Somewhere Over the Chemtrails

An unexpectedly effective combination of empathetic naturalistic humanity in the spirit of Jaroslav Papoušek and the style of Takeshi Kitano with his deadpan humour infused with melancholy and modelled on comic strips in static shots oriented directly toward the camera. And dry humour that is suitably chilling. Plus extra points for the great use of music under the closing credits (stay until the end). (06/16/2022)

The feature debut of director Adam Koloman Rybanský is a surprisingly mature movie set in a small Czech village. He delivers a combination of putrid inferiority, stubbornness, xenophobia and fear of the unknown under the influence of misinformation in tragicomic form, with rich use of absurd and black humor. In terms of acting, not to speak of the traditionally great Miroslav Krobot, Michal Isteník and Anna Polívková, who play a married couple, stand out from the rest. (80%) (04/26/2023)

A thoughtful script from a man who can't give the film any kind of fluid dynamic shape, I take it as a kind of failed attempt at early Forman. On the other hand, the film's certain rigidity doesn't actually hurt the story, the message remains the same and often chillingly apt. I’m giving it an extra point for the chemtrails stuff, it reminded me of a colleague from work, a mechanical engineer, who bought an air purifier for his apartment from a famous charlatan and scammer; kind of like the vinegar in the film. Fools exists in all social classes. (08/12/2023)

Thanks to the pervasive absurdity and tragicomic nature of the "little people" Somewhere Over the Chemtrails pokes fun at, it (blatantly) reminds of Forman's films from the 1960s, and even though it is set in the present day with all its modern conspiracies, it portrays equally limited people with their flaws and strong tendency to believe in all kinds of bullshit – the dumber the better. Rybanský manages to portray the world of a small village and its inhabitants who suddenly have to deal with the threat of "terrorism" in a quite faithful way. Next time, the director could easily go more to the heart of the tragicomic, but this is still a noteworthy film from a domestic production. (06/16/2022)