Film Review: The Old man Movie: Lactopalypse

Directed by: Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Mägi
Starring: Oskar Lehemaa, Mikk Mägi
Running time: 88 minutes

The Old man Movie: Lactopalypse is an Estonian odyssey that follows three spoiled city youths set with the wild mission of returning their grandfathers prized milking cow back to him before the milky destruction of an entire village. With endless creative avenues and funky ideas, directors Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Mägi’s animated odyssey acts as a reminder of the charm in stop motion claymation. 

When children: Aino, Mart and Priidik are dropped off by their parents at their deranged grandfather's Balkan countryside farm, their summertime becomes dictated by the farmer's determination to connect his spoilt grandchildren to country living. But this is not an animated idyllic display of eastern Europe’s unobstructed countryside, rather, he almost immediately puts the “ungrateful, spoiled brats” to work. 

Growing tired of toiling away inside of a dingy barnyard whilst their grandfather enjoys the fruits of their labour the eldest boy, Priidik, accidentally sets loose his grandfather's prized milking cow. This act of childlike resistance backfires, almost instantly, and instead any attempt from Priidik to make his grandfather see sense becomes eclipsed by the entire village’s inane anxiety that this, now lost, cow’s, udders will expand and explode, unleashing milk so strong and unmanageable that it will destroy and cover the entire village. Under the stress of this new threat, the children now only have 24 hours to find and return this dangerously full cow to halt the potential destruction of an entire village.

It is a plot entirely aware of its absurdity, and with nonsense at the core of the film's plot trajectory, it is surprising that the real substance of the film lies in the style. The use of potato puppeteering in the film provides a three dimensional style of stop motion animation that acts as a spectacle in itself. The materials and movements of the characters are truly unique; through all scene the characters' potato faces make minimal use of facial movements, making the deadpan dialogue even more hilarious. In a plot that values absurdity over reality, the characters being animated in this plasticine claymation style only works to further enhance the whimsy that Lehemaa and Mägi set out to cultivate.

The climax of this animated aesthetic absurdity has to be the character of Old Milker, whose tragic story is first introduced through a blurry film reel. Once, the best milker in the land, he eventually succumbed to enforced barnyard isolation following an exploding udder accident, in which his prize cow ran away and, unmilked for a whole day, exploded all over him, covering acres of land in milk and permanently scarring Old Milker.

A bitter old farmer, who can now only cry sour milk and sweat butter, acts as the film's absurd antagonist whose sole goal it is to hunt down and kill the cow before it, too, explodes and ruins yet another village. 

The Old man Movie: Lactopalypse of course, lacks the sophistication often attributed to European art house, but Lehemaa and Mägi’s apparent disinterest in taking themselves too seriously as filmmakers pays off perfectly, and creates a symbiosis between style and plot that has resulted in a particularly charming style of cinematography. 

The stop motion process is not easy. It requires detailed planning and combines elements of science and optical illusion to create movement. So, to simply boil a film like this down to a goofy animation would be incorrect. Whilst this is not a style of cinema attempting to pioneer something new, it harkens back to some of the pillars of early-modern film design. And by introducing claymation as a genuinely enjoyable form of visual art provides a hopeful and interesting avenue for emerging popular cinema. 

Aside from the unique animation style, there is something to be said about the moral parable of the film — milking — with the whole 88 minutes being a homage to it. And whilst this acts as a comedic goof, there is certainly allusions toward modern eco-ethical dilemmas. In fact, it is only the young, city children who recognise the importance of looking after the cows properly. The youth, the least driven by greed, small-town fame, or profit incentives teach all of the bizarre elders they come across a myriad of moral lessons regarding the cow. 

In fact, everyone's insane obsession with the right way to milk a cow alludes to milking as a sort of sacred act. And it is true, the process of milk production has long been one of the most important in sustaining human life and creating connection between animal and man. In the beginning of the film, teenager Aino makes the comments “Milk from a cow? I thought milk only came from Almonds”. Whilst this is most likely just a throw away comedic comment, it does signal the importance — or rather, dwindling importance, of the farming industry amongst different generations. 

Childlike whimsiness, adult-swim style profanities and passive moral messaging: The Old man Movie: Lactopalypse is an impressive stop motion spectacle that is certainly a unique style of humorous cinema.