previously published on Cineuropa
It seems there is a
pattern to Croatian director Nevio Marasović’s
filmmaking, in which after a brave and innovative (though sometimes
out-of-control) piece of genre cinema comes a somewhat more
conventional, yet very original, dramedy. After Goran, a
snowy thriller with a distinctive absurdist and darkly humorous Coen
brothers vibe to it, he is back with Comic Sans, which
world-premiered in the regional competition at Belgrade FEST, winning
the “Nebojša Đukelić” Award for Best Film to boot. It will hit
theatres domestically later in March. The Croatian director, working
with the script he co-wrote with Rakan Rushaidat and
lead actor Janko Popović Volarić, tackles the
topics of relationships and break-ups, snobbery, family relations and
the search for inner peace. If the title seems oddly familiar in the
context of Marasović’s work, there is a reason for it: Comic
Sans was the title of the film within the film in Vis-à-vis.
The story, however,
starts off in Zagreb, with an awkward post-break-up meeting between
an overworked but successful designer, Alan (Popović Volarić,
collaborating with the director for the third time, after Vis-à-vis
and Goran), and his ex-girlfriend Marina (the
ever-excellent Nataša Janjić, known for the role
of Lina in Goran), which leads to clumsy but passionate
make-up sex. The next day, Marina leaves the apartment before Alan
gets up and subsequently does not answer her phone. Alan and his
co-worker Lukas (Serbian actor Miloš Timotijević,
of Humidity and No One’s Child fame) are about to
botch an important job for their Slovenian employers, and Alan is
losing his mind over the situation with Marina. After they meet again
and she explains that it was all a mistake, the chaos in Alan’s
head explodes, with disastrous consequences. His only way out is a
retreat to the island of Vis with his father, Bruno (legendary
Croatian-Danish actor Zlatko Burić, from the Pusher
trilogy), an artist with whom he has some long-standing issues.
What Alan does not know is that another of his exes, Barbara (Inti
Sraj), is also on the island, together with her new fiancé,
Peter (Miha Rodman).
At first, it seems that
Comic Sans takes too much time to get its story under way,
but it is merely a matter of expectations. A viewer trained in
standard-issue comedy-dramas will be surprised that the trip to the
island, with most of the island tropes found in Croatian cinema,
happens only halfway through, so the change that Alan is bound to
undergo has to be rushed. The trick is that Comic Sans is
not one of these bog-standard comedy-dramas in which the protagonist
gains a new perspective and changes his life completely in a matter
of days. Yes, Alan will see things in a new light and some changes
will occur, but they will be slighter and slower because the
transformation has to overcome Alan’s ego, snobbery and
long-standing patterns of behaviour.
What works perfectly in
Comic Sans, apart from the title with more than one meaning,
explored over the course of the film, is the actors’ interplay.
Janko Popović Volarić and Zlatko Burić channel the energy of the
troubled father-son relationship in a way that is both serious and
humorous. They are both more-than-accomplished actors, and Marasović
uses them well. That goes especially for Popović Volarić, who has
to share the screen with a strong actress such as Nataša Janjić and
with the slightly subdued but menacing alpha-male presence of Miloš
Timotijević.
The cinematography by
Marasović’s regular DoP, Damir Kudin, is also
top-notch. Tasked with creating a mood that fits Alan’s character
in corporate offices in Zagreb and Ljubljana, and his “creatively
messy” flat, and then shifting it completely to the low-season
island, Kudin does a great job of finding just the right nuance and
not over-playing with clichéd images. The same goes for the repeated
use of a kitschy pop ballad by Mišo Kovač as a
theme song right from the start, which might seem an obvious choice,
but that tune also adds a layer or two to Alan’s character.
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