Candidate

I have a feeling that the Slovak cinematography has been improving in the last two years. And as is often the case, the Czechs are involved, even though they didn’t show off much with their own movies this year. Anyhow, hats off to the Slovaks. Candidate is such an apt satire of today’s politics that it made me nauseous. (07/12/2014)

A technically sophisticated film from the alternative reality of the Slovak presidential election. However, none of it is seen through to the end. Yet the atmosphere is engaging, the visual ideas are not odd, and some of the performances are remarkable, especially among the female cast. Monika Hilmerová reigns as the grey eminence of the biggest schemers and has never looked so mature and so great. If you're interested in believable espionage in Slovak scenery with a bit of Czech pessimism, go for it. (17/01/2015)

Candidate is surprisingly not a bad satire. It is formally precise (except for the sound) but not self-serving – its editing and visual filters are there to convey the superficial charm of the world of commercials where it takes place. Its humor is scarce but witty and to the point. It’s the first time we get to see those Czech-Slovak jokes we’ve been waiting for (the MacDonald’s scene is the best) and it’s done so tastefully that both Czechs and Slovaks will laugh. The main character is charismatic and believable and Marek Majeský is a good fit for the role. Candidate is a very Slovak film, but I don’t mean that as an insult. It reflects hiding the absence of wit behind “glamorous” values, good marketing and dubious politics. However, I won’t give it a fourth star because I’m not sure this was done consciously. I have these doubts also because of the would-be surprising final point, which was forcibly added to the film so that the audience feels the need to discuss the ending with the filmmakers. (27/02/2014)

I'm in a meeting and thus had a review ready in my head that will hate the film in spite of lobbing it a four-star rating and a joyous review, as opposed to just giving it three stars. If Candidate appealed to me on principle, I can counter any attack with "yes, I'm fine with the pointless visual opulence, the out-of-focus characters leaving the scene in extreme slow motion, the unnecessary camera tilts, and the infantile refocusing from macro to long without any narrative anchor" (a.k.a. that's what’s getting shot for us now that we've taken the spoils from RED, right). But so what, if no one else can do this in the post-Czechoslovakia (props to the exceptions), what am I supposed to do? Karásek's debut is a commercial drenched not only in story, but above all in stylization, which is revoltingly clean, squelching through simple shapes, designer interiors, perfectly composed shots, and the power of gesture versus the power of words. So it actually sucks that it had to waste its time with such a local, uninventive, and overwrought plot, piled with characters I cared more about even less than any future presidential election. Especially in Slovakia. Not to mention the monstrous (Slovakian) postsynchronization: whenever the form manages to detach you from that malignant provinciality, it always drags you brutally back down to earth. And kicks you in the head. (09/07/2014)

I didn't expect this. Surprisingly, the Czech-Slovak relatively independent film has a very developed story that works and to which you actually believe, despite being quite minimalist and focused only on a few characters, even though it is about the choice of president. These are things that should be more widely distributed and shown in cinemas, not just on television where it gets lost. (09/05/2016)