Furia (Rage aka The Fury)

I knew that eventually I’ll find movies form the New Wave Romanian cinema directors that I would not enjoy as much as others I have seen. Unfortunately it happened with this movie that is an average film with an average story and average director.

The movie is not bad, as a matter of fact probably most regular viewers will like it as is one of the easiest to watch Romanian movies as cinematography, camera takes, fast pace, tech specs and story are very normal and similar to the cinema of many countries in the world. For me that was the problem, as most Romanian movies I have seen are outstanding, different and tell extraordinary stories.

This 2002 Radu Muntean film is about one young man that while street racing does not comply with the agreement he made with some gangsters to lose the race; he wins and not only wrecks his car but also gets into trouble with the mob that wants to collect what they lost in 24 hours. So, the story develops with some not usual twists that seem to tell how the youth (and perhaps the society) was used to find their way out of troubles in the most unusual ways.

Perhaps the only really interesting part of the film is the end as not only suggests some magic realism, but also looks and feels like his outstandingly good next film Hîrtia va fi albastrã (The Paper Will Be Blue). He surely changed his style in his second movie and now that I have seen his first, I’m looking forward to see his third movie Boogie.

Anyway this is an accessible Romanian movie that some that like regular ironic and satiric gangsters movies could enjoy.