Going in blind, I quite enjoyed this movie. Sure, it has it's shortcomings but no way near the hate it's getting here. I don't think this movie was intended for Turkish audiences, who are very vanilla most of the time when it comes to any form of art. I don't know what this movie claimed to be during the advertising period but if you watch it expecting a "normie" comedy, you'll be disappointed. That exact reason is why I enjoyed it. It can be called dark comedy-ish I guess, labels don't matter to me. The art direction was quite beautiful and the acting was decent, as expected from a cast of veteran actors. Comparing this to the dumpster fire that was Leyla Everlasting is a blasphemy.
Plot summary
Entrenched in a midlife crisis, Aziz seeks solace from his mundane job, lonesome friends and rowdy family while pretending to have his act together.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
September 11, 2023 at 02:15 PM
Director
Movie Reviews
Not for normies, apparently
Nothing but a disappointment
I have been impatiently waiting for this movie since the first day I heard about it, because I love every single person, who is in the movie. However I didn't like the movie.
I believe the movie looks like a great project on paper, but for some reason the directors and writers failed to convey that to us. There are some ridiculous scenes that have no place not only in this movie, but in any movie. I watched every second of it with the hope that it would get better and everything would make sense in the end, but unfortunately I finished it quite unsatisfied and utterly disappointed.
I don't understand how absurdity is very popular in Turkish movies, yet nobody has ever used it deservedly. For instance in this movie, you see absurdity being used excessively and very unnecessarily so that it gets impossible for you to get involved. It is also partly because of the characters that were written down and dirty.
One of the writers Berkun Oya already proved his great ability to write thanks to very succesful series Innocent and Ethos that he wrote himself, but for some reason he could not show this ability in this film. Collaboration of the directors Taylan brothers with the actors Engin Gunaydin & Binnur Kaya was also much better in Vavien, which is one of my favorite Turkish movies. Therefore Stuck Apart is unfortunately nothing but a disappointment for me.
Relatively Flat Character Study
Lets be honest, you are all asking yourselves what did I watch? How were these actors cast in this, and who funded it?
But first some backstory... This film was the first writing credit for the Taylan brothers, and they unapologetically gave us an avant-garde Turkish character study. In Turkey there are two types of stories; the traditional 3 act structure that most of us are used to called the "Olay Oykusu" OR the character study / "glimpse into the life of" pieces that have a very thin plot, and spend more time on character, called "Durum Oykusu". Azizler my friends, is the latter, a story where we glimpse into the ridiculous and unbelievable lives of our protagonists. Although this version of storytelling is dominant in biographical stories (Roma, Kaybedenler Kulubu) it is rare to see this format in a minimalistically fantastical world - and lets all be honest, it was too bizarre. As for our actors, this type of story is where they truly get to flex their acting muscles since the movie depends on it and they have quite the range to do what they want.
Since this is the first writing piece from the Taylan brothers, one can assume that they are still fine tuning their skills and that they have more to grow. Thankfully Netflix has enough cash to throw at them, probably for the sake of creating a relationship and I assume gave them final cut. This resulted in a 6/10 film that was too off the beaten path for its own good. Will you like this film if you don't watch award films? No. Will you watch this because it is all the A-listers best work? Probably not. Should you get baked before watching this? Absolutely... But what did you expect - actually though what did you expect?
If you watch this movie, you should do so for the views and so that Netflix spends more money in Turkey. Maybe if enough of us watch these Turkish films, Netflix might greenlight a "Roma" of our own.