Why Don’t You
Just Die! (Papa
Sdokhni)
Meet the in-laws
Release 10 April
Director Kirill Sokolov
Cast Vitaliy Khaev, Aleksandr Kuznetsov,
Evgeniya Kregzhde, Mikhail Gorevoy,
Elena Shevchenko
Distributor Arrow Films
Certifi cate 18“One, two, three, evil won’t touch
me.” In the opening scene of Why
Don’t You Just Die! (aka Papa, sdokhni,
literally Daddy, die), 20-something
Matvei (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) chants these
words, steeling himself to ring the doorbell of
an upper-fl oor apartment. At this point, Matvei’s
own intentions seem a little on the evil side.
Maybe it’s his close resemblance to treacherous
sociopath Renton from Trainspotting (1996),
maybe it’s his Batman T-shirt, suggestive of
his outlaw allegiances – but most of all it’s the
hammer clenched behind his back that clinches
our impression that he is up to no good.
Yet in this rambunctious feature debut from
writer/director Kirill Sokolov, good and evil,
black and white, right and wrong are not easy totell apart, in an allegorical echo of the corrupted
Russian society within which the fi lm is set.
Matvei has come to kill Andrei (Vitaliy
Khaev), a bullish police detective and father to
Matvei’s girlfriend Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde).
As their hyper-violent encounter is played out
both as an intergenerational struggle between
two seemingly unstoppable forces, and as
a spaghetti western (complete with stand-
offs) that is absurdly confi ned to a Moscow
apartment, there is a bloodbath – not to mention
a bloody bath – with Matvei sustaining horrifi c
physical damage while damn refusing to die.
A tripartite series of fl ashbacks gradually
reveals the complicated back stories ofREVIEWS CINEMA // HOME FILM
vengeance, desperation and betrayal that have
led everyone to this chaotic pass. You can feel
the guiding hand of Quentin Tarantino and Sion
Sono (especially his not dissimilarly titled Why
Don’t You Play In Hell?, 2013) all over this fi lm’s
mosaic narrative structure – its anything-goes
approach to genre and its grotesque brutality- but Sokolov brings a distinctively Russian
fl avour to his amoral microverse, and directs
with an endlessly entertaining, larger-than-life
brio that is all his own.
Anton Bitel
064 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
Wallpaper in
Olya’s parents’
house isn’t wallpaper,
but a paper replica
that’s been printed.Jumanji:
The Next Level
Boss level
Release 4 April
Director Jake Kasdan
Cast Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart,
Karen Gillan, Jack Black
Distributor Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment
Certifi cate 12 A
Format •We’re sure we weren’t the only
ones to produce a deep, audible sigh at
the news of a reboot/sequel to 1995’s
beloved Jumanji, but the 2017 fi lm was a
surprise joy and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level
keeps the surprises coming.
This is a sequel that manages to both stick to the
great things that made the fi rst movie fun (body-
switching jokes, epic fi ght sequences, charismaticcast) and adds a fresh take (bigger world-building
and inspired additional casting with Danny Glover,
Danny DeVito and Awkwafi na).
Taking place three years after the fi rst fi lm, the
four original teenagers (now college students) are
again trapped in the Jumanji game but this time
they have been joined by lovable old dud Milo and
irritable grandpa Eddie. This time around, they’ve
been tasked with procuring a precious gem from
Rory McCann’s (Game Of Thrones) nasty Jurgen the
Brutal and on the way face untold (and hilarious)
dangers such as aggressive emus and angry new
partners of ex-girlfriends.
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan
and Jack Black are back but this time they all are
inhabiting different avatars, not least with Johnson
now being inhabited by grumpy DeVito and Hart
by a dithering Glover. The charisma between both
DeVito and Glover (though in reality, they get little
screen time) and Johnson and Hart bring both
hilarity and heart, and though Black and Gillan
don’t have quite as much to do this time around
they still have some hilarious moments and are
very much needed to bring everything together.
Awkwafi na is also a welcome addition playinga world-class thief, bringing an extra layer of
complexity to proceedings.
The plot, the characters and the cast are
excitable and compelling, and director Jake Kasdan
does well to keep the whole thing succinct and
engaging, throwing banter, self-knowing nods and
action at the audience for the entire 123 minutes.
Jumanji: The Next Level really is an apt name
because this sequel takes all the things we enjoyed
about the original and ramps them up a notch.
