event Police, Adjective

Corneliu Porumboiu’s follow-up to 12:08 East Of Bucharest was the biggest buzz magnet among Cannes sidebar offerings this year, and the hype is mostly justified. Part genre (and language) deconstruction, part political statement, part dry comedy, Police, Adjective follows the efforts of a young officer (Dragos Bucur) who’s determined not to arrest a teenager for smoking a joint. He feels he can’t in good conscience ruin a kid’s life for such a minor infraction, which carries a heavy prison sentence and will probably be repealed someday anyway. Porumboiu follows Bucur’s foot-dragging with perhaps too much deliberation, but Police, Adjective picks up brilliantly when it turns into a literal dissection of the letter of the law.

Corneliu Porumboiu’s follow-up to 12:08 East Of Bucharest was the biggest buzz magnet among Cannes sidebar offerings this year, and the hype is mostly justified. Part genre (and language) deconstruction, part political statement, part dry comedy, Police, Adjective follows the efforts of a young officer (Dragos Bucur) who’s determined not to arrest a teenager for smoking a joint. He feels he can’t in good conscience ruin a kid’s life for such a minor infraction, which carries a heavy prison sentence and will probably be repealed someday anyway. Porumboiu follows Bucur’s foot-dragging with perhaps too much deliberation, but Police, Adjective picks up brilliantly when it turns into a literal dissection of the letter of the law.