Our take
The Romanian New Wave’s predilection for bleakness gets a tongue-in-cheek dig in this buddy comedy from the same country: “Romanians are bad at making movies,” Pompiliu (Alexandru Papadopol) complains. “They only show doom and gloom.” Indeed, the premise here could easily make for a miserable movie: three hapless working-class pals win a multimillion lottery jackpot but lose their ticket — and, with it, the chance for Dinel (Pedro Pascal-lookalike Dorian Boguță) to pay off the mafia don that’s holding his wife hostage in Italy.
But Two Lottery Tickets takes a decidedly droll view of their predicament. Part of that approach is achieved via the trio’s characterizations: they’re all goofy in different ways, from the ridiculous conspiracy theory-spouting Pompiliu and the gullible Dinel to sleazy chancer Sile (Dragoș Bucur). The rest of the film’s breezy comic tone comes thanks to their amusingly convoluted journey to retrieve the ticket, which they believe is in a bag that was stolen when Dinel was mugged by two thugs. These many segues implicate a cross-section of Romanian society into the film, making it a wry social commentary in places. Mostly, though, Two Lottery Tickets has modest ambitions — to be, simply, an enjoyable comedy — a goal it surpasses thanks to its absurdist humor and pitch-perfect performances.
The story
3 men from a provincial town who are in an urgent need for money so they decide to buy a lottery ticket. They win the lottery, but very soon, the ticket gets stolen.
Elsewhere
""Two Lottery Tickets" is an existential-absurdist, dirty-kitchen-sink vision of ordinary lives that's just funny and invigorating enough to hit a note of truth."
— Owen Gleiberman
When three friends misplace their winning ticket for Romania’s lottery, they go on a wild goose chase to recover it.
The competition for standout scene here is close: it’s either the surreally funny confrontation the trio has with a cop in Bucharest (in which they manage to convince him that their glossy black car is, in fact, white) or the unexpectedly moving reunion at the film’s end (which is best left unspoiled).
Romania’s answer to My Name is Earl.
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Farah Cheded is a UK-based curator at A Good Movie to Watch and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved freelance critic whose work has been published at outlets including The Playlist, Paste Magazine, and Film School Rejects. She lives in fear of the day she runs out of 'Columbo' episodes to watch.
