Reviews
Spieleabend (2024)
Back to square 1
Unfortunately, this movie clearly wastes a good and yet foreseeable idea: Let a newcomer join a traditional game night among friends and have things escalate slowly. And at 'slowly' is where it fails. Whereas similar movies like 'Der Vorname' or 'Das perfekte Dinner' actually start slowly by introducing the characters in an everyday fashion that one can easily relate to and lets the scandal(s) boil and come up at reasonable steps of the plot, this movie 'Spieleabend' is having a much faster pace. It feels like the director wanted to find the motivation for the 'Spieleabend' within the first 2 minutes of the movie. Likewise the characters act weirdly and artificially/hollow from their first appearance. Faster does not always equal to better. The hectic pace makes the whole movie more childish, removes logic (e.g., the scene of the important bird without cage, the hunting & crazy neighbor, playing naked pingpong, virtual role-playing in a costume etc.) and it adds too much slapstick. If that's what you're looking for, then here you go. But then why indicate the intent of creating important relationships like during the car ride to the game night? My verdict: this is a set-back to square 1 and the new instruction card is asking directors to invest more time in building in-depth characters and establish more realistic relationships where conflicts unfold in a logic way like a boardgame.
One for the Road (2023)
More serious than you might expect
This movie is not only about the main character's fight against a serious desease, it is much more about how society deals with the thin border between enjoying alcohol or other drugs and when life gets out of control because of that. The same thin line is there between being admired for not being boring and living life to the fullest and not allowing much enjoyment - a very interesting moment depicted between Mr. Jung and his neighbor.
Alcohol surely facilitates getting into an entertaining party mode, but in a fragile and short-lived fashion that can easily turn into aggression. While the plot might not contain many surprises, it still shows nicely that alcohol cannot be the ingredient of a happy life for obvious reasons. A delicate subject, with great acting and honestly much better than expected - more serious than you might think from the cast and layout.
Eingeschlossene Gesellschaft (2022)
Missed opportunity to be different
Following the scheme of movies like 'Das perfekte Geheimnis', 'Vorname' or 'Nebenan' the movie mainly takes place at a single location in an everyday setting. More and more the secrets and stereotypes of characters unveil or they get their secrets unvealed against their will. Though, unfortunately the surprises still follow similar stereotypes. There is limited surprise to the viewer. Secondly, some scenes have too much slapstick character for a realistic setting. At times you will ask yourself if the movie wants to be taken seriously or whether it aims at being a parody. Some reactions simply are not believable at all, which is obviously okay for movies in general, yet less so for movies that do want to describe realistic scenes and serious topics like schooling system and modernization needs. Overall, this is a good movie that has its strong moments, some others that do not fit the concept though too. Surely, the movie is not a waste of time, I am just more afraid that the successful pattern of beforementioned movies is overcopied like here. There is definitely more (school) room for more creativity to bring the genre further. I am looking forward to it.