Better Late Then Never

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

In a small Romanian town, Romeo (Adrien Titeini) is a local doctor who is hell-bent on ensuring his teenage daughter Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) excels in her final high-school exams in order to be accepted at a university in the U.K. He is even willing to cross legal and ethical boundaries to make this happen after Eliza faces a crisis shortly before her exams.Director/writer Christian Mungiu seems to have a knack for courageously exposing his home country's culture of corruption and the moral dilemmas this causes for average citizens - especially when these folks are in a quandary and "taking the high road" would not likely get them what they want and need. In "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days", the story revolved around arranging an illegal abortion during the Communist era; in "Graduation" (which takes place in the current time), it involves Romeo's insistence that his only child must leave corrupt Romania in order to have a decent life and future."Graduation" begins quite well in introducing the audience to interesting characters and how they respond to the corruption in their midst. The middle part is even more intriguing as Romeo's moral compass goes so downhill that he is becoming what he once condemned. It is evident he's acted this way before but not at this level.There are two key scenes in this section in which Romeo defends his actions. One involves an argument with his wife; the other with Eliza. During the dispute with his wife (played by Lia Bugnar), he argues how much she benefited from his smaller moral slips in the past even if she wouldn't have acted the same way herself. His argument is so convincing that even the viewer could agree with him in a very uncomfortable way.The final segment does injustice to the beginning and the middle. It seems to go in various unnecessary directions and fails to continue the momentum built earlier. But "Graduation" is still a film worth seeing. It includes universal themes such as well-meaning parents over-planning their children's future plus a challenge to the belief that "the grass is always greener" somewhere else. And of course, the saying "O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" is well played out in the narrative.

Graduation, by Cristian Mungiu reviewed by NC WeilThis 2016 Romanian film by the director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, spans the time between a young woman's high school final exams and her graduation. Her father, a doctor, and mother, a librarian, though estranged (he sleeps on the couch and has a lover), both dote on their daughter, and their highest concern is her well-being. The girl is an excellent student, but the day before her exams she is attacked by a would-be rapist - in the scuffle her wrist is broken, but her violation goes far deeper than bones in a cast. Her father, a precise, methodical, and - yes - kind man, is determined to see her go to university in the UK where she has been offered a scholarship (contingent on high exam scores). He will do anything to make that plan happen. The assault is one more reason - Romania, for him, is a dead end. He and his wife are stuck there, but for their daughter, it is not too late. She must leave.The film opens with a rock shattering a window of their ground-floor apartment - the doctor certainly has a point about the benefits of living elsewhere - and he has labored to give her the chance to escape. But after the assault she gets cold feet.Strip away the differences between Romania's culture and our own, and the film boils down to a father wanting what he is convinced is best for his near-adult daughter, with his intentions overriding her own desires and distractions. Graduation is about leaving one phase of life to move into the next. The impossibility of planting your own experience directly into the heart and mind of a grown child is on painful display here - you have learned the hard way what you should have done, but she, rationally or not, has to make her own choices.For a parent, relinquishing control can mean one's life has truly been wasted - you didn't save yourself, and you can't save her either. But she's no longer yours to control - to insist on obedience is to keep her dependent, unable to be any kind of adult. In the end, that stunting is probably a worse trap than whatever limits her bad decisions impose. Mungiu's sympathy for all his characters forces us to recognize that everyone, no matter how corrupt or self-serving, is just trying to make the best of the life they're stuck in. Futility outranks evil in his compromised worldview.

Cristian Mungiu is considered one of the fathers of New Romanian Cinema, with his 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS abortion drama being the most famous to come out after the fall of the Soviet Union. Mungiu is more cinematic than some of the directors of the movement (his last movie, BEYOND THE HILLS was a devil possession tale), although still austere.The superb GRADUATION builds along slowly, but deliberately. In the end, the movie is about corruption, but, the steps it takes seem as minor as an offhand conversation here, a nod there. But, that's how things work in a corrupt society. GRADUATION may not quite build to the level of the brilliant Russian film LEVIATHAN, but, they share a quietly devastating portrayal of the bankruptcy of the old Soviet system. Sadly, that system seems to have been replaced in name only.

