Leningrad Cowboys Go America Redux!

1989 Aki Kaurismaki movie

Rating: 16/20 (Only gave it a 13/20 last time I wrote about it on this blog--I'm embarrassed about that.)

Plot: The titular worst band in the world go America after being told that Americans will buy anything. They travel the country, trying to earn a buck by playing gigs in trashy bars that their unscrupulous manager has set up for them. Their ultimate destination is Mexico where they've been hired to play a wedding.

This movie is already on the blog, but I just don't have access to Aki Kaurismaki's movies and needed to see one. Plus, Criterion (God bless 'em) just released a box set with this and two others (stay tuned!), and I didn't want to watch the sequel without giving this one another spin. When I first checked this out, I wasn't familiar with Kaurismaki and probably just didn't get it. It's a brilliant comedy though a little more slapsticky and goofy than his other movies on this blog. The camera also moves a lot more. It's moving right off that bat actually in a sweeping shot that ends with the frozen Cowboy you see on the poster up there. There are a lot of sight gags in this one, some hilarious and some that just aren't. Seeing the dog's hair? Hilarious. The picture of their ancestor--Abe Lincoln with the Cowboy's hair style? Not so much. But actually, that little gag is so bad that's actually good. A tire popping gag, a scene with beer cans, a picture of a tractor. These kinds of shenanigans aren't going to appeal to everybody, but seven-year-olds who don't mind subtitles will think it's all pretty funny.

Here are four scenes that I really love, at least two of them almost entirely pointless:

1) A scene in a shoe store
2) A scene where the guy who is following them around is carrying a large fish while slogging around in a swamp
3) A funeral march that ends with "Chuck" the cop arresting them
4) The most ridiculous fight scene ever filmed, one with more hopping than should have been allowed

Brilliant stuff. And it's Kaurismaki's willingness to linger on the pointless that makes this stuff so good, I think. The written "jokes" are so subtle that you can't really even be sure it's all supposed to be funny. My favorite exchange is this one:

Concert venue guy: Before I can book them, I need to hear them play.
Manager: Is that necessary?

That's followed by this terrific shot of the accordion player's face that made me laugh out loud. Bam! Speaking of their music, I actually like it, and they're far from the worst band in the world. The tuba-accordion-accordion-mandolin-fiddle rock sound you hear at the beginning will have anybody with legs dancing around the living room, and their "Bad to the Bone" is so good that it hurts a little bit. My favorite song might be the bluesy number with the lyric: "Who made that horrible noise in the sauna, what, huh?" Or the country song which ends with a hearty "Yee-haw!" It's great stuff if you're entertained by this sort of thing. And you've got to love a movie that manages to find places in America that look more depressing than the Tundra these polka superstars came from.

My favorite actor of all time--the late, great Matti Pellonpaa--is superb as the manager. You don't need to look further than the scene where he greets a person with a barking "Hello!" and an awkward wave to see why I think this guy is the greatest actor to ever live.

Jim Jarmusch has a cameo as a used car salesman.

Next up: Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses.