Watch Hipsters For Free

Very best movie i ever watch

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The movie takes a peek behind the iron curtain in the post World War 2. Set in a 1955 Moscow, it describes the battle between conformity and individuality that the youth faces while living under a communist regime built on the ideology that no one is better than another and everyone lives for each other. However, there is a tribe that in its youthful defiance of the system (that promotes a monotonous and disciplined life), adopts a culture of colorful clothing and celebrating their life through their love for jazz at broadway and cocktail club. The society that considers following western culture a defiance of the countries ideology and shames them as hipsters or "Stilyagi". Western articles are not imported into the country, but are smuggled and bought through middlemen trading in the dark alleys around the clubs. The sense of defiance through these purchases, further stimulates the propulsion of this culture.The narrative is bound around the 20 year old Mels who is part of the youth wing of the communist party. He isn't necessarily tied closely to the ideology of the party, but earnestly carries out the orders and is very close friends with its youth commander, Katlyn. During one of the raids on partying hispsters, Mels is smitten by the enchanting Polly. He subsequently realizes that to capture her attention, he would need to learn to dress up and dance like them and become a part of their group. This gives a sneak peak behind the jazzy outlook of the group as they are shown as citizens who too belong normal conformed family lives but choose to express themselves by socializing together. In this journey of transformation, Mels also learns to play Saxaphone which helps him to charter to unexplored facets of this personality.Through Mels journey of transition the director sheds light on how the hipsters, or "Dandy" as they are called, keep up with their lifestyle. One thing that strikes the viewer is that they are too vibrant and gaudy in their choices, partly because the director wanted to markedly distinguish between the vivid world of Dandys and the grey world of the slobs, but possibly also to show that the hipsters had only a perceived vision of the western culture and was inspired by the dazzling outlook of the western showbiz.The tension between the komsomol and the Stilyagi's is scratched on the surface through interactions between Mels and Katlyn. Katlyn has had a crush on Mels and is visibly disturbed at losing him to the Stilyagis'. Since the story is told from Stilyagi's perspective, the rendering takes a satirical dig at the conformist communist culture at more than one instance.Since it is a musical, the music adds well to the narrative and sequenced are very colorfully choreographed. However, the song that really stands out is the one sung in the assembly of the communist party, where Mels is stripped of his membership. All in all, its a light-hearted, entertaining take on the hipster's cult in 1950's Moscow and with a hint on it's substance.

To the numerous movies about generation gaps we can now add Valeriy Todorovsky's "Stilyagi" ("Hipsters" in English). It focuses on an assortment of youths in 1950s Moscow who are really into western music and fashion, to the disfavor of Soviet authorities. I particularly liked the scene where Fred plays Mels the boogie woogie song: it's gotta be the first time that anyone's ever heard an old-style rock 'n' roll song entirely in Russian.The movie emphasizes that the authorities considered jazz a form of western imperialism. While I was in grad school, some students from Russia co-rented a house with me and the other US students. One of them noted that this was in fact the case, but that the authorities still allowed Frank Sinatra's music. That sounds counter-intuitive to me, but who knows what the reasoning was. The point is that ever since popular culture arose, the younger generation has gotten into the new stuff while the older generation turns its nose at it. There was one scene in "Hipsters" that reminded me of the scene in "A Hard Day's Night" where the Beatles get into an argument with a man on a train and Ringo* has a snarky comment.Anyway, really fun movie. And remember, he doesn't need an American wife! *Today is in fact Ringo's birthday.

This film was such fun! In addition to being a most entertaining film it was so creatively filmed. The colors are wonderful, the locations believable, the music was hip and the dancing spectacular. The director was present at this Seattle Film Festival screening and took questions from the audience which made it even more interesting. I have never seen a Russian film so to hear the language and see the talented cast, it was amazing. I hope it is distributed widely and soon in the USA. I think it's time we as Americans see something other than ballet and classical music from Russia. I wouldn't be surprised to find young people in the USA emulating the "Hipsters" style of dress, Goth and Punk are so yesterday and I'm so tired of seeing everyone in jeans, t-shirts and sweat shirts!

While on a recent vacation to the Ukraine, I had a chance to see this movie. Though I speak very little Russian, I was able to follow the story quite easily. It is an excellent film about Jazz sub culture in former Soviet Russia. It was visually dynamic and very well filmed. The songs are fantastic and catchy!! I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to it being released on video in the United States. The characters are wonderfully played. The lady I saw the film with told me that it "shined a big smile on America." I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in Russian movies, musicals or the former Soviet Union.