Out of Kontroll

Well... a bit out of control anyway. I'd never been to the Flicks theater in Boise, ID until last Sunday. It's a cool little place, you are actually allowed to buy beer in the concessions stand. I however did not buy beer, but rather a small popcorn from the dark haired girl behind the counter, with eye shadow that exactly matched her soft blue watch band. Thankfully, I didn't have to endure any Nike commercials, or SUV commercials where the SUV is some sort of dog, or bull.

Kontroll is a nice little film, but is an amazing directorial debut from Hungary's Nimród Antal. It seethes with dark comic book style and modern film noir cinematography, but the plot is something different all together. It's a refreshing action story about a bunch of sub-normal ticket police in Budapest's underground metro system. It follows different threads, all interesting in they're own rights, including "suits" which are a type of subway fed's that look and act a lot more important than they really are, a hooded killer on the loose, relentlessly chasing a delinquent that enjoys running from the ticket gestapo, and above all, a look at subterranean life and one mans desire to physically detach himself from society (for reasons unknown). This all seems like it could be lot to cram into an hour and a half without being "too much", but it isn't too much, and everything actually flows quite nicely as the film freely crosses all genre lines. The characters are interesting enough, especially the "love" interest, a cute girl who rides the metro everyday in a giant teddy bear costume and always refuses to buy a ticket. The lead "suit" has an interesting birthmark covering up half of his very angry face, and walks around with two other suits to the left and right of him looking like a very tired agent Smith without any fighting skills, determining if the recent string of suicides are in fact suicides, or are actually murders. Bulcsú, the protagonist, lives in the metro stop, and refuses to surface with the pretty teddy bear girl for even a cup of coffee, instead opting for buying her a cup from a coffee dispensing concession machine. He's alone most of the time, and we can tell he prefers it that way, and he slips further and further into a need for solitude, and lacks all concern for his own life as he participates in a extreme sport of sorts invented out of the workers boredom. "Railing" involves running as fast as you can after the second to last train of the night between metro stops, hoping that you make it to the next one before the last metro turns you into a thick red paste. These games, and these murders, and practically living underground, is driving these ticket policeman crazy, and I always enjoy watching secluded people slip further and further into insanity, especially when I'm not looking in the mirror.

The movie isn't perfect however, and even though I do like how the film at first lets us question if Bulcsú is the actual killer, the look and feel of the murderer can't help but remind me of the Scream movies. Some of the characters seem a little overboard quirky to me, like the one narcoleptic member of the crew...I realize in dark films comic relief is imperative (Coughjar jarcough....excuse me). I like weird funny ha ha, but not silly, and I thought the narcoleptic was unnecessary. The romance with the teddy bear girl isn't overdone, which is nice for a change, and the ending I felt was appropriate and surreal. My favorite parts in the movie though are the ones where Bulcsú wanders alone through the eerie tunnels in the middle of his sleepless nights, sitting on top of their openings, while enormous ventilator fans spin ominously beside him in Budapest's dirty and green tinted underworld. If I was a gummy bear, and I am, I'd give it a 8.5/10.