I love Keanu Reeves. And *spoiler alert* I felt the ending of the movie might be the beginning of the movie. I started over. It wasn't. Costumes were different. Only in the relevance that one day isn't much different from the next. But while taking place, it seemed that a guy annoyed with two hot but skanky chicks decided to take an interest in them after stealing a video camera. And his documentary of them was insightful. But he knew them all along. The only person surprised a the ending was me. And maybe you.

Generation Um... A movie so low on budget that it could be a run-of- the-mill boy-band music video. 1.7 million dollar to be exact. Yet. The underlying message is futility in and of life without bordering on nihilism. It lacks anything related to art, merely it is your typical Polaroid snapshot. The cutting is mediocre at best and the main three protagonist rarely have any Academy Award deserving scene - but it is made up for. When your typical french avant-garde movie overplays its arc, when a Michael Moore movie does not even have something that resembles a story-line. Generation Um.. is exactly as the title describes. A normal day of three people living in New York(?). All characters have depth, yet, once again they just have it, it is not developed for the viewers pleasure nor is it highly presentable. It is the life of those three people intertwined. We all have our dark secrets, not everything is a highly polished space opera nor is it of the importance of a Cuba Crisis solving Kennedy. My personal guess to why this movie has such low ratings is mainly because it does not serve a purpose other to depict reality and it lacks money to buy these guys. It is reality in all its lack of glory, gore, virtue and triumph. It is oddly happiness-inducing and mellow at the same time. It is the perfect Sunday afternoon flick.

John (Keanu Reeves) is a driver in New York City for an Escort Service and he takes his two escorts (read hookers) Mia (Adelalide Clemens) and Violet (Bojana Novakovic) where they need to go when the time is right. All three are listless, aimless with no energy or ambition to change their lives. That is, until John steals a camcorder to record events around town and then he focuses on Mia and Violet. And, this is when the girls open up and try to outdo each other with sad stories of their upbringing. So you see the name Keanu Reeves in a new movie and you run to it. And, you watch, then you become disappointed. Really disappointed. Bummer. We watch these three for one day in NYC. The title is misleading. I would rename it "Stuck" because that's what these three represent. Stuck in life with no plan or ambition to go beyond the dreary lives they are currently leading. John says it best: It's really bad when you become the bigger disappointment to yourself than the disappointment your parents feel (I am paraphrasing here). This day is John's birthday and he gets a card and a check ($75) from his father. He puts the card in a drawer like he wants to forget he got it. He won't answer calls from his mother. Like he said, he is a bigger disappointment to himself and is shamed, embarrassed but in low key (doesn't get upset or violent).When John uses the camera we hope things will pick up and maybe something will happen and lead to a brighter future for them. Sadly, no. This doesn't happen. In fact nothing happens the rest of the way. Bummer, again. However, some may see this as psychological drama and good for them. I want a story: a beginning, a middle and an ending with a few good lines along the way and yes, I waited for Keanu to say, "whoa" like he used to in some movies. He is very good at that. Didn't happen. So what holds us? Well, the girls are pretty, very photogenic but that's it. Their growing-up stories are kind of shocking, but not shocking enough to get them out of their funk. We keep thinking John will use the girls and the stories to advance careers and get them out of hooking. Sadly, no. This doesn't happen. The camcorder is just the prop of the day and no more. We wait - in vain - for things to get better. Doesn't happen. Near the end of the movie is when we learn that John is a driver for an Escort service and the girls are really hookers. Up to that point we kept asking ourselves what is the connection among these three. That consumed most of our thinking for most of the movie and it was like a little puzzle going nowhere while waiting for something good to happen. However, for what is presented, the acting is very good once Violet stops yelling out her conversations. Her voice was like a gun going off near your ears and you jump a little. Okay, a lot.So…….um……whoa, this is not what you think it will be. Bummer. I wasn't going to do a review on this, but I decided you needed to know just in case you decided to run to this Keanu Reeves movie. (4/10)Violence: No. Sex: Yes.. Nudity: Yes, briefly. Drug Use: Yes. A BJ: Yes, Violet services John early in the movie.Language: Yes, but not much.

Three people find themselves in a miserable position in the cruel reality of "market-economy" consumer society, where the only idea is isolationism and where people are supposed to consume not only "goods" but also each other. This society seldom gives chances and very rarely grants opportunities and destines to isolation those who didn't manage "to adapt" to imposed cruel rules of social Darwinism. Two young women and a man who is not young any more try to keep the human component in their personalities being in inhuman conditions. Instinctively they are addressing to support of those who are near them and to creative power that is hidden in any human being but that has to be realized by a system of proper education that lacks in post-modernistic reality for those having "unfavourable social background". This reality didn't give John any chance, not to mention an opportunity, to become a cameraman or Mia to be a good actress. The film reflects without any scruple all vices of a modern mega-polis, the outstanding acting makes the spectator sympathize for the main characters. But as most post-modernistic dramas the film does not give any hints for the solution of the severe social problems pictured.P.S. Why did they release this film in Russia so late? Russians are keen for smart films!