How I Became a Gangster (Jak zostalem gangsterem. Historia prawdziwa) is a crime-drama film directed by Maciej Kawulski, written by Krzysztof Gureczny and stars Marcin Kowalczyk, Tomasz Włosok, Natalia Szroeder, Natalia Siwiec, Jan Frycz and Adam Woronowicz, alongside other cast members. The film has a runtime of 140 minutes.
Netflix’s description of the movie reads:
An ambitious gangster works his way up the ranks of Warsaw’s criminal underworld, and ultimately takes his shot at the big time.
– How I Became a Gangster Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
At 2 hours and 20 minutes, How I Became a Gangster, a 2019 movie coming back out of hiding, almost shows a lack of empathy for its viewers. For almost a big chunk of its runtime, the movie is narrated by our protagonist, a gangster who goes into a life of crime just for the hell of it.
He narrates right from the beginning, and listening to him relishing his slow ascent to gangster victory is enough to make any weary and right-minded audience question why they are watching this in the first place.
Regardless, the story itself isn’t an issue. It’s just that our ‘bored’ gangster isn’t interesting enough to warrant spending so much time following him. Sure, we get to know another ‘true story’, but the movie is so infuriatingly and laboriously self-important and cocky that you want to slap it after a while.
It screams a very specific big energy vibe that I might not be able to mention here and, thus, gets very old very quickly. I mean, it’s 2023 – that crap isn’t charming anymore. That being said, there’s a wedding scene in the movie that is so fun and high energy that it will make you want to dance under twinkling lights wearing pretty clothes. However, the hundreds of high-energy montages featuring violence run out of steam after a while; the background score can’t save it from becoming a weight for the story.
It’s interesting how, in such a long runtime, the movie never really reaches that point where you relate or empathise with any of the characters or want them to achieve whatever it is that they want to. I mean, it would, maybe, be weird to empathise with people who kidnap and harm others. But still, it’s oddly unnerving watching a piece of media where you couldn’t care less about the characters.
Also Read: Side Dish Review: Bad Climax Takes Away its Chance to Become a Delicious Main Course
Maybe it’s because How I Became a Gangster presents these characters exactly how you’d expect them to be. Their decisions, mannerisms, and the general way in which they present themselves and think are just out of every gangster movie rule book that you’d be able to imagine. They are boring and repetitive and present nothing more than just another crime movie.
Summing Up: How I Became a Gangster
How I Became a Gangster is a sad and boring watch that constantly made me wonder what the point of all of this was. Is it supposed to be thrilling? Riveting? Entertaining? Unfortunately, it’s none of these. The grotesque sex scenes just make it worse and, frankly, crass.
How I Became a Gangster is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: All My Life Review: Splashy Rom Com With Cliché Writing
I was at a gathering where they had this piece of crap movie on. The dialog is so cringe in this movie it sounds like it’s written by a prepubescent boy. They use the F word so many times that they think its cool. If you want to hear romance dialog that sound like it was written by neck beards this is your movie. At no point was this movie interesting or engaging. This movie thinks that by swearing constantly and naming your gang ‘the f-heads’ that it’s cool. This movie is so cringe that after it’s over you are going to have to get your butt checks surgically opened again.