Kaurismaki once again hints at oceans of emotion underneath the minimalist surface.
Comment
06/03/07
Lights In The Dusk (2007)
68
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:25
Rotten:12
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: From its brilliant cinematography to its compassionate characters, Lights in the Dusk is another successful exercise in deadpan minimalist comedy from Aki Kaurismäki.
Theatrical Release:Jun 13, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: This bleak feature from Finland concerns Koiskinen, a night watchman in Helsinki. With no social life, this solitary figure becomes instantly smitten when a stunning blonde agrees to go a date with... [More]
Starring: Janne Hyytiainen, Maria Heiskanen, Maria Jarvenhelmi, Ilkka Koivula
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
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Reviews for Lights In The Dusk
A wholly satisfying comic-existential bit of fluff.
09/12/07
Kaurismäki’s spare style and economical storytelling are well-suited to this particular story about loneliness, as the director never muddies the frame with sentimental dross or lugubrious inclinations.
08/25/07
Lights In The Dusk plays out in the expected Kaurismäki style, with flavorful musical interludes, great affection for the city's outcasts, and lots of bleakness chased by the faintest sliver of hope.
06/16/07
It all sounds brutally miserable, but a spry comic flicker, and Koistinen's dim but undying hope keep things surprisingly light, while brilliantly efficient storytelling gives the human tale almost all of the short 77 minutes to unfurl.
04/10/07
It's a deceptively satisfying, almost magical achievement, like being stranded in a desert yet never going thirsty.
09/21/07
Top CriticKaurismäki's underdog tragicomedy is an elegant piece of modern urban noir.
06/13/07
Kaurismaki creates some beautiful frames, carefully composing his affectless characters against the rooms' colors, but there's something wrong with your story when people are upstaged by the decor.
10/16/07
The director's existential sarcasm is muted here.
07/23/07
You want to press pause, and just sit and take it in: The colors, the humor, the light, the surfaces; the simple pleasure of watching a master at work.
09/23/06
Ignore accusations that this is sluggish and inconsequential. This is textbook Kaurismäki, from its drolly laconic style to its delicious cinematic nostalgia.
04/06/07
There's great music, an excellent dog, and that indescribable Kaurismäki tension between misery and a cosmic joke.
06/13/07
Top CriticA noir on Ativan, Lights in the Dusk displays another of Kaurismäki’s best traits: his deep sympathy for the world’s most helpless (and hapless) souls.
09/23/06
Strangely moving--a meditation on loneliness and ennui in a heartless, modern, industrial society.
06/13/07
dumbfounding the audience once again, mixing the metaphysical with the meanderingly amusing.
06/12/07
A rare misstep for director Kaurismaki.
09/23/06
If you're a fan of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's deadpan comedy world, then his latest piece of controlled, semi-stylised whimsy will be right up your alley.
04/07/07
Kaurismaki's Finnish minimalism fails to enliven this down- and off-beat tale.
05/22/06
Top CriticThere is an admirable rigor here and even a brief touch of sunshine, but almost none of the humor that marks [Kaurismaki's] best work.
07/15/07
So dry it's parched, this study of a passive loser whose life just keeps getting worse is basically a series of noir cliches clothed in arthouse anomie.
07/13/07
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July 03, 2007:
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