Sügisball (2007)

Sügisball (Autumn ball) might be the only Estonian movie I have seen in my life. There are certainly some things that speak for this movie. The first thing is that a large part of the soundtrack consists of songs by one of my favorite bands, German doom-jazzers Bohren & der club of gore. I didn't know this when I sat down to watch it. The other major accomplishment of Sügisball is the use of urban wasteland. There are hazy images of nocturnal big city streets, and the settings consisting of endless rows of drab apartment blocks create a dramatic backdrop for what goes on in the movie.
The third strength is that it has one really funny joke. I won't spoil it for you. 
A single mother and her little girl who is addressed by men in gray overcoats / an architect who has doubts about his life / a drunken author who has doubts about his life / a doorman who finds his job demeaning. 
A big flaw of Öunpuu's movie is that it clings to a cliché that is employed in too many films that strive to be contender for the Arthouse movie of the year. "The characters long for close relationships but nobody understands them." Boo-hoo. The problem is not that this is too bleak or too depressing - the problem is that we've seen this before, many times, and even then, it was too one-dimensional, too stereotypical, too faux-existentialist. I mean, how many TIMES can you show a drunken man throwing some wine glasses on the floor because he is so FRUSTRATED with life and so filled with destructive ENERGY?
Why are these people so unhappy? We don't know.
Öunpuu sometimes manages to arrange a nice scene of an urban landscape or bright street lights - but in this movie, he is not a great interpreter of human relationships. And then I DON'T say that every movie should be about relationships. But Sügisball tries hard to be the kind of movie that provides stark images of alienation, fear, hopelessness. Etc.
And Please, directors, hear me out: SPARE ME from on-screen philosophizing about profound questions concerning the meaning of life and human happiness. Make a movie instead.