I've seen a lot of movies from the Western Balkans in the last two years (about 30 out of the last 40 movies I've seen are from the former Yugoslavia) but this one stands out the most. This is the only movie on IMDb that I've given a 10-star rating.
The movie seems to be pretty fair to both the Americans and the Serbs, with each put into moral dilemmas and not necessarily making the best choices. The consequences of the war on everyday people in Belgrade are also evident, with several named characters dying throughout the film. Other reviewers say that this movie is made to make Serbs look like powerless victims, but that's actually how the majority of Belgrade residents viewed themselves. Whether that's accurate or not is up for debate. Still, the movie is made by Belgraders about Belgraders, so expect some mild bias.
I found that only a few of the main characters were really flat while most of the core crew was fairly well-developed. Each grappled with issues of divided loyalties.
Other reviewers have mentioned that the movie seems incomplete and that the editing is at times choppy and hard to understand. This is absolutely true. However, the moment when the editing gets choppy is the moment when the editor character dies. The movie is quite meta; the audience is meant to believe that the characters in the film actually produced the film and so as the on-screen film team falls into chaos, so does the clarity and production quality of the movie that the audience is watching. I found that this added to the movie, while other reviewers think it took away from it. Your call.
I honestly wasn't expecting a masterpiece. Movies about movies, just like poems about poetry, songs about singing, or other art about art, can easily become self-indulgent and plain boring. However, Rat Uzivo/War Live is indeed a masterpiece. It manages not to be excessively self- indulgent but instead meta in all the best ways.
(Also, I was amazed to see the logo of the Durham Bulls, my local minor league baseball team, on the hat of Harvey the American. Unexpected moment of North Carolina pride.)
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