Lights in the Dusk

Welp, it's a Kaurismaki film. Hero is a hapless working-class loser, extremely deadpan and minimalist, very dry humor, rock n' roll soundtrack that comments on the story. It's a lot like Match Factory Girl but without the riveting screen presence of Kati Outinen (who makes a mournfully brief cameo here). An enjoyable but rather unnecessary entry in the Kaurismaki catalog. It just didn't have much spark to it, although the ending was nice.

This is exactly like every other Kaurismaki movie, but somehow this time i found it exactly perfect for what it is. So simple and short and flawless. Maybe he is becoming one of my favorites?

Emotional meat grinder. Heavy stuff.

Very minimalistic in dialogue, directing and acting. Combined with the bleak humor it works rather well at times.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

Typical Kaurismäki with little dialogue and underplayed humor.

After two decades of work, his minimalist style is at his best with this, economic in image and story yet also vivid and rich in detail. The deadpan nature of Kaurismäki's work is here, but it's matched by a heartfelt and extremely melancholic story which touched me. It's difficult to explain why I loved this as much as I did, but it was cinema at its most rewarding and beautiful.

Luzes na Escuridão estreava há 15 anos na Finlândia. Neo-noir cômico na veio do Kaurismaki, mas que não funciona tanto quanto a maioria dos seus filmes pregressos, mas mesmo um Kaurismaki menor ainda é acima da média. BlurayRip VXT.

"Lights in the Dusk suggests what it might be like to stare at Bill Murray in a coma for 75 minutes." - Ed Gonzalez

The downbeat tone of Lights in the Dusk just escapes offense and self-parody due to Kaurismäki's careful, subtle craftsmanship.

Though not Kaurismäki at his best, there's a plot that functions with all the obvious touches of his filmmaking present.

Aki Kaurismäki strips film noir down to its barest elements and plays it as existential deadpan comedy. When everything is at it's very darkest, he eeks out the tiniest happy ending. I absolutely love this film.

Kind of mild coming from Kaurismäki, less imaginative than usual, but certainly not bad.

A noir without the twist, there are some moments of great dry humour (the femme fatale ends up vacuuming while the crime dudes drink and play cards). For a dreamer, the protagonist seems oddly passive. He insists otherwise, but completely expects-wants-his dreams to be crushed.

Lethargy, pessimism, suicidal tendencies, some dry wit. The loser at its center is so passively and aggravatingly anti-everything, Kaurismäki even makes sure that no Chaplinesque pathos can come up. It's a wonder this director finds the passion to keep going at all.

Only when I was watching this third time I understood that the rather predictable storyline is actually a good commentary about manhood.