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Rodnye (2021)

I watched all sorts of garbage, including Russian films. This includes the infamous films "Gorko" (both films), "The Best Day," "Razzborka v Manile" (it's quite funny as a trash film), "Neposredstvenno Kaha" (it's quite funny as a post-ironic film), as well as pretentious, boring, and awful films of various kinds from foreign filmmakers. However, the film "Rodnye" seemed to me to be the worst of all. I'm talking about such levels of badness that I wanted to find all the films that I rated with a one on Kinopoisk and change their rating to a two, and give this film a one. There is no humor in what is shown, there is no post-ironic humor, there is no drama, it is simply a display of CRINGE, for lack of a better word. Of course, there are certain people who find this funny, but it was very difficult for me to watch. However, the ending turned out to be unexpectedly very, very good. So good that if the film weren't an absolute piece of garbage, if it were at least just "bad," "weak," "not very good," then I would say that the ending redeems it. But since the film is complete and utter garbage, even such an ending does not save it. And since this film is unlikely to be watched by anyone anyway, I will change my rules and simply describe the plot and the ending of the film (with my comments).

Plot

A guy and his fiancée visit his family and father, delighting them with the news that they are moving to Canada. The father behaves like a psychopath and hysteric and suddenly declares that he has a brain tumor and has less than a year to live. Since he is behaving in a truly erratic way, they don't really believe him, until he shows them a report from an oncology center. After that, he says that before he dies, he wants to fulfill his dream and perform a song of his own composition at the Grushinsky Festival. The journey begins, and this is the worst part of the film, which is why you can't watch it if you don't want to give yourself a brain tumor. During the journey, the father shows himself to be an unbalanced hysteric in every situation, and if situations don't arise, he creates them himself. I will only note one, when he tries to forcibly send his son's fiancée to another city, because, like, "look at what he will turn into with age" (meaning himself), and tells his son - "I don't want you to make the same mistakes that I did." After a series of cringe-worthy and disgusting situations, they suddenly arrive at the home of an old man, whom the father introduces as his father. The grandfather greets the guests very coldly, and cold and hostile remarks slip between him and his son. However, soon the grandfather begins to like the other members of the family - he is energetic, he is a veteran, he gives the guests a good steam in the sauna. The grandfather also warms up to the rest of the family. Finally, he invites the rest of the family to come over and tells his son, "Well, go ahead, perform, because how will you sing at the festival if you can't sing in front of your family?" The father tries to sing a zoomer song, and it turns out terribly, the grandfather stops him and starts singing himself, which he does very well. The father, ashamed, has another hysterical fit and runs out of the house, and his son runs after him. They have a heartfelt and warm moment (which involves them stealing someone else's property). The father talks to his son and, once again, starts to mess with his head, saying that he shouldn't go to Canada, "I was just like you, I tried to run away from my father, you see, I want to stop you from making your own mistakes." The son replies, "I'm not you, I'm not doing this to run away, it's just my decision about how to live my life," and the warm moment is destroyed. At this point (or later), by the way, it becomes clear why the father ran away from the grandfather - in relation to the father, the grandfather is shown as a very strict person, and judging by the stories from the past, for his son, he was a figure that was easy to fear, could be respected, but very difficult to love.
An important interlude - at this point in the film, I was 100% sure that the moral of the film would be that the father ran away from the grandfather, and that was a mistake, and in the end, the son would not be allowed to go to Canada, like, you were born here, so you should stay here, and optionally, his fiancée would be portrayed as a mercenary bitch. All of this would be very much in the spirit of both this film and its director. Let's continue.
The father and son return to the family, the grandfather greets his son very hostilely, saying that he is hysterical again and abandoning everyone, but this does not calm the father, and he says that he will go to the festival alone, which he does. At the festival, he asks to be given the opportunity to perform on the main stage in front of everyone, and they give him this opportunity. Just before the performance, his family suddenly catches up with him, led by the grandfather. The grandfather, objectively assessing his son's abilities, asks him to reconsider and go home, but the father still goes to perform the song. On stage, he sweats, turns pale, can't adjust the microphone, tries to sing a song about his father that he wrote himself, but can't get more than two lines out (the song itself), gets angry at the ungrateful audience, and leaves the stage. The whole family gathers and eats khinkali (or something like that), at the same time discussing philosophical topics, like "if you can't make normal dumplings, call them khinkali and say that's what you intended." Suddenly, they hear that the son (who wants to move to Canada) is singing the same song on stage that the father could not sing. They gather and listen to him with tears in their eyes. And this moment is simply done perfectly. First, the son closes the father's gestalt - because the only thing that can compare to fulfilling your own dream is seeing your son do what you could not do. Secondly, he shows that he was right in the dialogue earlier - he is not really trying to run away from his father, he is ready and can fulfill his dream, but he chose his own life path, dictated not by fear or a reluctance to live in his father's shadow, he is his own man who is not repeating his father's mistakes, but consciously following his own path. After the song, he says that he loves his father and that he will take him to get treatment (which the father refused to do throughout the film). The film ends with the father being taken to the operating room, where he exchanges remarks of varying degrees of significance with his family. This scene is also shown superbly - there is a timid hope that everything may end well, but behind this hope, there is a fear that everything will not end well - and the last words are partly a farewell as well. At the same time, the father also addresses the son's fiancée, whom I expected to be thrown under the bus at any moment, with warmth. We are not told the outcome of the operation, the film ends with the father being taken to the operating room. It's a pity that such a strong ending was wasted on such a talentless film.

We're waiting for BadComedian's review, by the way.