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5.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Those Were Wonderful Days remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for grainy, old-timey slapstick where people just sort of wave their arms and fall over, then yeah, maybe. If you need a plot that makes sense or characters with more than one personality trait, keep walking.
This is the kind of thing you watch when you want to turn your brain completely off. It’s basically just a 4th of July picnic that goes south because two guys can’t act like adults for five minutes.
We have a hero and a villain—though honestly, it is hard to tell them apart once the pie-throwing starts. They both want the girl, and apparently, the best way to prove your love is to ruin a perfectly good outdoor lunch. The Guardsmen show up, and I think they are mostly just there to look confused while everyone else trips over picnic baskets.
There is this one moment where someone is reaching for a sandwich and gets hit with a stray hat. The camera just… hangs there. It feels like the director forgot to yell 'cut' for a few seconds too long. It is kind of funny, mostly because it is so awkward.
It is not nearly as dense as Koreshki kommuny, but it’s a heck of a lot lighter than the stuff in Bluebeard's 8th Wife. Sometimes you just want to see people running in circles, you know? Those Were Wonderful Days delivers exactly that, and nothing more.
I found myself wondering if they were actually having fun or if they were just tired of the flies. There are moments where the acting feels like it is happening in slow motion, which is a weird choice for a comedy.
It is not a masterpiece. It is just a scrap in the grass. 🧺
It’s fine. Just don't go in expecting anything profound or particularly well-shot. It is exactly what it looks like on the tin—a bit dusty, a bit loud, and gone before you really get annoyed with it.