The Big Picture

Steppenwolf
is a frustrating and dated experiment with poor pacing and narrative flow.
The lead female character, Tamara, is mistreated throughout the film.
Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s direction creates a brutal setting, but the script’s flaws outweigh this redeeming quality.

Action and comedy go hand-in-hand. Even brutal violence can strike a humorous tone. That’s why Quentin Tarantino is so beloved. Sometimes, the humor can derive from the absurdity or bluntness of the violence, like that scene where Indiana Jones shoots a man because he’s too exhausted for a knife fight or any Coen Brothers movie ever. But when that formula isn’t mixed well, and violence and warfare are presented without the right kind of comedy and we’re still expected to laugh and be wildly entertained, it can make for an uncomfortable viewing experience. Such is the case with Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s Steppenwolf. The film was introduced as being reminiscent of the films of Tarantino and Andrei Tarkovsky and is described on the festival’s website as a combination of “Hermann Hesse’s cult novel Steppenwolf with the classic westerns The Searchers and Red River.”

All this is to say that the movie is too derivative for its own good. It forfeits narrative flow and proper pacing to shoehorn in macho action and tired comedy that at times makes it feel like a teenage boy’s fantasy. This combined with the relentless and repeated mistreatment of its one female character (who conveniently finds it extremely different to speak), Steppenwolf is a frustrating and dated experiment in testing the audience’s patience.

Steppenwolf (2024) In Steppenwolf, a mute woman named Tamara embarks on a desperate quest to rescue her kidnapped son from ruthless organ traffickers amidst the chaos of civil war. Partnering with a hardened ex-convict known as “the Steppenwolf,” she navigates a violent, lawless landscape. Together, they confront human obstacles with brutal determination, each step drawing them deeper into a world of danger.Release Date January 31, 2024 Director Adilkhan Yerzhanov Cast Berik Aitzhanov , Anna Starchenko , Azamat Nigmanov , Yerkin Gubashev , Nurbek Mukushev Writers Adilkhan Yerzhanov Studio(s) Golden Man Media , The Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan , State Center for the Support of National Cinema Distributor(s) Blue Finch Films Releasing Expand

What Is ‘Steppenwolf’ About?
Set in a wasteland in an unspecified time period (there are no smartphones but you can get the Lolita heart-eyes sunglasses), Brajyuk (Berik Aitzhanov) harbors a dark past but is currently the muscle for the prison police when extracting confessions out of poor unfortunate souls. When a terrorist group breaks into the prison, Brajyuk brazenly hides behind the bodies of his colleagues to save himself. He calmly keeps smoking his cigarette as three different men shoot at him and he wears the heart-shaped sunglasses along with his get-up that makes him look like an even more gruff Billy Butcher from The Boys. Somehow surviving this shootout is Tamara (Anna Starchenko), a young woman looking for her son. Tamara is half catatonic and can only speak through whispered ramblings. It’s hard to tell if she is like this as a result of trauma or if it’s just her nature but it suits our protagonist perfectly because boy does he love to talk!

Tamara promises Brajyuk five grand to help her find her son amidst the civil war that has plagued this wasteland. Brajyuk agrees and the two embark on a journey that brings them into the crosshairs of many a contemptuous man with their own agenda. Brajyuk is also on the hunt for the faceless Taha who controls this entire society (or what’s left of it) as he is the man who murdered Brajyuk’s entire family and behind Tamara’s son’s disappearance, which is connected to an organ harvesting operation of young children.

‘Steppenwolf’ Is Too Derivative For Its Own Good

It doesn’t take too long into Steppenwolf’s runtime to be reminded of other, better movies. The unpredictability and blunt nature of the violence are straight out of the Coen Brothers’ filmography, with two characters having a pleasant conversation before one then shoots the other in the face five seconds later. Brajyuk isn’t shy about using Tamara as a human shield while they’re in the middle of a conversation. These little moments do make for some laughs but they soon become too tired and make way for greater issues that plague the film. The most frustrating part is its pacing. It’s obvious that Steppenwolf thinks the audience will be patient with its slow plot because we’ll be so invested in the characters, but that’s far from the case.

Berik Aitzhanov’s portrayal of our protagonist starts off as engaging and humorous before becoming a caricature of itself. Billy Butcher is the most obvious comparison but Aitzhanov doesn’t have the charm or natural comedy of Karl Urban to pull off a character like this one. In one bizarre scene, Brajyuk is giving one of his many, many monologues and Aitzhanov inexplicably makes long grumbling sounds repeatedly. The first thing that came to mind was that excruciating Family Guy scene where Peter hurts his knee. Brajyuk isn’t just unlikable because he hits women and murders people, he’s also gratingly irritating.

