Brilliant and touching

Absolutely the worst movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A highly unlikely Russian rock group and their greedy jerk manager (ably played to the smarmy hilt by Matti Pellonpaa) travel to America seeking fame and fortune. While en route to a wedding gig in Mexico, they are pursued by village idiot Igor (a hysterical portrayal by Kari Vaahanen) who wishes to join the band. Writer/director Aki Kaurismaki relates the engaging story at a steady pace, adroitly crafts and maintains a deliciously dry'n'deadpan tone throughout, and shows a genuine disarming affection for both its colorful idiosyncratic characters and the more flaky'n'seedy aspects of American culture. With their pointy shoes, stoic demeanors, and ridiculously massive unicorn hairstyles, the titular rock'n'roll group make for a likeable and amusing bunch of oddballs. Moreover, the scenes with the Leningrad Cowboys performing live in various sordid venues are a hoot, with the sequence in which they win over a hostile crowd in a sleazy biker bar with a fiery rendition of "Born To Be Wild" rating as a definite gut-busting highlight. A quirky delight.

Reminiscent of some of the best Eastern European comedies, this absurdist Finnish look at the foibles of both Communist and capitalist attempts at reality is not going to change your life, but it is an enjoyable way to spend 79 minutes. A rousing oompah band from a small Eastern European village travel to America to find their fortune. They all have hairdos like Buddy Holly on acid and wear the pointiest-toed shoes you've ever seen. In New York City they buy an old Cadillac and get a gig to play a wedding in Mexico. On the trip there they also travel through rock, blues, country, and mariachi, and meet people almost as strange as themselves. Most memorable moment: Igor, the village idiot, catching up to the band out in the middle of the Texas countryside, carrying a very large fish.

I just saw Leningrad Cowboys for the third time and think it is a perfect film. Whatever else it may be about, it is a quest into the heart of rock and roll. The Cowboys start in New York playing their soulful/klezmerish immigrant blues on a seedy rooftop, then reel back through the roots of the genre--Memphis, Natchez, New Orleans, Honky Tonk and Biker Bars, road house and funeral...to their destination in Mexico where their Finnish filtered rock returns to its original sound, converging on the joyous soulful wedding as they back up a singer whose classic Indian features are not that different from some of the singers'... The esthetic is stylish and dead pan. The cinematography is actually quite beautiful, lyric of industrial decay. If you like Jarmusch (who does a spot as a car salesman) you'll like this movie. The pacing did not seem slow to me at all--but that may just be a sign of my age. The form is a series of theatrical skits and blackouts, and the tension of many scenes owes more to mime or comedia than MTV. I think my favorite is one involving the village idiot and a shoe that is not the one he wants. Poignant and hysterical at the same time. Oh, and maybe his treck with what looks to be a 50lb catfish... If you have a chance to see it, go. It is hilarious and sweet and utterly unlike anything else you've ever seen.

Let's say it : it's cheap and absurd. But it's so cheap and absurd that it becomes some kind of surrealistic. Black humor at his best, with silences that means a lot. Cheap and dirty settings shows a darker side of the United States, which is fine wuth me. Very funny music! Love it! But I don't know really why...