brennaus Reviews

Isi & Ossi (2020)

Poorly writtten, not funny at all

[2/10 · 26 February 2020]

I was quite eagerly expecting this movie, it's Netflix' first German movie (i.e. produced by Netflix, not bought). Directed and written by Oliver Kienle, one of the writers of "Bad Banks" (German television's excellent drama series on the banking crisis), it sounded quite promising. The story draws its tension from two German neighbouring cities--Heidelberg and Mannheim. While Heidelberg is nice and mostly middle class, Mannheim is a blue collar city. Isi is a girl from Heidelberg, having incredible wealthy parents, living in a castle. She graduated from High School (with the help of some bribery from her parents) and does not want to study economics (as her parents want her to do) but rather go to New York to become a chef. In order to force her parents letting her go abroad, she picks up a proletarian boy from neighbouring Mannheim--aspiring boxer Ossi--pretending him to be her boyfriend. Well, if this premise sounds as if it doesn't make much sense or if you ask yourself who nowadays is living in a castle, those are the more credible parts of this movie. Every single person in this movie is heavily clichéd, the dialogues unnatural and the jokes lame. Surprisingly, taking the director's background into account, the story is very poorly written. I did not care for any of the characters nor the love story (mild spoiler: yes, they do actually fall in love). Overall, quite a disappointment.

Choose Me (1984)

A hidden gem of a movie

[10/10 · 5 September 2019]

I am giving 10 stars for completely subjective reasons. I watched this movie when it came out in the 80's and loved it immediately. After having watched it several times, I almost forgot about it and when I stumbled across a copy in the in Internet (2019), I watched it again--and I am still loving it! Mickey (a very hot Keith Carradine) comes to a nameless town after having escaped from a psychiatric hospital (diagnosed as a pathological liar). He goes to a bar named "Eve's" because he once was married to the previous owner, who had killed herself. He falls in love with the current owner, also named Eve (a very hot Lesley Ann Warren). He also meets other women, most importantly Nancy (a wonderful Geniviéve Bujold), who works as a radio sex therapist "Dr Nancy Love", giving advice to lonely hearts while she herself has some issues, specifically never having had a relationship and suffering from a sort of bipolar disease. The whole movie feels sort of manneristic, e.g. the film starts with a street scene that looks so obviously shot on a stage it could almost be a musical. Apropos music: the story is driven by a superb soundtrack by Teddy Pendergrass. The movie is about love, sex, truth, and deception. What I love about it is the mixture of art house movie (director Alan Rudolph is a protege of Robert Altman) and very emotional love stories. I you have a chance to watch this movie--do it, you won't regret it!

One Man Dies a Million Times (2019)

A true story, set in the future -

[7/10 · 17 March 2019]

A strange movie I saw at the SXSW movie festival. The claim of Jessica Oreck's movie is, "A true story, set in the future". It is based on the 3-years siege of Stalingrad in World War II, when under the siege of the German army, more than on fourth of the population starved to death. The movie contains a lot of authentic voices from survivors of the siege, but the film takes place "in the near future". The look and feel of the movie, however, is more of a 60s Soviet-era--small, torn-down Ikea-less flats, old CRT monitors, shabby clothing. In the film, the city (of course, then called "Leningrad" again) is under siege. The main protagonists, a young couple of biologists--Alyssa and Maksim--work at the world famous N.I. Valivov institute, a resource for mankind's genetic treasure of plants and seeds. The institute was founded in 1921 and, indeed, the scientists under the 1943-45 siege were rather starving to death than eating the bank's precious plants and seeds. A strange, and impressive film, mostly shot in b/w at the authentic locations in Russian language. With minimal resources, the director (about whom I know little) re-enacts a story about Leningrad's citizens' suffering and bravery.

Girl on the Third Floor (2019)

Really funny horror flick with a great main actor

[6/10 · 17 March 2019]

Watched this at the SXSW and did not know what to expect. Turned out to be a quite entertaining horror flick, directed by Tavis Stevens. Don Jon, an ex-con with a criminal past and some alcohol issues (a delightful performance from former WWE wrestler "CM Punk") bought a house in the Chicago suburbs for himself and his 8-month pregnant successful wife (Trieste Kelly Dunn). He wants to rebuild the house single-handedly while his wife stays in town. His efforts to renovate the house involve some really funny scenes, CM Punk has a great talent for physical humour. While working and sleeping in the house, some strange things happen, glass balls roll over the floors, eerie noises occur, a young girls shows up, trying to seduce Don Jon, and the neighbouring church's pastor seems to know more about the house than she tells. I really liked this movie, since it is a fresh mix of haunted house, horror, slasher, family drama, and comedy--and jumping back and forth between the genres plays nicely with the audience's expectations. Despite some shortcomings in the writing, the actors, and the camerawork are above average. Also the sound design was very skilful.

Alice (II) (2019)

Funny, captivating, and heart-warming story about a young woman's path to self-determination

[8/10 · 17 March 2019]

Astonishing feature debut by Australian director Josephine Mackerras, seen at SXSW (with an Q&A with the director, the film was the winner of Narrative Feature Competition at SXSW): Alice (a remarkable performance by first-time actress Emilie Piponnier) is happily married with a caring husband and a sweet little boy. Suddenly, her husband disappears, leaving her with her son, no money and a heavy mortgage on their apartment. She finds out, her husband was living a secret second life, spending all of her money on escort girls. Out of desperation and the perspective of becoming homeless, she starts working as a high-end escort girl herself. She befriends with a fellow escort girl, earns enough money to keep her flat, and gains a sense of independence and self-determination she never had before in her marriage. - The movie is absolutely stunning, a fascinating story that kept me captivated all through the end, beautifully shot, and an highly atmospheric soundtrack. In many parts, it is extremely funny (minor spoiler: e.g. the first scene in the hotel), sometimes horrifying (the phone call with Alice's mother). Probably shot with a small budget, the movie looks really expensive--the art direction, the camerawork, the soundtrack are skilfully set up. Emilie Piponnier impressively plays the role of a young woman finding her inner voice. Strongly recommended!

The Garden Left Behind (2019)

Beautiful movie about, love, friendship, and transformation

[8/10 · 17 March 2019]

Saw this at SXSW, where Brazilian director Flavio Alves won the audiences' award. The movie is about Tina, a trans-woman from Mexico, living as illegal immigrant together with her caring grandmother in New York. The movie is almost shot like a documentary, following Tina's struggle with love, anti-trans violence, and her medical and psychological transition to become a woman. Shot with mainly first-time actors from the New York trans activist scene (and a supporting role by Michael Madsen as barkeeper) the movie feels completely authentic and realistic. The director and his co-writer John Rotondo mentioned at a Q&A at SXSW that they had no prior knowledge about trans women, they wanted to learn more about this marginalized (and stigmatised) group, thus they made this film. The film heavily benefits from the producers' curiosity, the film is only partially activist, more an empathic study of people living on the edge of society. I myself did not know a lot about trans women, however, I could quite easily resonate with the protagonists' feelings and experiences. Basically, it is about love and hate and friendship, about trying to find out who you are and how to find your place in life.