You the Living

Swedish director Roy Andersson's unexpected, unconventional, and utterly beguiling You the Living offers no real story but instead presents a catalog of desires, disappointments, miseries, and fantasies that play out in a series of 50 deadpan scenes, all shot with an unmoving camera as characters enter and exit and intersect with one another's lives. Although the people appear to be a dreary, beaten-down bunch in a colorless, drab world, Andersson manages to find passion and potential in even the most bitter and resigned among them, conjuring up a kind of crazy magic (even in mundane situations) with eccentric gags and improbably joyous music (much of it courtesy of a booming tuba that drives many of the characters mad). Offering pitch-perfect direction, wicked black comedy, and playful flights of fancy, this film finds absurdity in misery and unexpected triumph in perseverance. Sure to interest viewers with more offbeat tastes, including fans of Jim Jarmusch or Aki Kaurismäki, not to mention Jacques Tati, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)