Corporate Party (Корпоратив) is a 2014 Russian comedy by Oleg Asadulin, who also directed Dark World: Equilibrium (Тёмный мир: равновесие). The film was produced by the company Enjoy Movies, which seeks to specifically make domestic hits about Russian everyday life so that audiences have viewing options apart from Western imports.
In the filme, Igor, the senior manager of a furniture store, holds a company party for his coworkers at the store. The next day, he finds that the store has been completely trashed. He asks his coworkers what happened, but they all swear that everything was fine when they left the party. Fearing for his job, Igor starts investigating what happened, and as each partygoer describes their night after they left the party, he finds out some strange things about the people he works with.
The film got generally abysmal ratings from both critics and viewers, although it did fairly well at the box office. Audiences criticized the acting in particular. Reviews were so negative in such creative ways that reading them may be more entertaining than actually watching the film. The Village wrote that the screenwriters seemed to think that the audience wasn’t very smart and that there were very few funny scenes, despite the actors’ comedic credentials. The review also noted that the soundtrack was completely outdated—“if they think that people still dance to these songs in the regions, then we have bad news for them.” Film.ru was more positive, saying that in each of the six mini-stories there was something amusing and bizarre, and that it was perfect for contemporary viewers. Ruskino praised the film’s attempt to depict contemporary Russian life—and, for what it’s worth, the reviewer enjoyed the soundtrack—but found that it didn’t remotely fulfill its comedic expectations and the cinematography didn’t look realistic.
Director: Oleg Asadulin
Stars: Nikolai Naumov, Vladimir Tolokonnikov, Miroslava Karpovich, Andrey Fedortsov, Aristarkh Venes
Production company: Enjoy Movies
Box office take: $4.8 million
Official trailer:
