The Editorial Office (2024) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: whenever somebody says “fake news”
Take a Drink: for literal fake news
Take a Drink: for every political or financial scam
Take a Drink: whenever Yura insists on the truth
Do a Shot: every time the mayor being in a coma comes up
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
One of the stickier geopolitical topics out there is how the Ukraine was a bit of a cesspool of corruption prior to Putin single-handedly elevating them to sainthood-by-comparison (and not I’m not talking about Hunter Biden, who still waiting to see credible evidence on… *drums fingers*).
The Editorial Office is an absolutely scathing takedown of that culture of corruption, as Yura, a young low-level museum employee, witnesses a politicized crime while tracking an elusive endangered groundhog, then finds himself stymied at every turn when he tries to report it.
A Toast
This film is imbued with an extremely dry and dark sense of humor, full of a keen eye for grotesque symbolism like politicians and journalists literally dining and dancing and dining with each other or an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for a pipe that very obviously connects up to nothing. You’ll find yourself laughing at the absurdity, but also saddened by it, or better yet, as frustrated as Yura at it.
Director Roman Bondarchuk has a strong visual eye as well, crafting imagery and setpieces that almost start going some Ari Aster places in the end. He really goes for it as things spin progressively out of control and somewhere south of reality. The epilogue set “six months after the end of the war” really drives it all home.
Beer Two
I have to think this will be very divisive- is this the right time for this film? Is there no more perfect time?
More to the film’s actual merits, it’s an absolutely hopeless affair, so be in the mood for that before sitting down (but do sit down!)
Verdict
The Editorial Office is a vicious but very effective and even amusing takedown of Ukrainian politics, press, and society at large told from a place despairing of change.
Alienoid: Return to the Future hits theaters on January 26th. Check it out as soon as it gets near you (and the original first if you haven’t seen that)!
