San Diego Reader

Amiable Phil Rosenthal, having created the hit show Everybody Loves Raymond, went to Moscow to help craft a spinoff copy, Everybody Loves Kostya. Smart but sometimes clueless (taken to a Russian military museum, he can’t relate), he felt frustrated by a culture gap in humor, intrusive bosses, miscasting, etc. This gets spun out for breezy comic effect, in a documentary suggesting that mutated sitcom schtick can forge transnational bonds. Oleg Tabakov, a great actor (Oblomov) and head of the Moscow Art Theater, evinces some understandable disdain. 2011.

— David Elliott

• Rated PG | 1 hour, 26 minutes

This movie is not currently in theaters.