Genres often pose just as many problems as they solve by helping us put a given work of art into a convenient box. Fekete kefe is generally labelled as a comedy, but for me, it's really difficult to say it's a real comedy. There are scenes intended to be funny, all right, but the whole film comes off as a sleepy and lazy stylistic exercise with the black and white image and the frequent use of fixed camera positions.
My main problem with the film is that it wants to have everything an over the top scenario could give, but in the end, it doesn't deliver much. In fact, there are so many possibilities – e.g. a heist film, a somewhat funny social commentary on entrepreneurs and intellectuals doing odd jobs, a study on group dynamics with entirely different characters – but none of them gains dominance over the others. The film is fragmented, the plot is too anecdotal, and the whole thing feels incidental.
Another problem is that, despite being a comedy, the acting is often stiff and borders on boredom and tiredness. It's not even a sort of philosophical calmness – it's just pure boredom on the part of the characters (probably spiced with a sense of powerlessness) and me, too. Furthermore, good comedies have at least a few quotable scenes; here, these are also missing.
All in all, the film is a missed opportunity to me, both stylistically and thematically. It's watchable, but barely memorable.
