Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Movie review: Russian Doll

 
 Nadia is celebrating her 36th birthday with friends who threw her a party. When she meets her end that same evening, she awakens to find herself back at the party and stuck in a time loop.

Natasha Lyonne (Nadia), Charlie Barnett (Alan), Greta Lee (Maxine), Elizabeth Ashley (Ruth), Rebecca Henderson (Lizzy), Brendan Sexton III (Horse), Ritesh Rajan (Farran), Jeremy Bobb (Mike).

Russian Doll begins with Nadia attending her 36th birthday bash thrown by friends. She quickly dies, and almost as quickly returns back at the party as if nothing had happened. As she tries to escape the freaky time loop, she finds Alan is also stuck in a time loop and the two decide to team up. The rest of the season follows their struggles and looks a lot like Groundhog Day and a few other time loop films. Fortunately Lyonne, as usual, adds a bit of humor and sexuality to keep things interesting.

Acting was good with Lyonne delivering a fun, solid performance. We just wish she would smile more. Barnett also delivered well and seemed to work well with Lyonne. Ashley, Sexton, Rajan, and the remainder of the supporting cast presented nicely.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds are mild but fitting and good. Action scenes are brief and general but fit the film. Dialogue was campy, dramatic, funny, and overall enjoyable. Sound and soundtrack are okay.

Russian Doll was a nice distraction, but not much more. Lyonne tries to bring the humor here but a lot of it is a miss and instead she comes off as simply cranky most of the time.

With nudity, mild gore, foul language, alcohol, drugs, and unsettling topics such as death and abuse, save this one for the oldest of teens and above.

Released: 2019
Reviewed: 4.11.19
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Mystery, TV Comedy

copyright ©2019 Dave Riedel

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