Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is on one helluva boring stakeout in Romanian black comedy
POLICE, ADJECTIVE (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2009)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Monday, November 16, 8:00
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.ifcfilms.com
The first half of Corneliu Porumboiu’s POLICE, ADJECTIVE is as dreadfully boring as detective Cristi’s (Dragos Bucur) assignment, tailing a student, Victor (Radu Costin), who enjoys a joint with two of his friends every day after school. While Cristi wants to nail the kid’s supplier, the cop’s boss has him on a tight deadline, insisting he arrest Victor if the investigation continues to go nowhere, but Cristi strongly disagrees with putting the teenager away for up to seven years for a crime he believes will soon be abolished by the government. However, the film picks up considerably as Cristi seeks help from various contacts, getting caught up in red tape and public servants who would really rather not be bothered. And when he get called in by the chief (Vlad Ivanov from 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, and 2 DAYS) and gets a long lecture in linguistics, well, you won’t be able to control yourself from laughing out loud. Porumboiu (12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST) keeps the pace very slow and very steady, but hang in there, because the end is a riot. POLICE, ADJECTIVE won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, screened at the New York Film Festival, and is Romania’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The film is showing at MoMA as part of the “Contenders, 2009,” series, movies that audiences might have missed, that haven’t gotten a theatrical release, or have not opened yet; POLICE, ADJECTIVE will open in New York City on December 23. Other screenings in the series include Kathryn Bigelow’s THE HURT LOCKER on December 1, which will be followed by a discussion with the director, writer Mark Boal, and star Jeremy Renner; Wes Anderson’s just-released FANTASTIC MR. FOX on December 7; Neill Blomkamp’s overpraised DISTRICT 9 on December 17; and Ruben Fleischer’s ZOMBIELAND on December 18.