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Kontroll (2005)
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Reviews Counted:64
Fresh:52
Rotten:12
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Kontroll is a smart thriller that's dark, gritty, and funny.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for language, some violence and brief sexuality
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:17-09-2004
Synopsis: Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2004 Academy Awards, writer-director Nimrod Antal's debut is a thrilling, claustrophobic, wild ride through the subway system in the Hungarian... Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2004 Academy Awards, writer-director Nimrod Antal's debut is a thrilling, claustrophobic, wild ride through the subway system in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Sandor Csanyi stars as Bulcsu, the leader of a small crew that patrols the underground making sure that passengers have purchased a ticket. However, the men actually have little power themselves, so many people that they stop humiliate them, physically and verbally abuse them, and easily run away. Within this small world, Bulcsu and his gang, which includes the older Professor (Zoltan Mucsi), the narcoleptic Muki (Csaba Pindroch), the diminutive Lecso (Sandor Badar), and the young and innocent Tibi (Zsolt Nagy), battle Gonzo (Balazs Lazar) and his far more successful group of ticket checkers. In one of the film's most exciting scenes, Bulcsu and Gonzo go railing--racing down the tracks in between two moving trains. Meanwhile, a mysterious hooded person in black is pushing people in front of trains, a man named Bootsie (Bence Matyassy) continually escapes from the ticket checkers' clutches, a train conductor (Lajos Kovacs) indulges himself in food, drink, and smoke, and an odd woman (Eszter Balla) roams around the subway wearing a cute bear costume. But the more the story focuses on Bulcsu, who lives in the subway and always seems to be bleeding, the more powerful the film becomes, propelled by NEO's thumping techo soundtrack. [More]
Starring: Sandor Csanyi, Zoltan Mucsi, Csaba Pindroch, Sandor Badar
Starring: Sandor Csanyi, Zoltan Mucsi, Csaba Pindroch, Sandor Badar, Zsolt Nagy, Bence Matyassy, Gyozo Szabo, Eszter Balla, Laszlo Nadasi, Peter Scherer, Lajos Kovacs
Director: Nimrod Antal
Director: Nimrod Antal
Screenwriter: Nimrod Antal
Producer: Tamas Hutlassa, Nimrod Antal
Composer: NEO
Studio: ThinkFilm
Reviews for Kontroll
Placing his lunatic ensemble of social misfits into a series of episodic story blocks with faultless timing, the director evocatively captures the look, mood, sounds and, most of all, the eccentric attitudes of this alien realm.
A movie made with the kind of vision and assurance you don't often get in a debut.
Like many modern allegories, Nimrod Antal's tour de force of grime, fluorescence and destinationless velocity is more concerned with atmosphere than meaning.
Contemporary urban anxieties, conflict and dysfunction in film terms that vary from Keystone Cops chases to...magical realism to the edginess of classic thriller suspense.
It makes Euroflash metro thrillers like Luc Besson's Subway look about as serious as a ride on Disneyland's monorail.
Even though we spend the entire film underground, Hungary has never looked more buoyant.
Kontroll throws beaucoup intriguing mysteries at us, but the solutions aren't worth the trip.
There must be a lot of smart people out there in America ready for a youthful explosion of talent and temperament. This is their picture.
Watch how inventively Mr. Antal keeps the action moving and you'll see why his picture has won a passel of prizes, bestowed by everyone from the Cannes Film Festival to the Budapest Hungarian Film Critics organization.
Though the film is crowd-pleasing enjoyable, it never fully brings in enough light to its underground setting to completely satisfy as a fully realized work.
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