"Above all, a very muted, subdued, and dry experience in its own right but stylistically intriguing as a whole. After viewing Kaurismaki's Le Havre, his most recent cinematic effort, Leningrad Cowboys, along with Ariel and Juha, is considered one of his most notable works during his career. First off, the film deals with a Russian folk music band touring the United States after losing a contract and fan-base in their home country.
The film, despite its potential snafus to certain audiences, is neither pro-Communist nor spoken in Russian or Finnish (given the director's homeland) with English subtitles but in seldom-used, broken English for the most part with some Mexican Spanish. Aside from that, the stylistic factor is notified by its distant humour and dialogue where much of the comedy and irony comes from the small things they say and the mildly zany things (particularly tame material for a PG-13 film) they do like leave a member of their band to be in a bed of ice with his bass guitar, look at pictures of elderly Russian women out of romantic feelings, or revolt against their secretly greedy band leader. Le Havre, in comparison, is a little more obvious and timed precisely than Leningrad's more freeform aspects.
While the film can be seen at parts as purely hilarious (in a dry manner), the whole film is too spare and slow to be considered a classic or re-watchable especially in the YouTube era of fast-paced comedy. Interesting effort in cross-continental cinema but not entirely a glourious cult effort that The Criterion Collection puts it out as."
