Day of the Wacko (2002)
It is a bitter story about a middle-aged man, who hates his life and other people, including himself. Adam Miauczynski, the character known from director Marek Koterski's previous films, is a 44 year-old teacher, who reads poetry during school lessons and later goes home swearing and calling his neighbours' names. The worst pain for him is the next 5 minutes of living. He doesn't accept himself and even everyday contacts with others cause his aggression. Though constantly dreaming of a romantic love, he is not bold enough to make his dreams come true. The desperate Miauczynski personalizes our own fears and obsessions, which have become so visible recently.
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SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
Crappy film
An unexpected masterpiece
Absolutely amazing
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.
DAY OF THE WACKO, directed by Marek Koterski, is a rather droll comedy about the daily life of an eccentric and depressed Polish high-school teacher. He's angry, lonely, underpaid, unappreciated, and can envision no end to his predicament. Imagine a film in which the ambient spirit of Eleanor Rigby is reconfigured as a very frustrated Polish, middle-aged nerd, and you come close to the tone of this dark farce. There are some scenes which are very funny, and others are just plain odd. Yet, overall, the film is worth a look. When the hero visits the beach to relax and unwind, he meets some of the craziest and bizarre characters that one could imagine. A few of these scenes are flat-out hysterical. Bonus Features are all in Polish without sub-titles.
I'm always looking at IMDb's best movie lists and this movie is in the list. Although it did not get much votes, average of votes is so high that it got a place in the top list. After watching it I gave it an 8 here is why: It'a about a middle aged, divorced, very lonely, obsessive and miserable man.This guy apparently has wasted his life, never found his dream girl, got married to another woman whom he did not love. Missed the chance of becoming a professor, got a job as teacher with low salary and disrespectful students.He only loves and cares about his son. But he predicts and afraid of that his son will become just like him and have a miserable life.Those all said, is this all his fault or are the society, country and people to blame is a question we ask along watching the movie.This movie shows a countries's long-time social problems, pointless politicians, spoiled youth and culture, changing but not adapting social structure and so on. Unfortunately those are not only for Poland but all the countries does have this kind of problems.So here we have two sides of a man's sad story. One side is his own obsessions, never ending health problems, pressure of his mom and always looking for better and never finding true love dilemma. Second is the weirdness of the society, a harsh criticism of Polish people and funny examples of how stingy, not friendly, selfish they are.Of course it does have some cultural references to Polish life and history which I could not understand since I am not Polish, but most of the movie is about us, all human beings.Just give it a try, I'm sure you'll find some similarity to your life.
The film does not consist only of flat humor as of vulgar speech and behave of the protagonist but has a very deep social critic (as for example the popping up of 3rd world scenes or showing how neighbors treat each other or in general how people talk to each other). The protagonist appears as a freak but compared to the rest of the world he is the most normal one, it is the behave of the society which leads him to his abnormality. An other strong critical emphasis is put on the consume-society of our world. TV advertisements are shown totally ridiculously and the products they advertise are totally non-sense. It may appear quite funny, but if we think about this fact it is shown like it is in reality. Profit and consume dominate about rationality and humanity. It is one of the best movies I've seen in the last year, the humor is not typical American slapstick or "Al Bundy -like" but the vulgar talking of the protagonist calms the pathetic style and makes it easier to watch and also very funny. A+!!!