YOU & I (2011) C
(director: Roland Joffe; screenwriters: Shawn Schepps, Luke Goltz, Andrew Cullen, based on the novel L.A T.u. Come Back by Aleksey Mitrofanov & Anastasia Moiseeeve; cinematographer: Philip Robertson; editor: Richard Nzhsky ord; music: Jeff Cardoni; cast: Mischa Barton (Lana Starkova), Shantel VanSanten (Janie Sawyer), Alexander Kalu (Dima), Charlie Creed-Miles (Ian), Igor Desyatnikov (Ivan), Aleksandr Byelonogy (Max, L.A T.u. producer), Lena Katina (Elena), Julia Volkova (Yulia), Evgeny Koryakovsky (Aleksei), Grigorey Levakov (Face Control), Troy MacCubbin (guitarist, L.A T.u.), Yekaterina Malikova (Marina), Sven Martin (Keyboardist, L.A T.u.), Helena Mattsson (Kira), Ruslan Sasin (Vadim), Olesya Sudzilovskaya (Anna), Anton Yelchin (Edward), Aleksandr Semchev (Leonid), Bronson Pinchot (Torrino, bossy vogue photographer); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Sergei Konov, Leonid Minkovski, Stephen Nemeth; Angels Kiss/RAMCO; 2011-USA/Russia-in English & Russian)
“I wish it made more sense.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Brit director Roland Joffe (“The Killing Fields”/”The Mission”) helms this chaotic female teenager LGBTQ+ romance/adventure drama set among the music hipster crowd in Moscow. It’s co-written by Shawn Schepps, Luke Goltz, and Andrew Cullen, and is based on the novel L.A. T.u. Come Back by Aleksey Mitrofanov & Anastasia Moiseeeve. It’s a fictionalized story of real events.
The feisty, attractive, poor blonde Lana Starkova (Mischa Barton), striving to become a model, moves from living with mom in the stifling small farming town of Gorsk, just outside Moscow, to the bustling city of Moscow. Through an internet fan chat site for the popular band L.A. T. u. (Tatu) on her cell phone, she hooks up with her opposite, the lonely and well-off American teenager from NYC, Janie Sawyer (Shantel VanSanten). She’s also a big fan of the group, and stays with her dad and with her bitchy step-mother, while he works in Moscow,
Janie adapts one of Lana’s poems into a song and posts it on YouTube. Tatu’s manager Max (Aleksandr Byelonogy) hears the song being played by his corrupt music producer Ian (Charlie Creed-Miles) and loves it. He later contacts the girls, instead of the producer, hoping they will allow Tatu to record the song without the producer. Meanwhile Janie and Lana have a cautious lesbian relationship and go through a series of adventures with various people. Janie it turns out is hooked on injecting drugs ever since her biological mother died, and Lana tries scoring a modelling gig by dealing with those who want to take her to bed. Both girls experience the lows and highs of living out the glitzy pop culture Moscow scene, which seems as empty as the one in Manhattan.
I wish it made more sense. It tries to tell me that music can make your dreams come true, but its happy ending still leaves me unconvinced.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 5/14/2025 GRADE: C
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