Panicheskie ataki

Panic Attacks is a very effective argument against someone thinking they want to move to a small industrial city in Russia's far north. IMDB's "Storyline" description is misleading, but it would be giving away important points to explain why it's misleading, and the film does a fine job of revealing at its own pace, so just be prepared for at least one surprise.

I watched the movie with several dozen Russian speakers and afterwards as we walked towards the theater doors with I think something of a shared sense of relief a number of people commented to each other in that sort of comradely "whew! That was heavy!" tone that tells you people might find it difficult to say they "liked" the film exactly, but you certainly aren't going to say you were bored.

There was gratuitous minor female nudity in a couple places where it just felt formulaic to me, like the director was checking a box, and no equivalent male nudity which would have actually contributed to our understanding of Vika, the female protagonist's experience, but this is not unusual - it just stood out to me as really predictable in a movie that otherwise was often surprising.

I thought the cinematography, lighting, plot, pacing were all excellent. Most of the film would play very well on a small screen, but several vistas really did benefit from theater viewing.