The Optimists

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Audience Member A documentary where we follow a different volleyball team. There are ladies from 66 years of age and the oldest girls is Goro at 98. After thirty years of weekly training the team are prepairing for their first official game. This is a cute ride. Funny and a bit touching. Goro, the main lady, is my favorite. That's a really sporty lady! An interesting take of the sport, the elder life and humanity. Not the best documentary I have seen, but it's a pretty cool little film. 6 out of 10 Philips. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Goran Paskaljevic nos presenta 5 historias en poco más de 1 hora y media, y al resultado lo llama "Los Optimistas". En general, cada uno de los relatos muestra un distinto problema, sin relación alguna con el anterior y cómo es que los protagonistas lo abordan. La reacción de los personajes podría ser considerada desde perjudicial y sumisa, hasta benéfica y optimista. Con una mezcla de humor negro y dramatismo, y la utilización de varios plano-secuencias, este filme en ningún momento llega a ser aburrido, pero en ningún momento llega a ser demasiado interesante. Algo que sí vale la pena destacar es el excelente trabajo de Lazar Ristovski, mostrando varias facetas y añadiendo fluidez a las historias. En general, esta cinta es un reflejo de la diversidad humana y las situaciones que la vida presenta en todo momento y todo lugar. La película muestra sólo 5 ejemplos, pero si fuera necesario, se podrían seguir mostrando más y más ejemplos casi infinitamente. La humanidad es increíblemente variada; eso es algo que podemos apreciar mediante esta obra. Sin embargo, el mensaje de The Optimists queda vagamente representado y no se aprovecha el potencial de la cámara. Quizá un escrito y este filme hubieran tenido prácticamente el mismo impacto. Es un buen intento, pero parece ser que el optimismo de Paskaljevic no estuvo del todo presente. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Goran Paskaljevic is a well known name as one of the best directors from the Balkan. He directed this movie, which is presented as five unrelated narrative sequences, inspired by my favourite writer of all times - Voltaire, especially his satirical work Candide. The Optimists features an impressive cast from this part of the world, and one of the best of them - Lazar Ristovski - is appearing in all five storylines. This film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and was subsequently screened at several other film festivals earning multiple awards. Ristovski was named Best Actor at the 51st Valladolid International Film Festival while the film won the Golden Spike award as the best film of the festival also earning the Youth Jury Award. The Optimists was included as part of a retrospective exhibition on director Goran Paskaljevic at the Museum of Modern Art in 2008 which is undoubtedly telling us about the real value in it - and I won't question that - I'll confirm that it was smart, deep, multilayered and thoughtful work of real art with lots of black comedy in it even in the most emotional parts of the drama. My only problem with this movie is that there is no divide between the stories, and having the same main lead in all of them contributed to the confusion during the first few minutes of the new story which took out a little of the appeal for me. There is a little bit of gloominess in all of the situations presented in the stories but it was so good to see that a director is able to pronounce his compassion as well as his sarcasm. Paskaljevic has sympathy for his characters and that was evident as was his derision for them! I would do something with this movie - maybe give hope with a quote after each part instead of deadending every single one when situations have achieved their equilibrium of hopelessness and defeat. But, life in that part of the world seems like a dead end most of the time - hopelessness could be a wilful choice of the director. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Goran Paskaljevic does it again! 5 stories, one better than the other, with Lazar Ristovski in all of them acting brilliantly, black comedy in its best! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member I watched this again to get some ideas for a paper. I think it holds up nicely on repeat viewings. It's a hilarious and grim black comedy about social and personal disillusionment in post-war Serbia. Told in five slightly related stories all starring the great Lazar Ristovski, the film is bleak and hopeless. The last story, in particular, is extremely bitter. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Maybe it's not unbearable, but I see no point in watching it. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Optimists

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