I Wanted to See Angels

Bodrov (director of Freedom Is Paradise) divides his time between Moscow and California, which may explain why this vision of Moscow's chaotic sub-culture has a perspective and elegance lacking in other similar Russian movies about juvenile tearaways. Twenty-year-old Bob rides 1000 km to Moscow on his vintage motorbike to collect a bad debt for his boss; the city chews up and spits out this naive country boy, whose head is full of Easy Rider dreams. Less film noir than elegy for lost chances, the movie gets inside young Russian heads with an acuity that's almost psychedelic. Sexy, bruising and quite haunting.