Boogie (2009)
A thirtysomething father's night out with two old mates triggers the drunken mid-life blues in this intimate Romanian drama
Nothing much happens but it's all going on in this low-key Romanian drama about three guys in their thirties attempting to rekindle the fire that stoked their adolescence. Director and co-writer Radu Muntean, who like Boogie's principle characters grew up under Romania's communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu, uses a boozy night out with the boys to track the ordinary fears and frustrations of 36-year old Bogdan 'Boogie' Coicazanu (Dragos Bucur), for whom domestic security is beginning to feel a bit too restrictive.
Boogie is on holiday at Romania's Neptune Beach with his wife Smaranda (Anamaria Marinca) and their four-year-old son Adi (Vlad Muntean). There he runs into two old mates, Penscu (Mimi Branescu) and Iordache (Adrian Vancica). All five of them arrange to go out for a drink that evening but it's clear to Smaranda, who doesn't think much of her husband's pals, that the night isn't going to be a family affair so she leaves them to it and returns to the hotel with their son.
Off the leash and on the lash, Boogie and the boys embark on a night of dogged, sloppy, slightly hopeless drinking that involves a trip to a bowling alley, an encounter with a prostitute and, as the hangover looms, a collective admission that in their own different ways, each has failed to capitalise on the hope and promise that accompanied the glory days of their horny, booze-fuelled youth.
Boogie takes some pride in the fact that, unlike his mates, he's still a hit with the girls, but the revelation that prostitute Ramona (Roxana Iancu) was four years old when the guys left high school is a gentle reminder that neither booze nor girls nor marriage nor work can prevent the clock from ticking away. Iordache, it turns out, is not the big shot in Sweden he claims to be and Penescu is trapped working in the tourist industry where he sells cheap escape routes to other Romanians. It's only Boogie who appears to have achieved anything on his own terms, and even that hasn't engendered any sense of confidence about his place in the world.
The stories unfolding here might be small and sad but Muntean's observations are acutely intimate. "Thanks for bringing me on holiday to baby-sit the kid," is Smaranda's sarcastic response to Boogie's proposal that he stay out with the boys, and the film is strongest when worrying away at the tiny details of these relationships.
Subjected to such close scrutiny, no one emerges as entirely sympathetic. In the context of this epic night out Boogie himself is selfish, frustrated, vain and unfaithful yet also, one senses, generous, loving and loyal. Halfway through the night his conscience begins to prick and he leaves his mates and returns to Smaranda, who is silently seething in bed back at the hotel.
The couple's whispered argument is the film's understated centrepiece and it's a quietly raw portrayal of one more skirmish in an endless cycle of domestic resentment in which no one is right, no one is wrong, no one is happy and no one gets a break. For Boogie it's an irritation too far and he heads drunkenly off into the night again, Muntean contrasting the couple's ordinary, bottled-up anger with the uncorked candour of old mates out on the beer.
Romanian cinema in the noughties has enjoyed a run of successes. from 2005 and 4 The Death Of Mr Lazarescu from2005 and 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days which also starred Anamaria Marinca and which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007, were evidence of the country's growing confidence in the wake of communist rule. Boogie differs from these international hits in that it avoids specific reference to local issues. The story might just as credibly play out in Rotherham, Redwood or Reykjavik. Instead it's interesting to pitch Boogie against the 'mumblecore' films currently coming out of independent America, Muntean presenting a modest but extremely well observed slice of life - a life which, the hesitantly hopeful conclusion suggests, carries on regardless of all the anxieties, disappointments and betrayals hovering around its edge.
This review originally appeared at Film4.com
Boogie is on holiday at Romania's Neptune Beach with his wife Smaranda (Anamaria Marinca) and their four-year-old son Adi (Vlad Muntean). There he runs into two old mates, Penscu (Mimi Branescu) and Iordache (Adrian Vancica). All five of them arrange to go out for a drink that evening but it's clear to Smaranda, who doesn't think much of her husband's pals, that the night isn't going to be a family affair so she leaves them to it and returns to the hotel with their son.
Off the leash and on the lash, Boogie and the boys embark on a night of dogged, sloppy, slightly hopeless drinking that involves a trip to a bowling alley, an encounter with a prostitute and, as the hangover looms, a collective admission that in their own different ways, each has failed to capitalise on the hope and promise that accompanied the glory days of their horny, booze-fuelled youth.
Boogie takes some pride in the fact that, unlike his mates, he's still a hit with the girls, but the revelation that prostitute Ramona (Roxana Iancu) was four years old when the guys left high school is a gentle reminder that neither booze nor girls nor marriage nor work can prevent the clock from ticking away. Iordache, it turns out, is not the big shot in Sweden he claims to be and Penescu is trapped working in the tourist industry where he sells cheap escape routes to other Romanians. It's only Boogie who appears to have achieved anything on his own terms, and even that hasn't engendered any sense of confidence about his place in the world.
The stories unfolding here might be small and sad but Muntean's observations are acutely intimate. "Thanks for bringing me on holiday to baby-sit the kid," is Smaranda's sarcastic response to Boogie's proposal that he stay out with the boys, and the film is strongest when worrying away at the tiny details of these relationships.
Subjected to such close scrutiny, no one emerges as entirely sympathetic. In the context of this epic night out Boogie himself is selfish, frustrated, vain and unfaithful yet also, one senses, generous, loving and loyal. Halfway through the night his conscience begins to prick and he leaves his mates and returns to Smaranda, who is silently seething in bed back at the hotel.
The couple's whispered argument is the film's understated centrepiece and it's a quietly raw portrayal of one more skirmish in an endless cycle of domestic resentment in which no one is right, no one is wrong, no one is happy and no one gets a break. For Boogie it's an irritation too far and he heads drunkenly off into the night again, Muntean contrasting the couple's ordinary, bottled-up anger with the uncorked candour of old mates out on the beer.
Romanian cinema in the noughties has enjoyed a run of successes. from 2005 and 4 The Death Of Mr Lazarescu from2005 and 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days which also starred Anamaria Marinca and which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007, were evidence of the country's growing confidence in the wake of communist rule. Boogie differs from these international hits in that it avoids specific reference to local issues. The story might just as credibly play out in Rotherham, Redwood or Reykjavik. Instead it's interesting to pitch Boogie against the 'mumblecore' films currently coming out of independent America, Muntean presenting a modest but extremely well observed slice of life - a life which, the hesitantly hopeful conclusion suggests, carries on regardless of all the anxieties, disappointments and betrayals hovering around its edge.
This review originally appeared at Film4.com