The Forest For The Trees (2003)

Around the hour mark in The Forest For The Trees (2003), I finally had to close my eyes, not being able to bear watching another scene of social embarrassment. I usually have a high tolerance for cringe-inducing comedy, but I think I needed one sensory break for the continued awkwardness and loneliness of Melanie (Eva […]

Afire (2023)

To me, unlikeable characters can be great protagonists. Sometimes they help identify and purge the unlikeable parts inside of us. Like with the pretentious writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) in director Christian Petzold’s Afire (2023). A classic stick in the mud, Leon accompanies his friend Felix (Langston Uibel) to a holiday house in Felix’s family, out […]

Transit (2018)

Transit (2018) is the third film I’ve watched of German director Christian Petzold and at this point, I have to say that I’m a fan. There is something very direct about Petzold’s filmmaking style, it is not too showy or over-the-top; there’s a degree of elegance, though for some it might also be close to […]

Dead Pigeon On Beethoven Street (1972)

I always loved the use of Can’s ‘Vitamin C’ in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, but you know who used it first in a private eye flick way back in the 1970s? Samuel Fuller did, shooting an episode of a German crime TV anthology in West Germany (called Tartot) and spinning that into his own […]

White Star (1983)

White Star (1983) was a film I was trying to track down endlessly. Ever since I read about it in a Joe Bob Briggs Top 5 Dennis Hopper performances that he penned in the Eighties. No Blu-Ray release, not on any streaming service – well, turns out all I had to do was type “Dennis […]