Popran

Popran is a bit of an odd one. It’s basically a drama about a successful businessman who finds himself back in his hometown reconnecting with the people he left behind — but it gets there via a thoroughly bizarre, high concept twist (that I won’t spoil, though it’s revealed fairly early in the film). That twist… well, it’s something, that’s for sure. It brings the movie a decent amount of personality (and I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it), but it’s mostly just an excuse to get to the well-worn character study stuff. The “slick businessman returns to his old stomping grounds and rediscovers his humanity” plot is certainly one we’ve seen many, many times before, and — outside of the parts where the movie gets weird — this stuff is dispiritingly generic. The film either needed to lean into its oddball premise or be more effective at being a low-key character study, because as it is, both sides are a bit dull.

** out of ****