch movie... With a surprise ending.

order and chaos

[ozgurbaskaya · 9/10 · 24 May 2020]

In order to fully understand the get into characthers, it is better to listen all the critics on youtube. The two sided lives, two sided reflections unleash ourselves from our constrainted cultural rules. Adorable, absolutely fluent.