My Joy | Rotten Tomatoes

My Joy

Released Sep 30, 2011

2 hr. 7 min.

Drama

List

90%

20 Reviews

Tomatometer

66%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A truck driver (Viktor Nemets) embarks on a dark odyssey through Russia.

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Audience Member

I love my fair share of bleak and painful movies, but this one is incredibly mind-numbing and pointlessly boring. OK, so Russia is a bleak place, I get the picture. This message is overvalued by critics because it's paired with very good directing. The thing is, the directing doesn't change the terrible script. The good directing is the only thing keeping me from considering this movie a 0/10. It's not that hard to make everything feel grey, what's important is where you take that feeling, and this film takes it nowhere. I understand that this is the whole point of the movie, but that's why it's not a good movie. There are always deep intricacies in human existence even when we run into dead ends, but this movie ignores everything except the dead ends. If you want to see a movie that creates this kind of feeling but actually takes it somewhere with artistic value, look up Bela Tarr.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

good look at post-communist russia

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

Gritty, gorgeous, unrelenting, haunting, blunt--hits you like a bucket of cement. It's a movie of little words, and the more I try to express its beauty, the more injustice I do to it...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

walter m

In "My Joy," Georgy(Viktor Nemets), a truck driver, is minding his business on a normal haul when he picks up an old man(Vladimir Golovin) as a hitchhiker who regales him with tales of the troubles he had getting home at the end of the Great Patriotic War. When Georgy futilely attempts to get diesel at a gas station, the old man simply walks off. Later, Georgy gets stuck in a traffic jam caused by an accident where a prostitute(Olga Shuvalova) who claims she is 18 tries to drum up some business. Okay, so far, not so bad, with the movie serving as an allegorical rumination on all that has not changed from the old Soviet Union to the new Russia, starting with random identity checks because nobody is really sure who anybody is anymore. Along these same lines, at a scene where the characters are talking about a war, it took me a minute to realize which war. But while it is okay to play with reality a little, here it goes too far which causes the movie to lose the narrative completely, making it almost impossible to follow for a good deal of its second half, which is an accomplishment for me, and not even remotely in a good way.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

a road movie headed nowhere. 15 4 2013

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

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Audience Member

This movie was AMAZING. Very very dark. And no, that is NOT Zach Galifanakous on the cover.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Sergei Loznitsa

Director

Vlad Ivanov

Major From Moscow

Viktor Nemets

Georgy

Olga Shuvalova

Young Prostitute

Vladimir Golovin

Old Man

Maria Varsami

Maria

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Critics Consensus: 50/50 is Certified Fresh

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Eric Kohn

indieWire

The movie contains a mesmerizing visual appeal.

Rated: B

Nov 12, 2013

Full Review

Alissa Simon

Variety

Although discomfiting to audiences desiring a steady narrative thread (and less accessible to those unfamiliar with Eastern European history and culture), it sustains interest throughout as a devastating critique of Russian society.

Nov 12, 2013

Full Review

Dave Calhoun

Time Out

There are hints of Tarkovsky in the poetic exploration of place and memory and the film is a demanding, difficult work. But the sense of a Dantean journey and a vision of utter hell are powerfully conveyed.

Nov 12, 2013

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Tanner Tafelski

Vague Visages

Necessarily bleak, My Joy shows [Russia] caught in the kind of circuitous violence that ultimately corrupts man.

Oct 30, 2019

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Daniel Kasman

MUBI

..."My Joy"'s striking structure is directly inspired by a strange record of anecdotes that disturb the story of a young truck driver's route through the Russian countryside.

Nov 16, 2017

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Landon Palmer

Film School Rejects

It's a journey that takes us through unexpected, often harrowing twist and turns, unafraid to leave us perplexed, confused, or even frustrated.

Rated: A-

Oct 5, 2011

Full Review

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Synopsis

A truck driver (Viktor Nemets) embarks on a dark odyssey through Russia.

Director: Sergei Loznitsa
Screenwriter: Sergei Loznitsa
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Production Co: Sota Cinema Group, Ma.ja.de. Fiction, Arte, Ma.Ja.De Filmproduktion, ZDF, Lemming Film, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Genre: Drama
Original Language: German
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 30, 2011, Limited
Release Date (DVD): Mar 13, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.5K
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital