The question of how to convey characters speaking a language other than English in a fully English-language production is one that many a director of an exotically-set Hollywood production or lumpy Europudding has faced over the years. For those who simply cannot resort to subtitles, the artifice of heavily accented English dialogue is a stilted standby. “Potato Dreams of America” finds an unusual way around the problem, though it takes some time for its cleverness to emerge.
Wes Hurley’s autobiographical comedy of a gay Russian teen and his plucky single mother seeking a new life in 1980s America begins in unexpected fashion: A title card tells us we’re in Gorbachev-era Vladivostok, yet the unhappy family tableau we’re plunged into is performed in broad, brash American speech. “Our lives are like Russian movies, nothing good ever happens,” observes young Vasili (Hersh Powers). That is as may be; to us,...
Wes Hurley’s autobiographical comedy of a gay Russian teen and his plucky single mother seeking a new life in 1980s America begins in unexpected fashion: A title card tells us we’re in Gorbachev-era Vladivostok, yet the unhappy family tableau we’re plunged into is performed in broad, brash American speech. “Our lives are like Russian movies, nothing good ever happens,” observes young Vasili (Hersh Powers). That is as may be; to us,...
- 3/17/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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