The Old Man: The Movie (2019) by Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Mägi


In a remote Estonian village, three children from the city are forced to spend the summer on their grandfather's farm. When the trio accidentally set loose the old man's prized but thoroughly abused cow, they learn that they have only 24 hours to milk the rogue bovine before its exponentially expanding udders explode and unleash a milk-pocalypse. To complicate this crisis, a decrepit and disgraced farmer with a body literally infused with milk and a prejudice for cattle is also determined to catch the animal, but with murderous intent.

There's quite a lot to like with this one. The fact that there's quite a lot of generally puerile comedy here with the absolutely insane over-the-top setup that puts everyone into one bizarre situation after another. Essentially a random series of wacky adventures strung together into a plotline that offers enough twists and turns to provide the kind of setup for the next sequence, the multitude of jokes here range from wisecracks, vulgar visual gags, and a willingness to express overly crude ideas that provide a highly expressive series of ideas at play here.

This is all wrapped together rather nicely with a decidedly off-kilter claymation style that makes the setup all the more bizarre. With all the facial movements featuring the textured eyes and mouths that don't move, everything has such a surreal feeling that it can be a make-or-break factor for most out there as it's potentially somewhat off-putting, especially at the length of the film. There's little reason for this one to go on as long as it does with the type of comedy this features which can potentially make for a damaging time here seeing that kind of content in this kind of setup but is not truly a big drawback.

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