Saturday 29 March 2014

"My Stuff" (The Guardian 28/03/14)


My Stuff ***
Dir: Petri Luukkainen. With: Petri Luukkainen. 83 mins. Cert: 15

The larky spirits of Morgan Spurlock and Michael Landy hover over this droll Finnish quest for happiness, a sort of Super Downsize Me. Concerned that his possessions were coming to define his existence, filmmaker Petri Luukkainen poured his flat’s contents into a self-storage locker, and set aside a year in which he could only retrieve one item a day – the idea being to find the sweet spot between running bare-arsed through the ice to bring back an overcoat (day one) and feeling suffocated by the universe’s many, gleaming tchotchkes. The dread whiff of “structured reality” hangs over several interactions, yet the game poses worthwhile questions. What’s more important – a toothbrush, or a chair? Does anyone outside Shoreditch really need a flat cap? As Luukkainen clears space for his ailing grandmother and his new girlfriend, we’re offered glimpses of something rare, and cherishable: the kind of enlightenment that arrives whenever we cut through the clutter.

My Stuff is now playing in selected cinemas.

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