Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)

Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)

Directed by: Aki Kaurismäki

Starring: Matti Pellonpää, Kari Väänänen, Sakke Järvenpää

This was one of the strangest movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s like if the Blues Brothers where Finnish, and they had to tour through the post-apocalyptic wasteland from Six-String Samurai. I liked it.

The Leningrad Cowboys, a band from Finland, decide to go to America and make it big. Their manager’s connection in America hears their music and tells them to go to Mexico to play his cousin’s wedding, as Mexico is much more into their folksy polka music, in America, people listen to Rock and Roll. So, to pay their way down to Mexico for their gig, the band learns rock n’ roll and plays a series of gigs across the south.

I don’t know how else I can describe this so the people who would be into this sorta thing would like it. It’s definitely not a very accessible film, at least it didn’t seem that way to me. It’s a really intense mixture of extremely dry humor with a touch of surrealism, but… I’m really into both of those things, so I thought it was pretty awesome.