FREETIME MACHOS (Mike Ronkainen, Finland/Germany). 86 minutes. Subtitled.
Wednesday (May 5), 6:30 pm, Cumberland 3 May 8, 6:45 pm, Royal. Rating: NNNN
“What’s going on here is that Matti is being punched rather heavily in the head.”
This quietly mordant record of a season in the life of an inept Oulu rugby team plays like a study of masculinity in miniature, wherein an assortment of suburban husbands and boyfriends save all their testosterone for the pitch – where they then proceed to spray it every which way.
Director Mike Ronkainen looks behind the stereotypes of henpecked husband, self-declared iconoclast and closeted homophobe to find the moments of honesty that define these 21st-century men – even if they’re totally crap at sports. [rssbreak]
