#1376 Potato Dreams of America

[Kasi Mir]

"Potato Dreams of America" is the story of writer/director Wes Hurley, who was born as Vasili Naumenko in Vladivostok in South-eastern Russia in 1981; he came to the northwestern US (Seattle) during the 1990s, where he experienced queer culture for the first time and followed his dream to become a filmmaker himself. He created a number of shorts, plus both a documentary and a feature film starring performer Waxie Moon. In 2017 he made a short documentary called "Little Potato" about his youth and the move to the US; after that garnered attention, he got the opportunity to expand that short doc into a feature-length film - for which the trailer can be seen here:


And how did you enjoy this story, which recounts the rather unpleasant years in Russia with dry humor and also didn't hold back with jabs at the "free west"? How did you like the performances by Hersh Powers and Tyler Bocock as Potato, and Sera Barbieri as well as Marya Sea Kaminski as his mother Lena? How did you find the two halves of the story, first in grey (and staged) Russia and then in the US (with more real filming locations)? How about the jokes, plus the occasional music number? Please let us know your thoughts about "Potato Dreams of America" in a reply to this post.

[Roughale]

Ein interessant angelegter Film mit durchwachsener Ausführung. Die anfänglich kindlich naive Erzählweise die mich teilweise gelegentlich leicht an Wes Anderson erinnerte fand ich deutlich besser als die etwas übertrieben "erwachsen" dargestellte zweite Hälfte. Klasse aber hierbei die Schauspieler auszutauschen und plötzlich einen stärkeren Akzent denen zu verpassen. Unterm Strich ist mir das eine glatte 3 wert.

PS: Wo ist eigentlich Jesus abgeblieben? OK, nAch Amerika hat es ihn nicht verschlagen, das sieht man ja fast täglich