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A Perfect Day

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A Perfect Day (2016)

January. 15,2016
|
6.8
|
R
| Drama Comedy War
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Somewhere in the Balkans, 1995. A team of aid workers must solve an apparently simple problem in an almost completely pacified territory that has been devastated by a cruel war, but some of the local inhabitants, the retreating combatants, the UN forces, many cows and an absurd bureaucracy will not cease to put obstacles in their way.

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ManiakJiggy
2016/01/15

This is How Movies Should Be Made

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Beanbioca
2016/01/16

As Good As It Gets

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Madilyn
2016/01/17

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

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Cassandra
2016/01/18

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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Mike Lengel
2016/01/19

A Perfect Day stood out, having thrown it on with more adrenal expectations and getting a sweet and subtle mess of human connection. The theme intrigues with the atypical, war-torn Balkans backdrop and top notch cast, but expect less gunfire and more interpersonal drama and character development. If you've done any volunteering abroad, prepare to have that gritty, foreign, carefree spirit resurface. Characters constantly jive at and insult each other's quirks over their joint quest to extract a bloated corpse from a village well. Benicio Del Toro reminds of that guy that doesn't want to be there (but really does and just won't admit he doesn't have anywhere else to be) with mellow cynicism. His character develops through the ups and downs of helping a young boy recover a lost soccer ball (which ends in deadpan irony), as well as unexpected tragedy in finding the boy's dead parents and struggling to communicate it.Mélanie Thierry brings energy and a cute aloofness to the seemingly futile group effort, reminding of the pleasant but oft-impractical earnestness of a young volunteer in foreign muck. Tim Robbins injects a reckless humor, used on volunteer, confused soldier and testy shopkeeper. He lightens the mood of what should be serious aid work, helping others see the comedy of taking hit after hit from red tape and roadblock, and putting emphasis on the simple joy of friendship. Olga Kurylenko distracts with her wit and seductive charm, supplying the tension of hot romance at the wrong place and time. Together, the four balance an emotionally prickly but rewarding dynamic as they rattle past pothole and dead cow.The film highlights simplicity in hopelessness while the characters stumble forward, evoking the strong bond of friendship formed in life's trivial and unexpected moments. The crisp, mountainous cinematography shines over the lessor-shown Balkans geography and conflict, and provides ideal background turmoil for this very enjoyable, character driven escapade.

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ddobson-86777
2016/01/20

**SPOILERS because I want to save you from wasting your time with this movie!**When the movie started, I saw the IFC logo and an alarm went off in my head but I couldn't remember why. I would later find out that it was because this film embodies the worst in independent movies.The plot of this movie can be accurately summed up in two sentences: A group of aid workers drive around Yugoslavia looking for rope to fish a corpse out of a well. They fail. The end.What makes the movie awful is that it lacks anything to make it interesting besides the scenery and Tim Robbins' character having a few good lines. There is in character development, no message, no conflict, and no resolution. It just literally goes nowhere; I'm sure there are some lame film snobs who think this makes the movie "unique" or whatever but for the majority of people who watch movies to be told a story or be entertained it not only falls short but doesn't even try. The whole movie is just the cast driving around asking random Bosnians for rope and and getting denied at every turn for no reason. Throughout the movie they are paranoid about landmines and RPGs but I didn't hear a single explosion in the entire movie so it made the cast seem paranoid while breaking my suspension of disbelief.The writers in this movie definitely seem to have some sort of anti-UN agenda for whatever reason as evidenced by the movies bad ending where the UN literally sends an army of men with automatic weapons and tanks to stop the cast from removing the corpse from the well for some made up reason that really just seemed like bad writing to give the movie an unhappy ending just for the sake of having an unhappy ending in a lamely transparent attempt to make the film seem more "indie" or something. Independent movies with sad endings can still be really good (an excellent example of this is Donnie Darko) but with this movie it just made seem like over an hour and a half of frustration with no payoff. Watching this movie made me feel like I sat in traffic for over an hour and half to get somewhere only to find the place was closed and I sat in all that traffic for nothing.After the great army of the UN succeeds in their super-important mission to keep a corpse in a well they order the cast to clean the overflowing latrines in the overcrowded refugee camp, a task that should been reserved for whomever wrote this movie.Don't waste your time with this pile of garbage, you will regret it.

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butthead-60250
2016/01/21

Four things appealed to me about this film. There was relatively little profanity. I don't recall a single gunshot, and there was no car chase or gratuitous nudity; in fact there was no nudity at all. In an age where it is rare to find a movie with these qualities, I should give it a 7. But I won't. This director has talent and I hope he ups his game. I see that I need to come up with a few more lines of text for an acceptable post. One item I enjoyed was the playful criticism of the UN efforts, or lack thereof, to aid in war torn countries. I also enjoyed their dependence on locals to do their work. The characters showed a respect for the people they were trying to help.

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gtyoshida
2016/01/22

A compelling story begins with a simple event that becomes a complex masterpiece. "A Perfect Day" opens as a group of aid workers in the war torn Balkan region struggle to pull a dead corpse out of the village well before the rotting flesh poisons the water. When their only rope breaks and the body falls back down the well, the team leader Mambru (Benicio Del Toro), his garrulous friend, B (Tim Robbins), the novice aid worker, Sophie (Melanie Thierry), and the local translator, Damir (Fedja Stukan) must drive through the countryside searching for another rope. Disheartened by ridiculous peace protocols, hostile natives, and invisible landmines, they find their only salvation is to act humanly in the present rather than cling to their past beliefs or live for their future dreams. Olga Kurylenko (Katya) and Eldar Residovic (Nikola) round out the cast.

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