Anton ShaginHipsters

An amazement you should not miss, if you care about movies, music, musicals or protest, HIPSTERS is the real thing -- and achieves that by often being creatively "unreal" and all over the place. Taking its cue from a (rather small, I would guess) movement back in 1950s Russia, in which teens and slightly older young people strove to "make a difference" by adopting odd clothing and musical tastes thought to be favored by American youth, the movie tracks a young man and his girl, members of the The Young Communist League or some such group, who break up a party of hipsters, after which the boy becomes enchanted with the style and one special young woman who embodies it.The musical numbers are bright, smart, effective -- and very different in theme and style, one from the next -- while the visuals are rich and colorful and the content of the movie encompasses everything from family to politics to sex to procreation (very interestingly handled, that last one). Performances are all they should be, and the finale, conflating music and protest in a marvelous time line, is one for the books: hugely entertaining and moving, too. If the musical, Hair, comes to mind, don't be surprised. HIpsters is equally good -- and also wildly exotic for most western tastes.

I love this film. Its a wild and terrific musical set in the Soviet Union during (I think) the Khrushchev era. In this time, groups of wild, Western-swing music-loving Soviet youth dress up in fantasy versions of Western dress (a lot of colorful Hawaiian prints and eye-jarring wildly colored tweed suits) and go out dancing and partying to bootleg records of American jazz. The film is slick and fun and sexy. Undoubtedly the abilities of the kids to live large while flying under the radar of the Soviet authorities is exaggerated somewhat...just as the film's young hero "Mels" manages to learn to play saxaphone rather well in what appears to be an astonishingly short time...but the basic idea is honest enough, as anyone who's seen the documentary "East Side Story" can understand. Definitely a fun, enjoyable, well-made film with some very appealing young Russian actors. See it, and you too will know what is meant by "boogies on bones."

Two cultural references which may not be easily recognized. In the USSR bootleg copies of western music, in the form of playable phonograph records, were made on x-ray film. This accounts for the X-ray being taken taken scene in the beginning of the movie and then a hole being burned in the x-ray with a cigarette to be a hole for the phonograph spindle. Another was the packed bag sitting on chair. This was a go-bag ready in the case of sudden arrest.

The video arrived in good shape and plays perfectly. It is filmed in Russian with English subtitles. I understand that it is not commercially available elsewhere. Some parts of the story are a little confusing, but maybe it is just "lost in translation." The dance scenes are excellent. Interesting that the first jazz number to capture Mels' interest in the saxaphone is Gershwin's"Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess." The surprise near the end may haunt back to that theme.

I don't speak Russian, I bought the movie previously region 5 pal and didn't understand a thing, but with the subtitles it now became clear. I don't want to get into the plot, just love the movie, a fun musical about takes you back to 1950's Soviet Russia behind the red curtain and the rebellious teens who fought the system.

The movie is great, but I don't have anything to add to what other reviewers have said about it, with the exception of my title above. I had a great deal of difficulty finding that information myself, so I thought posting it might be helpful to others.

Saw this movie at the Palm Springs International Film Festival & loved it! So glad it's available now in the U.S. Fun movie with great music.

Great movie, great music. Best Russian Musical I have ever seen.

If you truly enjoyed GREASE, SWING KIDS, SATURDAY NIGHT LIFE, than this movie is for you.For the people interested in how life was behind the Iron Curtain, this one will let you have a glimpse of it.You may not be familiar with the Actresses & Actors, only Russians voted them Super Star status's. Because the western media seems closed to their productions.But I can assure you, they are of the highest quality. Having grown up in the 50's,I felt transported back in time. People in the west do not know, that life behind the Iron Curtain could be other than grey. I remember visiting east German relatives (I was born in west Germany), who looked forward to dance through the night, to swing and jazz tunes. Sometimes they went to the Mecklenburg lake beaches, meeting young russian and polish (Girls & Boys from the local military bases) hipsters. I remember the Girls being dressed in those beautiful petticoat dresses, and woww, how they could dance. The music was simply played back by crankable record players, or young Russians with the "Squeeze Box".The conflict with the Comsomol and the Young Pioneer (Russian Communist youth organisation)with the hipsters was there, but in the movie this has been exagerrated a little bit.Perhaps with future western audiences in mind. I remember the battle lines a little bit more fluid. More like a generational conflict.

あの“リリア 4-ever”のオクサナ・アキンシナがヌードを披露していて、ラストにはものすごいワンシーンワンカットがあって(これ絶対にビックリします）、１９５０年代のガチガチの体制だったモスクワに歌に踊りにファッションにと弾けまくって反抗する若者たちの最高のミュージカル。何故に日本版が未発売なのか不思議でなりません。音声ロシア語で、英語字幕。アメリカのａｍａｚｏｎやＤＶＤ　ＦａｎｔａｓｉｕｍではこのソフトをRegion 1としておりますが、こちらのサードパーティーで購入したものはリージョンフリーでした。ストーリーは実に単純なミュージカルですから、英語字幕でも存分に楽しめます！是非多くの方に観ていただきたいです！