Indie Gems: Loveless

Why are you even doing this?

Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) are going through a bitter divorce. They're trying to sell their apartment so they unfortunately still live under the same roof. Their biggest issues is their son, Alyosha. (Matvey Novikov) Neither actually want him. Boris has already gotten his new girlfriend pregnant and they won't have the room, and Zhenya is enjoying her freedom too much. They entertain the thought of dropping him at an orphanage, though Boris is afraid his conservative boss will find out. Alyosha listens to all of this from the bathroom and cries himself to sleep. He runs away the next day, and his parents don't notice he's gone until two days later.

This might be one of the harshest movies I've ever watched. Zhenya and Boris are terrible people. All I wanted to do was take Alyosha away, wrap him in a warm blanket, and punch both of his parents in the face. It's a bit jarring to see two people act so selfishly about their child, but that's the point of the film. Director Andrey Zvyagintsev wanted to make a movie about how selfish the world has gotten, particularly his home nation of Russia. He succeeds with flying colors.

The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous for a film with so much despair, and actors are all very good. I prefer this to the other I saw of his, Leviathan. It's one of those that's not going to be for everyone. At times even I had a hard time watching people behaving as shitty as these ones do but for what he was trying to say, it worked very well. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie tackle a subject like this.

Grade: B-

Watched on: DVD (thanks local library!)

Memorable Quote: "Here I was thinking you actually cared for your son." - Zhenya (Maryana Spivak)