A Young Man

Aleksander Fomin's 2022 Russian film follows a man in his thirties who has lost everything. He excelled at school and university; now he has been fired, his wife has left and he has a loan he cannot pay. Out of desperation he returns to high school and begins living as a student. The idea is that going back does not work. The man thinks himself superior among the young but understands nothing of their world; the comedy comes from that mismatch and turns steadily painful. Pavel Tabakov leads. The narrative is brisk in the first half with a high joke density; in the second the tone changes and the film goes somewhere more serious. That transition is not always smooth. Who it's for: those who like contemporary Russian comedy and midlife crisis narratives. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a consistent tone; the film shifts sharply between comedy and drama.