Masterful Movie

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

More than a dozen years after it was made, I settled down to watch this highly lauded Polish film and soon wondered what took me so long. "Day of the Wacko" is Polish cinema at its best. It's as if Federico Fellini had made "Jackass, the Movie." Brilliantly played by Marek Kondrat, the main character is a jackass, a bitter 49-year-old man who hates his life. His obsessive-compulsive daily routines, his insomnia, and his contempt for other people, have made a mess of him. He lives in a delusional world in which he is the only sane and rational person. Through his world view, however, comes a well deserved satirizing of the commercialization of Polish life and the vapid individuals who inhabit his world. We end up sympathizing with him, as his son, his former wife, his mother, and all of his neighbors display their absurd normalcy. This is comedy that makes you think.

This movie offers nothing to its audience. The user comments on here paint an overwhelmingly positive picture of this film, but it is worthless. "Day of the Wacko" lacks intelligences and puts no faith in the intelligence of the viewer. Every character in this movie is an exaggerated caricature, especially the main character. This is supposed to be a character study of Adam and his dysfunctions, but there is absolutely nothing to latch onto. His problems are centered on the fact that he has OCD and has to carefully measure his every move, but instead of a detailed, subtle examination of a complex person, we're given a stereotype that falls somewhere between Psych 101 and a cartoon. If this wasn't bad enough, the audience is further insulted by the fact that nearly every moment of this film is filled with Adam's narration that explains his motivations for everything in the most simplified terms. As a novel, the narration would lack subtlety and depth; as a film technique, it's unforgivable. As for the supposed humor, none of it works. Half of the jokes come from awkward and unnecessary vulgarity (and mind you, my favorite director is John Waters), and the other half are intended to stem from the character, only there is no actual character so there are no actual jokes. All the exchanges between Adam and the people he meet are forced and unrealistic. Don't look to this film for insight, entertainment, or social commentary. If you want a shocking satire on modern angst, check out something like Happiness or Man Bites Dog instead.

If you're looking for a comedy to spend some time laughing you've got the wrong movie. This one isn't funny and if there scenes to laugh about it's not because they're "funny" but because they're true."The Day of the Wacko" is about one day taken from a life of a underpaid, depressed, Polish language teacher in Warsaw. But it's also about getting old and tired of life that seemed so happy and nice at first and then turned into a total disaster - a disaster that a lot of people getting old (not only in Poland) experience. Another movie about Adas Miauczynski is true to the bone, it tries to picture the confrontation between the idealist dreams that all of us had while being young with reality that, often, is depressing and sad. And it does..."The Day of the Wacko" also makes a few points about us, Polish people (or rather people in general), that we often try to hide or make them go away in our minds. I believe each and every person after watching the movie will feel that this it's, even in a flash, about themselves.The screenplay, and directing is really good, but the movie would be poor if not for some excellent acting by Marek Kondrat as Adas Miauczynski - he's not excellent, he's absolutely wonderful as a man that considers himself as the lowest of the low. In my opinion this is one of the most universal Polish movies ever made (at least after 1989) and anyone interested in Polish cinema should take a while to see it.10/10

I left Poland as a seven year old girl in 1981.. no, hang on - first of all, Why is there a man defecating in this film? For all of the intellectual things I have loved about films from the 'homeland', nothing has ever sunk into the realm of BFR (bodily function reduction) without trying to be an educational film on the digestive tract. This screened at the Vancouver Film Festival three days ago and I made the voyage to the theatre feeling stoic and anticipating something momentous... after all, reverence and sentiment is something that runs amongst all of the Poles I know and no, wait - why is there a blisteringly heavy-handed metaphor that includes people playing tug-o-war with the Polish flag, it ripping and (I can't believe they stooped this cliche) BLOOD, yes blood spatters out from where it tears???? Help.. am I too young to appreciate an aging poet's neurotic excretions? I wondered the same thing when I started watching Bridges over Madison County.. will I be able to relate to a mature, ripe and slower-paced perspective on life? In the case of Bridges, I was lured by the universally binding theme of love, kinship and romance, however removed it was from mine. In WACKO, not only did I have a hard time believing the protagonist but all of the supporting characters were caricature cut-outs of things you see in 80s sitcoms in North America: the venomous (and nothing else) x-wife, the apathetic (and disinterested and nothing else) young son, the students who are defined by their flatulence and interest in bodily injuries of their professor. I have to claim philanthropy for every character, not just the women because they are so one-dimensional and the protagonist is simply... boring. None of the details which are supposed to be quaint (his measuring coffee JUST so) resonate because there is so much repetition that you just want to tear your hair out waiting for the director to get to the point. By mid-way through the film, I have to admit to my beloved boyfriend (Zagreb born, UK raised) that this film has none of the imagination nor raw honesty of films like JAK DALEKO Z TAD, JAK BLISKO nor INTERROGATION because it's attempting to do something it considers to be "NEW" (ie. Poles are not historically about going on about mastrubation, crapping, suicide) ... I felt the same as when I went to a theatre in SZCZECIN a couple of summers ago and they did "Natural Born Killers" the stage version. Totally disappointing and unimaginative... I hope that the next thing to hit the circuit does not go where this film dragged the audience through.