Depressing filmmaking in cheerful colors

Based on the previous Borodyansky-Shakhnazarov collaboration ("We Are From Jazz", 1983) I had certain expectations but in this movie nothing happens after the first 21 minutes: we are left to watch events slowly digesting themselves. This would not be a bad thing in itself but all the boring or irrelevant conversations (especially with the Mother) drag it down... quite shocking, if we consider that "We Are From Jazz" was a movie that made it clear that both Borodyansky & Shakhnazarov know what they like and have a bag full of inspiration -- of adventures, characters, dreams, desires etc.
The main character is a grumpy teenager who is a courier but the only two packages we see him deliver are just sad excuses to make him meet his love interest. A film about a courier but we see virtually no traveling and no city? Very strange, he might as well have been a baker or a gravedigger.
The movie tries to evoke "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" (1979), but it's hard to take its commentary seriously, given the rest of the film... and I won't even comment on the symbolism shoehorned in...
Camera work (cinematography) is incredibly good but does not match the subject matter... it heralds the "theatrical phase" of Soviet / Russian cinema (which is still going on); in other words nothing like the easy flowing and well-integrated visual style of "We Are From Jazz."
The music is good, either Russian electronic wave/pop or American.
A solid 3.5/10