Lóve

Jakub Kroner knows how to pique young audiences’ interest. He knows the world they live in and can render it on the big screen in an engaging way. He knows how to make his characters relatable and show their good side even if they are outcasts. You will not find such a pure and sincere “genre” film among contemporary Czech films, which are otherwise ususally better than the Slovak ones. That is what surprised and pleased me about Love. What spoiled my impression of the film, however, was its childishness and inability to reach out to any viewers over the age of twenty. Kroner has great potential for “commercial Slovak cinema”, he may even become its king one day, but in order to be taken seriously by more experienced older viewers, he must grow up. (17.01.2012)

This Slovak contribution to experiential cinema based on an immediate emotional response makes the age of its maker (24) too obvious, as he sometimes approaches it too aggressively, while at other times holding back in explaining what’s readily apparent. Unlike hybrid mash-ups for everyone and no one, however, Money or Love also makes it very clear who its target group is. Here life is approached as a computer game in which the power of individual experiences, mostly visceral (fighting, drinking, fucking) wins out over a solid narrative line. What’s important is not to aim for something in the long term, but to enjoy the present. For a film with adrenaline running through its veins, Money or Love unusually resolves a lot of situations through drawn-out dialogue scenes lasting several minutes, which could have been condensed into a few sentences with the right visuals. Kroner competently uses superficial flashiness to disguise the lack of action in the story. Nothing dramatic happens for a long time, as we generally just pleasantly spend time with the protagonists in their natural environment, but when something does happen, it’s spectacular, with music like that heard in the climax of a grand tragic opera. This wouldn’t be a love story if it didn’t equally take into account viewers of both genders. The weed-smoking scenes from the lair of a couple of friends are thus interspersed with scenes of gossiping from a girls’ dorm room so that the desired pairing-off can finally happen. The characters don’t complicate this painless content of a free Friday evening by pointing out to us obvious holes in the logic (the bizarre hotel episode), they don’t burden naïve declarations of love with deep thoughts on the finite nature of existence, and they express themselves with words and gestures that are primarily cool (whatever that word means). At least the vocabulary is natural when people of the same sex are talking to each other, with an unexpectedly large number of variations on “dick”, “cunt” and “fuck”, especially among the guys. Three reasons why I like the Slovak language. But I also found the rest of the film to be likable. Perhaps despite its simplicity, perhaps because of it. 60% (06.01.2012)

I have to admit that I'm not exactly a big fan of the use of a modern camera that constantly dodges, nor am I a fan of handheld cameras, but in this case it works and enhances the individual scenes. Love has a good story and well acted characters, well within the scope of what was needed. (09.03.2018)