Coincidentally I already had this lined up to watch this week.
I wasn't sure what to expect, and was definitely not expecting an entirely homevideo-style documentary. As the movie progresses, it's almost like the director went from "let's film all the random shit in my life" to "maybe this could actually be something". He becomes less observational the second half, and is asking Jani more direct questions. There were still some shots that I'm amazed were caught on camera for such an unscripted film
(the guy falling off the balcony at the reindeer ski races, and Jani almost hitting the lady at the crosswalk while driving)
.
I tried to have empathy for Jani and his friends. Living in a northern town can be really tough, and we have some of the same issues with depression, petty crime, and substance abuse in our isolation northern communities, because there's simply nothing else to do. So while it wasn't explained, I can sort of understand how they would fall into that cycle, especially after the Paris segment which explained a bit more of how those drugs got to Rovaniemi in the first place. Keep in mind this kid was 19, and had clearly already been using for a number of years. I hesitate to judge teenagers so harshly. That being said, I didn't really like them, and it's hard to separate their personalities from their personalities while on drugs. Way too much casual misogyny to make me think that they'd be good people sober (though that might be something lost in translation, but the English subtitles had them calling women and girls "bitch" every other time).
There's an attempt at a redemption arc, and I think one thing this movie does really well (perhaps unintentionally), is show just how hard it is to break free from the cycle of drug abuse.
Jani had to pay off his debts and leave his city and country completely to be in a place where he could actually try to go sober without pressure from his friends... and still he found himself being pulled back into that lifestyle. And we know it likely ultimately killed him in Cambodia (though I guess we'll never know for sure).
Overall, I thought it was effective. Nothing felt staged or scripted like you sometimes find in some documentaries.
7.6/10, and will probably be somewhere at the bottom of my <400 list.
