Sound of Noise

What binds the entertaining crime movie to its YouTube-ready musical interludes is the unspoken yearning of its two leads: he for the world of silence in which he'd rather live, and she for all the sounds that slip by every second, uncontrolled and unappreciated.

What follows is a character study mixed with outlandish crime procedural. Everyone's quite serious about the joke, without a moment of Adam Sandler-style "look at how cute we are" that would only dilute the film's appeal. Sound of Noise is a dry treat - a solid, self-aware cult pleasure.

The film is ultimately winning because of its devilish anarchic streak, aiming its arrows at the stuffiness of the traditional musical establishment.

A delightful comic cocktail of modern city symphony, police procedural and love story.

The basic premise of this delightful comedy from Sweden is one of the most imaginative you'll ever see. It's all based on music -- raw, elemental and percussive -- out of which genuine laughs are wrung from beginning to end.

The backbeat anarchy is fun while it lasts, but without a persuasive purpose, it's all just noise in the end.

More an intriguing premise than a successful film, the Malmö-set Sound of Noise, about a group of "musical terrorists," quickly loses its novelty and becomes about as bold as a Swedish production of "Stomp."