Vuosaari (2012, Aku Louhimies)

An American is fetched from the airport. The driver tells him that love can be very interesting in Finland: girls, women, boys - anything goes.
In a restaurant Make announces that he is going to be married, but he has to run away from sharks. They announce that they will shag his girl-friend if the money isn't ready after one week.
Milla want to famous and would do "anything" to achieve her goal. On the way to her father she meets Aleksi who loves his  dog more than his mother. (And the mother loves her career more than her son:) Milla also meets Waltteri (who talks Russian to his mother who has also a Russian lover). Waltteri is mobbed by his school mates.
Pertti is fixed on health and fitness, but he doesn't achieve results. He wants to force his son the way he cannot manage to live.
Lauri is estranged from his wife and begins an affair with their house assistant.
Marika has cancer and is a single mother. She might die. Lauri is her doctor.
Eightfold misery in the Helsinki suburb. Misery, carelessness, suffering and most of all: lack of love.
I have to say that I liked it. There is not only the cold registration of losers and failures, but also a sympathizing eye on them. We feel with the characters and thus this became for me more a document of humanity than a piece of social exploit. During the screen credits we see how little effort would be required to make the lives of these people bearable. I was deeply impressed.
Although similar tales have been told before, Louhimies avoids  using clichés. Well done!
9/10

Big Game (2014, Jalmari Helander)

I haven't written so much here recently, This could mean that I am just plain lazy or that I am living in the real world, neglecting the virtual one and also neglecting these notes for my later reference.
What to say of a movie that has the doubtful reputation to be the most expensive film from Finland.  In times of financial crisis it would have been better if they had used the money more meaningful.
This was shown at the Copenhagen Film Festival. I really need to stop thinking that only because something is shown at a festival makes it worthwhile. This one was junk.
Who will watch such stuff? Who is the target audience? Grown-ups? Hardly! Maybe this is something for big boys and other people before adulthood and maturity.
The most powerful man in the world? Right, the President of the United States of America. The least powerful man in the world? A boy from the rural Finland who needs to go through a rite de passage to become a man. Bad odds. Add a handful of terrorists that want to shoot down and kill said President and construct a situation in which only the skills of a Noble Savage can save the president. That doesn't sound interesting and it isn't. There are different action circles, chasing and shooting and what else is supposed to be an integrated part of a thriller. Will the murderers win? Any qualified guesses?
2/10 - feeling generous

The villain could be a George W lookalike - interesting1

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki 2011)

A realistic fairy tale? Melancholic optimism? A wonderful film. An evocation of the past. Absolutely charming.
In a world without computers and Internet, where music comes from LPs and from radios, and where the old-fashioned bar is called Le Moderne, a ship comes because of a software error (!) to the harbour of Le Havre. The cargo - illegal immigrants. A little boy, Idrisse, escapes. He was hoping to be reunited with his mother in London.
The world of Le Havre is shabby. Monsieur Marx, a shoe shiner who once dreamt of a career as a writer, takes care of the boy. And everything changes. Before everybody was minding their own business. The boulangère and the épicier don't like Monsieur Marcel very much - he is a bad customer. Monsieur Marx takes everything with stoic equanimity together with his Vietnamese colleague. Main thing is that the clients pay, it doesn't matter if they are shot afterwards.
Monsieur Marx takes care of the immigrant and everything changes. The outcasts and have-nothings are exercising solidarity with someone who has less than themselves .Monsieur Marx organises even a benefit concert to smuggle the boy out of the country. The fiendish inspector also gets a chance to show his benevolent side.
Thus far I came on March 7. Time to continue my blog... and dinish this post.
A fairy tale,  so I don't understand why some critics complain about the lack of realism. This is like looking for meatballs in a grocery.
This movie charmed me completely - 10/10.