Elefant (2019)

Elefant: Directed by Aleksey Krasovskiy. With Aleksey Guskov, Polina Agureeva, Frédéric Beigbeder, Evgeniya Dmitrieva. The writer, Valentin Shubin, the author of the world-famous series of books about the Elephant Bear, going through a creative crisis.

“In the future, when one looks back on the 20th century sitcoms, one will take note of u0026quot;I Love Lucy,u0026quot; u0026quot;All in the Family,u0026quot; and u0026quot;Seinfeld.u0026quot; Rightly so, my friend, rightly so. But in that esteemed group of half-hour hilarities, the brilliant u0026quot;Saved by the Bellu0026quot; must be included.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e SBTB had such depth, such writing. And it was reality TV before u0026quot;The Real Worldu0026quot; or u0026quot;Survivor.u0026quot; It took a realistic look at high school. It showed that in every high school, whether it be near the beaches of Malibu or near the cornfields of Nebraska, there were only six kids that mattered. The same kid who was class president was also head cheerleader, valedictorian, choir member, star athlete on the track and volleyball teams, school mascot, etc. and nobody else in the school did a thing! And of course, students like Zack Morris would get away with prank after prank after prank, even committing a felony in some cases, but still not be expelled and even find time to be best buds with the principal! This is the high school that I knew, and SBTB brought it to life. To glorious life with glorious writing. Ah yes! The writing! Some of the finest scribes of our time took their turns at SBTB. Example of a brilliant passage: SCREECH: Lisa, I got an A+ on my report card. LISA: In what? Dork 101? u0026quot;Dork 101?u0026quot; Hilarious. If Shakespeare were alive, he wouldu0026#39;ve taken a chance at crafting such timeless dialogue. All in all, kudos to SBTB. Itu0026#39;s gone to Hawaii, itu0026#39;s been through college, and yet, it still remains as good as it was in the early 90u0026#39;s.”