Kontroll DVD released August 30, 2005.
Watch the trailer (at apple.com).
I’m a pain in the ass to rent movies with. My friends can tell you that many a movie night has been spent wandering the video store with me as I shoot down suggestion after suggestion because a) I have seen it, b) I’ve read a clutch of reviews that panned it, or c) I’m dead sure it would make for a horrible group viewing experience.
So it was with some trepidation that my pal Steve went on his lonesome to the superb Lost Weekend Video last Thursday to pick up our night’s entertainment. A group of friends, several of whom are serious movie buffs, were converging on Steve’s house — and his nifty new home theater — for a night of snooty flickifying and heckling from the back rows. “Just pick something,” I told Steve. “I’m trying to reform my ways. I will happily keep my mouth shut and watch whatever you bring back.”
“I’m hardly a connoisseur,” Steve muttered as he returned, DVD in hand. He didn’t need the disclaimer. He had done well.
My exercise in giving up control of movie night had yielded a wonderful, unexpected Hungarian film titled, ironically, Kontroll. Why this little gem of a movie had sparkled on the vid store shelf only Steve can say. It not only made for a great group picture (even holding up under the typical, incessant barrage of jokes from our mini peanut gallery), its images and energy are still with me days later. Co-written (with Jim Adler) by young, American-born director Nimród Antal, the movie is a visual stunner, packed with more creativity than the last half-dozen Hollywood movies I’ve sat through.