Film Shapes

Aki Kaurismäki's latest film is an oddly affecting story of two ordinary people looking for something. I say ordinary but nothing in Kaurismäki's world is quite that, more like ordinary-adjacent, everything is a touch askew. Ansa (Alma Pöysti) lives alone and has a shite job in a supermarket. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) lives in what looks like a shipping container. He's also a secret alcoholic who works on a building site, AND he's the spitting image of Ooh-Ahh Glenn McGrath. These two lonely folk meet one night, barely, at a depressing karaoke night run by a local pub. The rest of the film is pretty much the two of them meeting, or failing to meet one another. This sounds dull but there's something about Kaurismäki's style that allows the viewer's face to maintain a wry grin throughout. He's the deadest of pans, the straightest of bats, the most functional of directors. For example, Ansa sees an internet ad for a job at a bar. Cut to the sign of said bar t...