E-Mail This Article to a Friend KONTROLL

Eastern Europe has faltered in the world film market with its propensity for slow, dour, pessimistic art films. Nimród Antal’s colorful existential action picture from Hungary could be the post-Cold War movie that finds a youthful American audience. The premise is appealing: a raggedy, anti-authoritarian squad of metro inspectors patrols the Dante-esque Budapest subway system searching for lawbreakers, including a fast-moving punk who taunts them by refusing ever to buy a ticket and a serial killer who keeps pushing people under subway cars. The squad is led by Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi), a handsome, charismatic anti-hero who’s dropped out of a promising university career for perpetual days and nights as an Underground Man. Will he ever again see the light above the tunnels? Sharp all the way through, Kontroll culminates in a creepy Masque of the Red Death–like dance party, where the enrobed murderer makes his last stand. Come on, Bulcsú! In Hungarian with English subtitles. (105 minutes)