Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie takes a peek behind the iron curtain in the post World War 2. Set in a 1955 Moscow, it describes the battle between conformity and individuality that the youth faces while living under a communist regime built on the ideology that no one is better than another and everyone lives for each other. However, there is a tribe that in its youthful defiance of the system (that promotes a monotonous and disciplined life), adopts a culture of colorful clothing and celebrating their life through their love for jazz at broadway and cocktail club. The society that considers following western culture a defiance of the countries ideology and shames them as hipsters or "Stilyagi". Western articles are not imported into the country, but are smuggled and bought through middlemen trading in the dark alleys around the clubs. The sense of defiance through these purchases, further stimulates the propulsion of this culture.The narrative is bound around the 20 year old Mels who is part of the youth wing of the communist party. He isn't necessarily tied closely to the ideology of the party, but earnestly carries out the orders and is very close friends with its youth commander, Katlyn. During one of the raids on partying hispsters, Mels is smitten by the enchanting Polly. He subsequently realizes that to capture her attention, he would need to learn to dress up and dance like them and become a part of their group. This gives a sneak peak behind the jazzy outlook of the group as they are shown as citizens who too belong normal conformed family lives but choose to express themselves by socializing together. In this journey of transformation, Mels also learns to play Saxaphone which helps him to charter to unexplored facets of this personality.Through Mels journey of transition the director sheds light on how the hipsters, or "Dandy" as they are called, keep up with their lifestyle. One thing that strikes the viewer is that they are too vibrant and gaudy in their choices, partly because the director wanted to markedly distinguish between the vivid world of Dandys and the grey world of the slobs, but possibly also to show that the hipsters had only a perceived vision of the western culture and was inspired by the dazzling outlook of the western showbiz.The tension between the komsomol and the Stilyagi's is scratched on the surface through interactions between Mels and Katlyn. Katlyn has had a crush on Mels and is visibly disturbed at losing him to the Stilyagis'. Since the story is told from Stilyagi's perspective, the rendering takes a satirical dig at the conformist communist culture at more than one instance.Since it is a musical, the music adds well to the narrative and sequenced are very colorfully choreographed. However, the song that really stands out is the one sung in the assembly of the communist party, where Mels is stripped of his membership. All in all, its a light-hearted, entertaining take on the hipster's cult in 1950's Moscow and with a hint on it's substance.

I loved this musical for its dream-team of actors, who performed quite up to the expectations. And I loved it for its simple and at the same time heart-touching humor. When Katya casually performed her "from saxophone to knife" gag, I was laughing out loud. And there are quite a few of such moments.I find the plot painfully believable. It is definitely not one of those movies where they give you fun visuals while the actors are doing completely random things. All the actions are well motivated here. Although the scene before maternity hospital seemed a little doubtful to me at first, but after recalling the father's past and consulting with some friends of mine I agreed with them in that it's quite believable. One would normally expect more grotesque and arbitrariness in a musical, but somehow the screen writers decided to stay down to earth.The music and songs are scrupulously arranged by Meladze. Although I appreciate his hard work, I cannot agree with some of the decisions made. Anyone knows this feeling, when you listen to a remix of a well-known melody – it's almost the same, but somehow it's not the same. Here we have even some of the lyrics changed. I think that most of the songs turned for the worst, some stayed quite OK, and few of them… Well, it was like finding a new dimension to a place you thought you knew very well for years.I'll take one star off this film for the reason of music. And I'll take one star off because of the plot. I wish it were more fairy-tale, as I am somewhat tired of this painful tragicomedy. I also know that some the film's logic is inevitably lost when watched by a foreigner, but I am not going to take off any stars for this reason. After all, this is not a detective story, and the logic may not be so important here. We usually watch musicals just for the sake of emotions, and the "Hipsters" will give you a whole lot of deep, sincere and beautiful feelings.

"Stilyagi" is one of the best Russian movies I have seen in the past 10 years. The director and actors did wonderful job. The movie is both romantic and fun, and at the same time it gives insight about a curious historical phenomenon.The World War II not only devastated Russia, but also exposed the otherwise isolated country to Western culture through captured movies, vinyl LPs, art, fashion clothes, and other spoils of war. This was particularly valuable for people who wanted to express their difference from others. They started to copy perceived "American" lifestyle, especially the clothes, using films like "Sun Valley Serenade" and the covers of jazz LPs as primary references. Not surprisingly, the result was an outlook more typical for Western show business entertainers than for mainstream design. Although the group believed that their attire was the true definition of style, the rest of Soviet population labeled them "stilyagi" to show their disapproval. In the totalitarian regime "admiration for the West" was a felony, however, after Stalin's death state security was reluctant to take action and stilyagi were facing relatively modest retaliation, mostly from local Komsomol (Communist Party youth wing) activists.Since the movie is about liberty and has elements of a modern musical, I feel like comparing it with "Across the Universe" (2007). In this comparison, "Stilyagi" is more dynamic and psychological, while actors' voices are just as good. The main duo of Anton Shagin and Oksana Akinshina, who are playing a Komsomol activist Mels in love with a female stilyagi member Polza, are delivering excellent performance, which is especially striking given their young ages. (It is ironic that Mels is an acronym for "Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin," and "Polza" in translation from Russian means "use.") A scene of a Komsomol meeting is truly memorable and in my view is a masterpiece. The music is mostly modern Russian pop and alternative rock, with lyrics adapted to the plot. The ending, which makes a connection between liberty ideals of stilyagi and modern youth, sounds like a bold statement in the nation that is still re-thinking its past.

This movie really has 1 thing going for it, which is the unusual cultural element presented. The Russian style and music movement this film is about is extremely eye opening, and the crew did an specular job visualizing it. It follows a typical Russian youth's discovery of and assimilation into a movement to expel the monotonous, monochromatic lifestyles of Soviet Moscow by extremely obsessing with Western fashion and music. Imagine Happy Days interpreted by someone on the other side of the world. The film features some musical elements and some modern songs.From my older Russian relatives comments, sets and wardrobe were not extremely over the top. Stilagi means something like "stylish obsessed people" - it comes from the word stil' meaning style.The film was not written for a western audience for the most part, but it could lead to some interesting discussion afterward. For instance, vinyl records were really bootlegged on x-ray sheets and certain musical instruments were extremely illegal!I thought the actors did a nice job especially the young leads. But they did not sing the songs, nor were the songs from the proper era. The film felt more like a story with musical elements thrown in like Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris - except no zombies, claymation, etc. However, unless viewing the film with some Russians you probably won't get the full potential presented here. Many of the older actors are extremely famous. The lead female is an actress with some Western recognition. Also some cultural elements like communal living, youth groups, social status, and relevance of characters' names were not explained for Western viewers. On the negative side, the story itself is at times predictable and other times just absurd. Granted, this is a musical! The writers could have easily set up a straight forward love story set in troubled times, but they chose to extend the third act too far. If the film ended 40 minutes earlier, maybe I would enjoy it more. The plot has multiple loop holes, but addressing them would not help the narrative.Overall, this can be equated to one of those weird Asian cinema offerings where since you can't get much of the language you ignore the ridiculous story and just focus on the vivid, excellent visuals. It also helps that there are some creative intimate scenes.