Overview
A cultural revolution ignites in the heart of Soviet Moscow as youth embrace freedom and self-expression.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- exuberant
- witty
- wistful
- music night
- period drama night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film's energetic musical staging, colorful period style, and engaging portrait of youth rebellion, while finding its social critique and melodrama somewhat uneven.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The hipsters' black-market clothes, towering pompadours, jazz performances, and dancing transform resistance to Soviet conformity into vivid visual display.
Mels's attraction to Polza motivates his movement from Communist conformity toward the hipsters' forbidden music, fashion, and identity.
Forbidden jazz and American-inspired style provide the hipsters with a concrete language of dissent in 1955 Moscow.
Mels adopts an American nickname, flashy fashions, a pompadour, and the saxophone as he enters the hipster subculture.
Films like Hipsters, and why
Moulin Rouge!
shared exuberant musical energy, youth rebellion, and conflict between individual expression and social conformity
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
shared period musical romance, vivid stylization, and subcultural resistance to a restrictive social order
The Commitments
shared coming-of-age romance, culturally charged music, and defiance of imposed communal norms
The Sound of Music
shared colorful musical spectacle, forbidden self-expression, and romantic idealism under authoritarian pressure
Movie Details
- Director
- Valery Todorovsky
- Release Date
- 2008-12-25
- Runtime
- 130 min
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 (118)
Cast
- Anton Shagin
- Oksana Akinshina
- Maksim Matveev
- Igor Voynarovskiy
- Ekaterina Vilkova
- Konstantin Balakirev
- Oleg Yankovskiy
- Lyudmila Solovyova
- Aleksandr Stefantsov
- Georgiy Sivokhin
Common questions
- What is Hipsters about?
- A dazzling Soviet-era musical romance follows a young Communist who trades conformity for forbidden jazz, flamboyant style, and rebellious love.
- What is Hipsters like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Hipsters as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Hipsters violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Hipsters as mild.
- What did critics think of Hipsters?
- Critics broadly praised the film's energetic musical staging, colorful period style, and engaging portrait of youth rebellion, while finding its social critique and melodrama somewhat uneven.
- Which films are like Hipsters?
- Films with a similar feel include Moulin Rouge!, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Commitments, and The Sound of Music.
- How long is Hipsters?
- Hipsters runs 130 minutes.
