The Trotsky

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Apr 25, 2002
15,044
157
0
#1
"Jacob Tierney's hilarious The Trotsky follows Leon Bronstein (the phenomenal Jay Baruchel, in a star-making performance), a precocious Montreal teen who fervently believes himself to be the reincarnation of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. He's determined to duplicate every aspect of Trotsky's life, including being exiled, at least twice, and ultimately assassinated. His most pressing issues right now, though, are finding his Lenin and an older wife, preferably named Alexandra."



Youtube didn't have the trailer so I couldn't embed, but you can go here to view it:

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-trotsky/international-trailer
 
Apr 25, 2002
15,044
157
0
#4
Decently funny movie. Does the whole high school rebellion over authority genre pretty well. Well made. A little long as I started checking to see how much longer it had toward the end. Very little character development other than Trotsky. Commies will probably enjoy this movie more than the average person - for me I feel it bumped up the quality of the movie. 3.5 out of 5


 
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,801
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Seattle
www.socialistworld.net
#5
Here was my review. In hindsight, I think I was more critical because I was expecting more for some reason (really liked the trailer andsome interviews with the director/writer).


The Trotsky




It was decent, mildly entertaining/funny. Not nearly as good as the trailer looked.

Basically, the plot is this kid believes he's the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky (played by Jay Baruchel who I thought was good for the role). He thinks this because he has the same birth name (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) and some other coincidences to Trotsky as well. The plot basically is around Bronstein trying to get students at his school to form a union (as if that's so revolutionary) and a bit of a love story as well as he falls for an older women, named Alexandra, who as you guessed, is the name of the wife of the real Leon Trotsky. Overall the movie fell way short of my optimistic expectations, especially after seeing an interview with the director/writer who said he was a communist in his youth (although that should have been a clear sign then and there that he has since abandoned those views).




I believe the directer really dropped the ball on this film. First off, he initially intended for this story to be a drama (which he wrote when still a teenager), but later changed it to a comedy as it was "too serious" and "depressing". H He should have went with his first instinct. But being a comedy isn't that bad in itself, for story like this it could have worked. But the director basically took the easy way out and instead of inserting real issues that exists with the youth and society, real historical facts and at least a personal struggle one would imagine dealing with if you're trying to live exactly like Trotsky, he just made it youthful, fluffy kind of pointless movie with very little to do with the real Trotsky and communism, or even social problems. Which begs the question: why even make the movie in the first place then if it's going to completely void of all these things?

4/10