Boris Akopov’s feature debut “The Bull” announces in serious text at the outset that it is based on a true story.
But the film unfolds along such formulaic lines, from its arc of gritty tragedy to its use of counterpointing pop tracks over vivid scenes of violence, that life, in this scuzzy Russian suburb in 1997, appears to have imitated art — specifically Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” but you can throw in most of the gangster and mafia movies of the late ’70s and ’80s, too.
It follows the very brief rise and long, bloody, betrayal-ridden fall of a roving gang of Muscovite malchicks, under the leadership of the handsome, stuttering Anton (Yuri Borisov).
Or at least it probably does: The compellingly staged, well-performed action is, for the English-speaking viewer, buried underneath such atrocious subtitling that it is difficult to be sure.When we meet him, Anton aka “Bull” — a nickname/play
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