You I Love (2004)

Nice effects though.

Just what I expected

Just so...so bad

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This movie has a real Russian feeling in it. The way Russians behave towards each other, the way they treat people and their warmth is something that is not well known for people who has never been there. Definitely the movie is stylized, but if it reminds anything that would be Nine and a Half Weeks. The previous post misses the "invasion" of the "peasant" into the lives of sophisticated urbanites as an attempt to show "how multiracial" Russia has become. It reminds me Bunuel, instead. In L'Age D'or, a movie from the 1920's, there is a scene in which a bunch a peasants pass through an opulent party where the burgeosie is feasting, in a surreal way. It's as like the peasants breath life in that artificial environment. Life, love is all there is.

I believe reviewer Paul should watch the director and producer's comments. Sure, a poorly filmed piece by Hollywood standards but this is in Russia and it is groundbreaking for them. It's not just a film about homosexuals but rather love and everyone's right to seek it, find it and have it the way they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Uloomji has a chance meeting with Tim and you know that something unsaid has transpired between them. Along comes Vera to stir up the pot and the charisma of Uloomji affects her too. Three different people who manage to be oblivious to what others may think as they begin to work out their differences. Adding the other family conflicts added to the humor and suspense of how it will end and where the title comes from. I liked the film. It made me work some to watch subtitles and hear the Russian but the message came across.

YA LYUBLU TEBYA (You I Love) is a fast paced bonbon of a movie from Russia being hailed in some circles as the 'hottest gay film of the year'. Hot it is not: fun it is. The message from director/writers Olga Stolpovskaja and Dmitry Troitsky seems more a PR statement about how Westernized and modern in social behavior Russia has become since Perestroika than creating a significant gay film. Yet somehow the result is a rapid sequence entertainment that should appeal to a very wide audience.Timofei (Evgeny Koryakovsky) is a young, successful ad executive in Moscow, able to afford all of the luxuries of his Western counterparts. He is in a relationship with Vera (Lyubov Tolkalina) who is a popular TV personality. They have a fresh and vital lifestyle, emphasizing the manifestations of capitalism. Simultaneously we meet Uloomji (Damir Badmaev) who comes from the poorer provinces, the son of a strict and struggling worker family. Uloomji strikes out for Moscow to find a job and a life. He 'accidentally' encounters Timofei who feels sorry for the homeless youth and takes him to his apartment for care...and cavorting! The socially naive Uloomji and the sexually naive Timofei collide (the metaphor is readily apparent) and are discovered in embrace when Vera returns home. The remainder of the story is how the two men and one woman grow into a ménage a trois of sorts and how the friends and families of the three respond.While the story is really one of bisexuality it is played as a drawing room comedy (? TV sitcom Moscow style?) and while the film takes a lot of visual and technical chances - some of which work well, others spoil - the final result is a light entertainment that doesn't really push the edge purported by the trailers and the PR media glut. The three main actors are excellent and show promise of becoming stars in their own right. This is a fun film that asks the audience to just step on for the ride for an inside look at the now-open Moscow life! Grady Harp

Really, a dismal piece of work. I would rate it as unwatchable, if only for the acting. But let's not give short shrift to the other poor aspects of this film: it was also poorly written, edited, scored, and directed. Everything about this film just says, "Film school, first attempt."Be assured, this move is not significant as a "gay Russian film." Gay relationships in film are hardly groundbreaking events, and unless you can put a reasonable story around it, it deserves only to be significant as a "a bad Russian film."The positive reviews I've read strike me as overwhelming patronizing to Russian film-making.Note: I can only really comment on the first hour of this movie, since that's all we stayed for. If you've become curious about this movie and just must see it, I strongly recommend you stay out of the theater and make this one a rental.