Gorod pod udarom: A dusty relic that still has some grit

Is this thing worth your Saturday?

Honestly, unless you have a real soft spot for vintage, gritty Soviet cinema, you might find Gorod pod udarom a bit of a slog. It’s definitely for the type of person who enjoys staring at grainy film stock and wondering what life felt like in a different decade. If you need snappy dialogue or, you know, a plot that moves faster than a glacier, you’ll probably hate it. 📽️

Lev Fenin and Aleksandr Antonov are doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Sometimes they look like they’re genuinely stressed about the city falling apart, and other times they just look like they’re waiting for their lunch break. It’s an uneven watch, but that’s kind of the charm.

There’s a scene about halfway through where someone is standing by a window, and the lighting is just… weirdly aggressive. It highlights every bit of dust in the air. I kept staring at the dust motes instead of listening to the dialogue. That’s usually a bad sign, but here? It felt oddly right.

The texture of it all

The movie doesn’t care if you like it. It just sort of exists. It’s not trying to win any awards for modern storytelling, that’s for sure. It feels a bit like watching Within Our Gates in terms of how much weight it carries, though the tone is totally different. It’s heavy. Real heavy.

• The sound mixing is a total disaster in some spots.
• The extras in the background look like they were just grabbed off the street five minutes before filming.
• The ending? Let's just say it doesn't give you the closure you’re hoping for.

There’s a strange, stiff quality to the movement of the actors. Like they’re afraid to break the furniture. It reminds me a bit of the awkwardness in A Man's Head, where everything feels just a tiny bit forced. 🤷‍♂️

I caught myself checking my watch, but then something would happen—a sudden shout, a weird camera angle—that sucked me back in. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s real. And in this day and age, I think I prefer a messy, real movie over something that’s been polished until it has no soul left.

Maybe it’s not for everyone. But it’s definitely something.