Concrete Night (2013)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent but underrated film

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Concrete Night was selected to represent its country at the Oscars and was seen by as few as 9 555 persons in the cinemas. A quite interesting combination. Didn't make it there.The movie is all about visual language and soul. I recognize some elements of high value. Director Pirjo Honkasalo uses her actors like she played them as instruments and directs amazingly. The actors' task is to expose soul more than anything, but something keeps me from playing along and I don't warm up for this world. That part must connect when there isn't a mentionable plot to capture my interest.It's like the movie is teaching its viewer to ignore intuition and surrender to concrete... and leaving it to the viewer to understand the educational value of this. Art in its deepest form, ladies and gentlemen.

The movie follows one day in the life of Simo, a fourteen year old teenager who lives with his anti-heroic mother and older brother, Ilkka. The one last day of freedom of his brother before he serve his prison sentence.The two brothers go out at (concrete) night in Helsinki. Simo, with elastic and reciprocating character as a teenager, clearly mimicking his older brother and in a brief conversation between him, Ilkka turns vanity and pessimism of living into a philosophy through a story about scorpions as the only surviving specie in an upcoming apocalyptic day (talking about greedy mankind and nuclear threat) Later in the film Simo comes across with a photographer. The personification of joy and love in life on the face of a homosexual pervert photographer, symbolizes Simo's seeking of meaningful life on his youth but as it turns out his elastic mind is fundamentally infected (from his way of life) and he commits murder (turns down joy and hope) On his way home a taxi driver offers him a ride. The taxi driver is the mirror of himself as he sees his life passes before his eyes from the innocent youth (laughs) to his recent crime and he tries to escape from his "downfall" (open the door as the car keeps moving, maybe suicide)and himself says "don't never do that again" At the end he realizes the monster he became. "The scorpions are coming, the end is coming. If you still hope you will never be free. And if they have enough they stub themselves to death" A simple view on the lost innocence of a teenager, following philosophic and symbolic paths and how growing up in a problematic family can affect fundamentally the formation of his character and his presence or absence in a society. Meaningful, artistic and declaratory movie.

Based on a highly acclaimed 1980 novel, Concrete Night is a bleak coming of age drama set in a grim and rundown housing ghetto in Helsinki. Fourteen year old Simo (Johannes Brotherus) is reluctantly forced to spend the night in the company of his older brother Ilkka (Jari Virman), who is due to go to jail the next day. During the night he learns some harsh lessons about relationships, trust, family, and the comfort of strangers. He also seems fascinated by the mysterious photographer who lives in a neighbouring apartment, which leads to a fateful and life changing encounter. The film is a look at teenage malaise, urban decay and failed dreams, and former cinematographer turned director Pirjo Honkaslao suffuses the material with strong homo-erotic undercurrents. The drama takes place at night in a city that is often drenched in rain, and the cold and vaguely industrial looking setting is also grim and inhospitable. The film has been shot in glorious, moody black and white by cinematographer Peter Flinckenberg, which adds further to the bleak, ominous and occasionally claustrophobic tone. This poetic monochromatic approach also gives the film a visually stunning surface and a gritty realism reminiscent of 50s surrealist cinema. Concrete Night is also suffused with a palpable sense of impending doom. In his first leading role Brotherus delivers a superb performance as the troubled, vulnerable and naive Simo, and often his internal emotional conflicts can be seen playing out on his face as he tries to come to terms with his own identity.

Even that I'm a big fan of unknown movies, this one couldn't convince me at all. This story about two brothers and their mother living in a city somewhere. One committed a crime and has to pay for it. The younger brother soon to be left alone with their mother, who lives in some sort of fantasy and has a drinking problem. The younger brother coming of age and wanting to have his brother's approval.The biggest problem I had with this movie is the way the director wanted to make it look sad. The black and white filming, the sad buildings where they live, skies being dark all the time, sparse lighting at night. The lighting coming from aside instead of from above. A rabbit walking on the city streets at night. A toad being near one of the characters. Water or rain falling down nice visible in the light, like in slow motion. Very little talk. It was all too much for me. The story could have been told in a other way, making the same points.