Related ‘Hunting Daze’ Review: An Exhilarating Pseudo-Horror | KVIFF 2024 The French-Canadian thriller had its European premiere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

There are many heavy-handed sequences that lean into full-blown “comedy” that make the movie feel like it’s a Family Guy parody of Mad Max. Brajyuk uses a teddy bear to mimic fellatio and he does “Single Ladies”-esque choreography as Tamara has to check if the dead body on the side of the road is her son. One scene is your classic “look at this unlikely pair finally seeing eye to eye” as the two charge against a swarm of gunslinging men that feels much too contrived. This humor and eccentricities aren’t earned and feel like a copy and pasting of the most memorable parts of other movies without any of the set-up or groundwork to make them effective. The comedy of the violence in Coen Brothers films works because the script has spent time making sure we’re invested in the characters. For them to be set in an Eastern desert with hardly any connections to the outside world makes them feel even more out of place. It’s like seeing Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya break into the Pulp Fiction dance while riding the sandworm in Dune. Yerzhanov is so impatient to get to the “good stuff” that any of the more exciting sequences feel hollow (and it makes the movie’s slow pacing even more confounding). And that’s not even the worst part.

‘Steppenwolf’ Mistreats Its Lead Female Character
Image Via Blue Finch Film Releasing

The most egregious flaw of Steppenwolf is the treatment of Tamara. She’s referred to as having a pimp so we’re led to believe she’s a sex worker but she’s also dressed like a kindly 20th-century nun. It’s as if the film couldn’t choose between two female stereotypes and decided to just mash them together. She’s offered no agency for the majority of the film, she’s barely allowed to speak, and the story is not shy in presenting her as stupid, even having her say that about herself. What’s worst of all of this is how it tries to present Brajyuk as an unlikely mentor for her in her journey of self-confidence. Tamara’s pimp demands she make her a coffee and Brajyuk tries to inspire her to learn how to say no, screaming and throwing things at her. When it’s clear this is an impossibility for her, Brajyuk demands that he make her a coffee too. It’s clear that Brajyuk’s constantly conflicting behavior is meant to elicit laughs, but when it comes at the expense of the one female character, it’s just not funny.

What’s even worse than this is Brajyuk’s constant hitting of Tamara. In one particularly nauseating scene, Brajyuk is trying to get Tamara to speak up for herself and keeps slapping her in the face until she does. This culminates with her speaking clearly, somewhat intimating that all she needed was a good slap around to find her voice. It’s hard to enjoy any other part of this film when the female lead is used as nothing more than a punching bag (literally and physically) and we’re supposed to be invested in her “friendship” with the man perpetrating it all. It’s an outdated, degrading, and misogynist treatment of a character who the film then has the audacity to try to make the hero of the story. Without going into spoilers, a twist at the end tries to make Tamara out to be the victor, as if all that physical and verbal abuse from Brajyuk was worth it to make her a warrior. Even if is a somewhat girlboss ending, too much damage has been done and the final five minutes can’t do anything to fix it.

Steppenwolf is an immature, derivative, and ultimately frustrating viewing experience. It’s clear where it got its inspiration from and it’s obvious what it’s trying to do, but it all falls to pieces in its misguided derision and horrific treatment of Tamara. The movie’s one redeeming quality is Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s direction, going the opposite direction of George Miller and forging a viscerally brutal setting, but it can’t distract from the many flaws of the script. Set in the war of a wasteland, you would think it has something to say about humans, how we treat each other, and how we interact in times of conflict. But the movie just appears to be hellbent on making jokes teenage boys will laugh at, using the one woman as the butt of every joke and face to be slapped, and asking us to follow a protagonist who’s as reprehensible as they come.

REVIEW Steppenwolf (2024) Steppenwolf sets out to be an entertaining road thriller but ends up being too flawed to elicit any enjoyment from its audience.ProsAdilkhan Yerzhanov’s direction is strong, making it a visual spectacle with some impressive action set pieces. ConsSteppenwolf makes it one female lead the emotional and physical punching bag.The movie feels much too derivative of better movies from Tarantino to the Coen Brothers.Steppenwolf has a major pacing issue and asks for too much patience from the audience.

Steppenwolf screened at the 2024 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.