Noted Actor(s)Romeo (Adrian Titieni) | Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus)Characters & StorylineFrom the way Dr. Romeo paints Romania, you could understand why he would want his daughter Eliza to go to school as far away as the UK. He makes it seem riddled with corruption and criminals roaming the streets, a place he should have never returned to but he thought he could change it. So with all that in mind, he is willing to do whatever it takes so when Eliza takes her final exams, her pending scholarship to a prestigious UK university will be paid for and guaranteed. However, the world he fears the corruption of gets to her before she can escape.HighlightsFor The Sake of the Children vs. The Sake of the CountryOne of the things I found interesting within this movie, though sadly isn't a strong focus, is the idea of whether it is best to send your children to a foreign country to learn and plant roots vs. them perhaps getting a foreign education and returning home with that knowledge. The reason this was of interest is because Romeo really paints Romania as a terrible place. Yet his mother asks, why would you push her to leave and never return? If girls like her don't return, what hopes are there for the country to become better? An idea which, with Donald Trump soon to be the President of the USA, is an interesting one. For many have threatened, though likely not have followed through, to immigrate to different countries to avoid the consequences of his presidency. Yet, relating to this movie, if those who seem capable of creating change or at least crafting hope leave and never return, what does that mean for a country's future?This topic, unfortunately, is mentioned only a handful of times and isn't made anything which most may find noteworthy. However, in a sea of one mundane moment to the next, it was perhaps the one intriguing thought this movie presented.CriticismFrom The Assault, Affair, and Corruption, Everything Is MundaneIt's very weird when a person is assaulted, borderline raped, there is an affair in a movie, and there is a slew of corruption and even an investigation into it, yet there isn't one thing which can be considered exciting. Each character, and perhaps the story itself, almost seems like it is downplaying all of these events. The assault isn't treated as something huge, just a hindrance to Eliza getting the grades she needs to guarantee her getting into university. The affair plot is all but accepted and with neither woman involved happy, nor you understanding how and why they fell in love with Romeo, again there isn't something to really get and keep your attention.Leaving the political corruption. As Romeo tries to figure out a way to give his daughter an edge, he deals with a customs agent, introduced by a police chief, who wants a liver for a favor. Leading to the test administrator being involved and while this all may be a minor scandal, a doctor pushing for an official to get a liver to help his daughter get high marks on a test, everything is handled without a hint of sensationalism, enthusiasm, or anything to snag your attention. Which if this movie was simply an hour, maybe even an hour and a half, that would be unfortunate. But with it being two hours long and none of these usually interesting or at least devastating to watch topics being of interest, that is a damn shame.On The FenceThere Aren't Any Bad Performances, Per seIt's kind of weird to say in a movie so dull there aren't bad performances. To me, I'm just so used to someone taking the lead, being passionate, conniving, or even comical. Yet, like Loving, in some ways, no one tries to step forward and stand out. For even if Romeo has the most scenes, the writing and performance doesn't make him seem like what you'd expect from a lead actor. If anything, he more so seems like he is part of an ensemble and is just taking on more of the movie's focus due to one of the other actors being sick, having schedule conflicts, or simply being unreliable.Overall: Negative (Skip It)As noted, across many a review, passionate performances, troubled or worrisome childhoods, comedic moments, that is what I live for. That, nine times out of ten, is what excites me no matter if it is a book, movie, TV show, video game, or a theatrical production. Yet, despite this movie having many elements of what usually leads to good performances and an entertaining experience, it falls short. It falls off a cliff actually. However, it doesn't necessarily seem bad. It is just that the movie takes a path not often tread and the lack of emotion, someone with charisma, and no one who really snags you makes it hard to be faithful to a two-hour movie. So, while I want to say this is something which is Mixed, I have to give it a negative rating.