Rachael Harper
064-065_SFN_170 Theatrical Home Film.indd 64 17/03/2020 19:01Why Don’t You
Just Die! (Papa
Sdokhni)
Meet the in-laws
Release 10 April
Director Kirill Sokolov
Cast Vitaliy Khaev, Aleksandr Kuznetsov,
Evgeniya Kregzhde, Mikhail Gorevoy,
Elena Shevchenko
Distributor Arrow Films
Certifi cate 18
“One, two, three, evil won’t touch
me.” In the opening scene of Why
Don’t You Just Die! (aka Papa, sdokhni,
literally Daddy, die), 20-something
Matvei (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) chants these
words, steeling himself to ring the doorbell of
an upper-fl oor apartment. At this point, Matvei’s
own intentions seem a little on the evil side.
Maybe it’s his close resemblance to treacherous
sociopath Renton from Trainspotting (1996),
maybe it’s his Batman T-shirt, suggestive of
his outlaw allegiances – but most of all it’s the
hammer clenched behind his back that clinches
our impression that he is up to no good.
Yet in this rambunctious feature debut from
writer/director Kirill Sokolov, good and evil,
black and white, right and wrong are not easy to
tell apart, in an allegorical echo of the corrupted
Russian society within which the fi lm is set.
Matvei has come to kill Andrei (Vitaliy
Khaev), a bullish police detective and father to
Matvei’s girlfriend Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde).
As their hyper-violent encounter is played out
both as an intergenerational struggle between
two seemingly unstoppable forces, and as
a spaghetti western (complete with stand-
offs) that is absurdly confi ned to a Moscow
apartment, there is a bloodbath – not to mention
a bloody bath – with Matvei sustaining horrifi c
physical damage while damn refusing to die.
A tripartite series of fl ashbacks gradually
reveals the complicated back stories ofREVIEWS CINEMA // HOME FILM
vengeance, desperation and betrayal that have
led everyone to this chaotic pass. You can feel
the guiding hand of Quentin Tarantino and Sion
Sono (especially his not dissimilarly titled Why
Don’t You Play In Hell?, 2013) all over this fi lm’s
mosaic narrative structure – its anything-goes
approach to genre and its grotesque brutality- but Sokolov brings a distinctively Russian
fl avour to his amoral microverse, and directs
with an endlessly entertaining, larger-than-life
brio that is all his own.
Anton Bitel
064 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
Wallpaper in
Olya’s parents’
house isn’t wallpaper,
but a paper replica
that’s been printed.Jumanji:
The Next Level
Boss level
Release 4 April
Director Jake Kasdan
Cast Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart,
Karen Gillan, Jack Black
Distributor Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment
Certifi cate 12 A
Format •We’re sure we weren’t the only
ones to produce a deep, audible sigh at
the news of a reboot/sequel to 1995’s
beloved Jumanji, but the 2017 fi lm was a
surprise joy and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level
keeps the surprises coming.
This is a sequel that manages to both stick to the
great things that made the fi rst movie fun (body-
switching jokes, epic fi ght sequences, charismaticcast) and adds a fresh take (bigger world-building
and inspired additional casting with Danny Glover,
Danny DeVito and Awkwafi na).
Taking place three years after the fi rst fi lm, the
four original teenagers (now college students) are
again trapped in the Jumanji game but this time
they have been joined by lovable old dud Milo and
irritable grandpa Eddie. This time around, they’ve
been tasked with procuring a precious gem from
Rory McCann’s (Game Of Thrones) nasty Jurgen the
Brutal and on the way face untold (and hilarious)
dangers such as aggressive emus and angry new
partners of ex-girlfriends.
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan
and Jack Black are back but this time they all are
inhabiting different avatars, not least with Johnson
now being inhabited by grumpy DeVito and Hart
by a dithering Glover. The charisma between both
DeVito and Glover (though in reality, they get little
screen time) and Johnson and Hart bring both
hilarity and heart, and though Black and Gillan
don’t have quite as much to do this time around
they still have some hilarious moments and are
very much needed to bring everything together.
Awkwafi na is also a welcome addition playinga world-class thief, bringing an extra layer of
complexity to proceedings.
The plot, the characters and the cast are
excitable and compelling, and director Jake Kasdan
does well to keep the whole thing succinct and
engaging, throwing banter, self-knowing nods and
action at the audience for the entire 123 minutes.
Jumanji: The Next Level really is an apt name
because this sequel takes all the things we enjoyed
about the original and ramps them up a notch.
Rachael Harper