Poveste de cartier (2008) Reviews

• Anti-cinema

  Mihnea_aka_Pitbull2008-06-01

  To better understand the phenomenon of "District Story", one should first be aware what the "manele" are and represent. Well, following the disastrous years of communism, with the regime's policy to transform all the nation into a herd of brutish beasts, the marginal districts of the cities became overpopulated by a huge load of social disinherited - illiterate, uneducated, primitive, with criminal tendencies; inherently, many of them were gypsies. This numerous peripheral population fatally nurtured its own subculture, and one of its main landmarks are the "manele" - songs that still keep a weak heritage of the gypsy traditions, but denatured and vulgarized. The tunes are linear, rhythmic and monotonous, but with very violent accents, mainly in the refrains; the lyrics are very simplistic and crude, phrased with a total lack of grammar, to the point of dyslexia. Here is a symptomatic example: "Come on, lady, to my flat / To make sex the way I want / And I trash you over so, / Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-owww!" The predilect subjects of the manele are: love, sex, money (or lack thereof), my enemies, my dad's teachings (well... THEIR, not "mine", of course!). Unfortunately, they became so widely spread, that one can hear them, deafeningly loud, in all Romanian slums - and, alas, also in environments that should be more civilized... So, this is the world this "movie" depicts - with an involved and loving eye. It purports to assert the delusional values of these lowest levels of society. In fact, it's too much said "movie" - it lacks too many professional and artistic elements to be qualified as such. Literally, it's a CINEMATOGRAPHED MANEA, awkwardly directed, freakishly amateurish acted, with a messy editing and a repulsive soundtrack. The only good parts are, paradoxically, the original script (which, unfortunately, was mutilated to the point of not being recognizable anymore), and the cinematography, which shoots in a professional and stylish way the sordid realities of the story. It's really a pity that these few professionals sold so cheaply their name, to credit this piece of cinematographic imposture. I dedicate to them my despising compassion.

• Do NOT watch this!

  white_glory_box2008-09-19

  I saw a commercial about this movie and thought i'd give it a shot.The result was,that at about 30 minutes into the movie i was forced to stop watching it,because of the stupidity of everything in it.This is actually the first film i hate.The only thing good and professional about this movie is the appearance of the well known romanian actor Florin Calinescu and i am deeply surprised that he's agreed with the plot of this movie and to take part in it.I guess that money changes everything.Whatever you do,do not watch this movie,i am telling you that you will regret it for spending minutes on watching an extremely stupid and childish copy of "The west side story" as many have said and if i had to choose a word that could describe this i would choose:PATHETIC.

• A nice story

  razvanultra55-12008-05-22

  I've seen the movie,and besides the oriental music a.k.a "manele", its the Romanian version of the West Side Story. The actors are doing their job well, not exceptional, but well. If you wanna have a nice night with your friends you can watch this one, but only one time.... The story is well written and it has the upsides and downsides like any other low budget movies, but its OK.... Romanian cinematography has some problems..i can say big problems in this days, but there are some who can do much more then this movie. Anyway enjoy the movie and you can make your own opinion about it! Enjoy it!

• Good idea, bad directing

  ntt_qatm2009-06-21

  This is the sum of corporate cinematography for Romania. A somewhat big studio wanted to make a movie about a Romanian reality, addressing mostly a Romanian target, inspired from Bollywood movies. And it's a BIG fail. Although the music is not my favorite genre, I must say it really is good. The plot might have been good has there been a director that actually knew what the hell he was doing. The cinematography sucks all the way. Bad filming, bad choice of actors (although some of them did pretty good), moronic editing... You name it, it was bad. It's just one of the films that could have been good, if not for the big studio guys. But isn't it the way these days ? If you have money, you can do whatever you please. Even spoil a potentially good movie !

• An Indian film made by Romanians

  Moody20082009-02-27

  At first i didn't even want to watch this movie because of the kind of music that was in this film. But one night I didn't have anything else to see so i decided to watch this one. It was actually entertaining. Although it was a cliché and it was like an Indian movie and the end was also stupid, the acting was really bad etc I liked this movie because it made me laugh. It wasn't the purpose of this movie to make people laugh but since i didn't take it seriously and i didn't expect much of it, it did manage to amuse me. Not because it had humour in it, I laughed at the bad acting and at the bad storyline. I mean it was like watching homemade clips of people doing stupid things. So i give this movie the grade as if it was a parody of the kind of world that surrounds the people that sing the "manele" genre(it is like Turkish, Indian and gypsy songs combined into one only with very idiotic lyrics).