The Whistlers

My great joke about it being as if the Romanian New Wave had been relegated to a genre setting fizzled after I found out that Porumboiu made it, so indeed the Romanian New Wave had been relegated to a genre setting. The horrible apathy and ordinariness is inspiring in some ways, and actually quite funny, but it often just got on my nerves. Most notably in the "humorous" scenes, which operate on a "Here's a joke. Yup, it’s lying right here on the ground. It's gonna lie there for a while. But you have to pick it up if you want to laugh. So, what's it gonna be? You don't want to? I don't care." In many ways, the protagonist is reminiscent of the protagonist in Sorrentino's The Consequences of Love. (13/08/2020)

The Whistlers is a really strange genre mix – in the positive and negative sense. The idea of whistled speech is truly unusual, and even though it is not exactly a hygienic way of communicating, it still has its charm. Story-wise, I found the film a bit dull and inconsistent at the beginning, which thankfully changed in the second half, when you didn't really know who was with whom and who was against whom – in this respect I appreciate the unpredictability of the character development, even though it was perhaps too confusing at times. I don't quite understand the classification of the film in the comedy genre, because it didn't contain any downright funny moments. As I said, a very strange film! (11/06/2020)

An interesting film thanks to a novel idea, but I expected more. The main character is a cop who gets involved with the drug mafia and learns code talk by whistling. It is very original, but nothing much of interest happens in the film. Praise should be given to the gorgeous Catrinel Marlon, who shows up naked, and the final shootout has something going for it, but it's not enough for me. It lacked verve and I don't understand the comedy label. Story***, Action**, Humor>No, Violence>No, Entertainment***, Music**, Visuals***, Atmosphere**, Suspense*. 5/10. (21/04/2020)