Leto 2018

A film about garage punk in the early 80s in Russia, and if you think you needed anything else, you're wrong.

Apparently Leto (or Summer in English, as Leto is the Russian word for that season) is a biopic, but it's probably better if you know nothing about the real story beforehand. Or afterwards. Fiction is better than reality, and not just in my love life.

Because the film Leto is like your favourite album: there may be some strong parts and parts you like less, but it infects you with a feeling that stays with you the rest of the day, making everything a little better along the way. Yes, a song or two may make the record a little long in places but we are revelling in the mood the music creates and have nowhere else we need to be.

In a year where movies about music brought down the house, Leto is especially a standout. This film (the Russian entry in official competition at Cannes 2018) could have been called Siberian Rhapsody or A звезда Is Born because it is the antithesis of those blockbusters.

Unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, Leto has no Hollywood razzmatazz. It isn't playback, it's the real thing, honest and human and flawed and scratched and raw. There is no sheen covering the film like a marketing condom; what we experience when we watch the film isn't deadened or second-hand but direct and in our faces.

The movie also outshines A Star is Born because it is all about the music all the time. While the storylines of both have similarities (Leto analyses the relationship between an established underground rocker and the newcomer he takes under his wing), Leto doesn't get lost in the third act to explore maudlin clichés but instead it keeps the beat like a heart up to the not-so-bitter end.

There are certainly some false notes in Leto. The love story is often jarringly mundane and the anecdotes from the real people's serve as a distraction to what their lives were really about. But while Leto may not be perfect, it is absolutely the best album you will see all year.