Paha maa

This movie had it all—raw human stories, that cold, depressive vibe, and some truly impressive filmmaking. It had a punch I’d been missing. The only thing that bugged me was how many storylines were packed in without much follow-up on most of them. Sure, they all intertwined, but I found myself rooting for a few characters and wanted to know more about their fates, rather than just seeing bits of everyone. Still, I can see why this film stirred up so much talk in Finland.Oh, and by the way… isn’t there supposed to be some sort of alcohol restriction in Finland? Everyone here was drinking like it was their job! The film really captured that gritty side of Finnish life, though. (17.07.2010)

Incredibly poser-social depression that tends to pile up disasters to the point where tragedy becomes a farce. Inspiration of Tolstoy and the overall effort to penetrate beneath the surface of social misery remain only an artificial creative gesture - albeit well-directed, but sometimes rearranged in a funny way. It may sound unfair, but Louhimies should let go of Far Away the Clouds Escape and see how a similar genre can be done purely, without the would-be naturalistic machinations and stubborn exaggeration. And then he should release Magnolia again and see how it is possible to ignore chance, absurdity and construct in a similar film and pass it off as social realism "with added narrative value". On top of that, he would learn that if he confuses the fates of several characters, he should do so consistently and in a less utilitarian way. The director and screenwriter behaves surprisingly cynically for a "sensitive humanist" when he abuses some of the characters once for his godly intention to show the evil and inhospitable world of the fringe. This is a similar case to the Czech film Flower Buds, which is a film that looks so deep into the misery of its characters that everything around it escapes. Unfortunately, what is around it is the most important thing. (23.03.2013)