Ryu_Darkwood

I expected another Gegen die Wand and I got...well, this! It's the kind of story we've seen countless times before, and in many cases better executed. This movie just doesn't add up to other movies about troubled kids going on the wrong path in life. Recent pearls like La Haine or Cidade de Deus are so much better.

The problem I had with this story is that we can predict from the very beginning where it is going to lead us. From the moment we see the good looking, almost angelic kid walking into a police station with blood on his shoes, we know that he'll turn the wrong way by meeting the wrong people. And that's exactly what happens. It doesn't lead us - the viewer - on any new grounds regarding the subject of youth delinquency. The small subplot concerning the mother is strong, but I really felt that they could've heighten it to a higher level. In the end it does deliver as a heart wrenching thriller rather than the society comment it wants to be. The Germans know how to make good cinema, this doesn't belong in there.

I consider this to be the third best new show I started to watch last year( with Damages undoubtedly on a first place and Californication on a close second ).

It has all that you want from a prime time soap: intelligent satire, adoring characters, a captivating mystery and ambient settings. I love it how they show that a materialistic lifestyle doesn't lead to happiness. In all their efforts to buy their happiness, these characters find that it is the small things that make a life worth to live. A comforting thought for a ''poor'' guy like myself.

My only criticism is that the title of the show is a bit misleading. If you put the words dirty and sexy in a title, it suggests that the content is...well, dirty and sexy. But this show is actually rather decent compared to a lot of recent shows.

I found the slow-paced and intimate scenes one of the better aspects of the movie. It has a feel of sadness to it that these people live their lives ordinarily while Jews around the world are slaughtered by the Nazis's. Yes, the lighting and camera-work is horrible at times, yes, it doesn't really have a point to it, but it does have a certain beauty in its depiction of human intimacy even at times of horrific events. For me the most unforgivable flaw is the way how they neglect to put any emotional tension in the storyline. Things just happen for no other reason than that it was written in the book. Motives are left unclear and the director fails to put any of the events in a clear context. And then there is the horrific dialogue making people talk to each other as if they are reciting a book. It's so stiff and dry to watch.

This could've been a beautiful movie, but it just isn't.