The Soviet Union is preparing to host the Moscow Summer Olympics in the late 1970s. Work is in full swing – of course, half as painfully: 44 of 97 objects are ready for delivery. In addition to bureaucratic quagmires and general slackness, the process is hampered by the disastrous economic situation; the leadership of the USSR, led by Leonid Brezhnev (Yuri Stoyanov) He is even considering canceling the Games altogether. The darkening tones on this side of the Iron Curtain are beginning to spread: Afghanistan is preparing, and this will also lead to the United States, China, Japan, and more than fifty other countries boycotting the 1980 Olympics.
Despite this tense past, Igor joins the organizing committee of the Olympic Games (via links) (Grigory Varnish) – son of officer Ivan Zorin (Alexey Serebryakov)is used to using his position to save the young man from regular problems (apparently, this only annoys the arrogant young man). Igor will have to work under the supervision of the strict and ideologically charged Irina (Maria Karpova) – daughter of high-ranking military man Alexander Svetlov (Sergei Chonishvili)Participated in the preparation of the Afghan campaign.
As one of the heroes of the series “Games” quite reasonably noted, bears live in dens and do not fly in the sky, so perhaps you should not think deeply about the hidden meaning of the image of the Olympic Misha, who rushes into the air with balloons, beauties away. Besides the fact that one of the most important domestic releases of this season is a show about the era of stagnation (today this term is increasingly used in relation to modern Russian cinema, for lack of a better one). It is firmly rooted in fairy tales, which quite well conveys the atmosphere of this stagnation. The latter seems like a compliment, but it is not a compliment.
If another Kinopoisk series about late Soviet reality, “Patient Zero”, produced by (among others) Alexandra Remizova and directed by (among others) actor Evgeny Stychkin, is compared with the American “Chernobyl”, then it is difficult to find “Games” a certain foreign analogue. Again, this is not a compliment. The performance of the screenwriter Mikhail Pokrass before “Games” contains only one line – the first part of the New Year’s almanac “Yolki”, filmed almost 15 years ago. Perhaps it is from here that some visual confusion of “Games” arises, which, from the almanac format, looks (at least at the first stages) like several different series, crookedly inserted into one. At the same time, it is not entirely clear what exactly in each of these series should interest the viewer.
A still from the series “Games” (2024)
Plus Studio
In general, some kind of strange Frankenstein quality, it seems, is characteristic of almost all components of the “Games”. Visually, the series is stylized as antique and, for example, exhibits interesting editing transitions of that period, but the handheld camera of “Chick” cameraman Mikhail Dementyev with crazy zooms and very smooth movements turns the show into “The Office” or “Grandchildren.”
The central duet of the young Vernik (inherited from another Stychkin series, “Cicadas”) and Karpova performs, judging by the first notes (two episodes were shown to the press in advance), a strange cover of Eldar Ryazanov’s “Office Romance”. In Wernick, Novoseltsev’s clumsiness coexists with the inherited screen image of a decent scumbag, but in the field of the latter, the actor lacks the organic persuasiveness of his father – and in general, one does not fit the other. In the character of Karpova, upon closer examination, it is also difficult to recognize the full-fledged Kalugina – she lacks the hidden splendor of Alisa Freindlich, and instead brings out another Ryazanov heroine from memory: “… beautiful, but, alas, active. She was once nominated for public affairs, and since then they have not been able to get her back.”
A still from the series “Games” (2024)
Plus Studio
First of all, the “Games” seem to be trying to be a drama – and most of the time it follows the plight of a gymnast and a weightlifter preparing for the Olympics, leaving the corridors and offices (they are played by the real Olympic champion Angelina Melnikova and Stanislav Demushkin – an actor and also the champion of Russia in karate-do Shotokan according to the resume). But then Stoyanov appears in the frame, and the tonality suddenly changes to a more rosy one. When the artist begins to imitate Brezhnev’s speech, the series instantly turns into a comedy, even a parody sketch show.
Soon things get completely surreal, as the “Games” seem to be moving at the snail-like pace of the Secretary-General without really moving anywhere. In the first episode, Brezhnev takes an excruciatingly long time to explain how the Olympic Bear balloon will fly into the sky during the closing ceremony (this is where the explanation about the bunker comes in). In the second episode, there’s a separate three-minute scene where a foreign delegation chooses the final Olympic mascot. And so on.
A still from the series “Games” (2024)
Plus Studio
The series itself seems to be affected by all the problems it shows. “Games” is characterized by both bureaucratic tediousness (it is possible that in the remaining six episodes they will offer to look at the process of creating an emblem with rings, roads and the Spasskaya Tower) and disorganization; Stychkin is a wonderful actor, but a rather soft director. However, as a rule, even in not very successful projects he still finds a reason to shake hands. True, in “Games” Stychkin appears in a somewhat creepy image of a foreign journalist, so here I would like to note his behind-the-scenes work – namely, a scene where an Afghan man separates quarreling children and explains to them: ” you can’t beat your neighbor”, “The strong one should be the first to step aside and not get into a fight, because it is always easy to start a fight, but difficult to end it.”
As a result, it turns out that the most curious element of this whole story is not the series, but its accompaniment: the documentary book “Witnesses of the Games” compiled by Yuri Saprykin or the Yandex neural network, which they tried to train to recreate newsreels (not very well). Finally, the current Paris Olympics look much more eventful and rich in drama: the scandals around them began during the opening ceremony and did not subside. The “Games” only once again make one think about the current situation: for some reason, when major international sporting events are held, while we show what we can be, others usually show themselves.
A still from the series “Games” (2024)
Plus Studio
Release date: August 3, 2024
Duration: 8 episodes of 55 minutes
Creators: Alexandra Remizova, Evgeniy Stychkin
Casting: Grigory Vernik, Maria Karpova, Yuri Stoyanov, Igor Kostolevsky, Igor Gordin, Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, Evgeniy Stychkin, Alexey Serebryakov, Maria Maykova-Slidovker, Alexandra Bortich, Angelina Melnikova, Stanislav Demushkin
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
Brandon Hall is an author at “Social Bites”. He is a cultural aficionado who writes about the latest news and developments in the world of art, literature, music, and more. With a passion for the arts and a deep understanding of cultural trends, Brandon provides engaging and thought-provoking articles that keep his readers informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings in the cultural world.