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Review: The Trotsky (***1/2)


It's been a great year for Jay Baruchel. He set out starring in the entertaining comedy She's Out of My League. He then took the reins in the CGI action-thriller How To Train Your Dragon.

And now, he stars as a teenager who believes himself to be the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky in The Trotsky. Baruchel has repeatedly taken on and excelled in interesting comedic roles over the past few years, and he continues to show this talent in his latest outing.

As Leon Trotsky (the second, perhaps) Baruchel is a charming ideologue; he is always as eager to delve into philosophical arguments as he is to lead a picket line. Leon is a firm believer in democratic socialism, and opposes the communism of the totalitarian Stalin regime.

The film is an intriguing examination of its central theme, whether youth are apathetic about politics, or just bored about life in general. Screen veteran Colm Feore plays against the young Trotsky as a prototypical "The Man," who is confident in his knowledge that the youth don't care about the machinations of power which affect their daily lives.

The film is simultaneously rousing and hilarious, and is very apropos after the youth uprising that helped propel Barack Obama to the presidency.

Comments

Definitely sounds interesting, I'll add it to my netflix queue.

By the way, I like the new layout!
Fitz said…
Sounds like you liked it, heard mixed things from screenings, glad to be wrong.
Ben said…
The IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings are about right.

This is a film that people with certain political views could dislike on principle though, so maybe that accounts for it.

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