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New Siegfried?
Emilio Sakraya as Xatar in »Rheingold«
Photo: Gordon Timpen / Warner Bros.
In cinemas from October 27th:
»Rheingold«
In the beginning it's there, that violence and intensity that make up Fatih Akin's best films, »Gegen die Wand« or »The Cut«.
The German-Kurd Giwar Hajabi (Emilio Sakraya), who fled from the police to Iraq, is being interrogated by the police in a shabby prison: The young man, known today as Xatar, one of the most successful German rap producers, has been involved in a robbery captured a pile of gold.
To this day it is not known where it ended up.
The Iraqis are keen too.
The only gold he owns, says Hajabi to the officer and grins and points into his mouth, sits in this filling.
Shortly thereafter, a guard brutally operated on his molar tooth out of his jaw.
This is how »Rheingold«, the film adaptation of Xatar's biography, begins.
It is Akin's »Good Fellas«, a homage to the Italo-American immigrant epics adapted to German conditions, in which the ascent to social recognition in the majority society always has to take the detour of crime.
The film takes a lot of time for an exciting build - before it falls apart.
The bloody opening sequence is followed by a no less shocking look back into the past.
After Khomeini's revolution, Hajabi's Kurdish parents, who live as educated artists in Iran, are pushed into the militant resistance.
A scene in which the mullahs storm a concert given by Hajabi's father, a famous conductor, and shoot indiscriminately is almost unbearable in their violence.
Unbeknownst to Akin, it also reflects the current protests in Iran, the painful experiences of all those who flee war and repression to Germany - no matter what part of the world they come from.
It is all the more regrettable that »Rheingold« lets these strong, politically vibrating motifs hang, the more he devotes himself to the chronologically told story of Xatar's childhood and youth in Bonn.
His becoming a gangster in Amsterdam is then traced with the necessary violence and the usual mafia rituals.
The meticulous, at the same time very amusing and fast-paced re-enactment of the gold robbery takes up the largest part of the film, which is quite long at almost two and a half hours.
It works in a catchy Guy Ritchie way, but Akin sacrifices the "Head-on" intensity for a key shift towards his Hamburg "Soul Kitchen" slapstick.
Above that »Rheingold« loses its rhythm.
Too much falls by the wayside: the Wagner allegory that was carefully installed at the beginning, character depths, the everyday heaviness of the immigrant existence as well as Hajabi's ultimately puzzling motivation to become a musician and to function as part of bourgeois society.
"Hey, I have the opportunity to create new German mythology," Fatih Akin said in a recent interview.
That's right: Immigrant German rappers as morally ambiguous heroes of a new Nibelungen saga, that's a daring, insanely complex idea!
But there are probably good reasons why even Richard Wagner made four parts out of it.
Andrew Borcholte
»Rheingold« D/I/NL 2022. Written and directed by Fatih Akin.
With Emilio Sakraya, Mona Pirzad, Ilyes Raoul, Sogol Faghani.
138 minutes
»Bodies Bodies Bodies«
Even when everything gets out of control in the creepy mansion, the characters still insult each other in a Generation Z-compliant manner.
"You trigger me," it says.
Or: »Your parents are from the upper middle class.« Director Halina Reijns accompanies a group of twenty-somethings who want to party at David's (Pete Davidson) parents' house.
Coked up, they start late in the evening with a board game in which the participants have to catch an imaginary murderer chosen by lot.
When the power goes out in the obligatory thunderstorm, there are suddenly real deaths and a bad atmosphere between the twenty-somethings, who are actually at odds with each other.
Gloomy dark violet club atmosphere dominates the film's images, which are repeatedly intersected by smartphone lights and glowing neon rings, echoes of slasher films such as "Scream" meet the aesthetics of "Euphoria".
In the background sound fragments of the title track by Charli XCX also thunder.
The screenplay – which is based on a story by the author Kristen Roupenian, who became famous through the viral short story »Cat Person« – develops a largely exciting and funny confusion.
Rachel Sennott is brilliant in the role of podcaster Alice, while Lee Pace is wonderful as her Tinder date Greg, who is murdered with a kettlebell in the gym.
With a good cast and a clever plot, Reijn's film cleverly disguises an all-too-wanted youthfulness.
Benjamin Stolz
»Bodies Bodies Bodies« USA 2022. Director: Halina Reijns.
Book: Sarah DeLappe.
With Pete Davidson, Rachel Sennott, Lee Pace.
94 minutes.
»Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer«
Finding images that have not yet been seen in the cinema, this spirit of discovery has driven director Werner Herzog again and again.
And he probably never lacked the self-confidence that he would succeed.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday at the beginning of September, his work was honored in detail, and an exhibition in the Berlin Kinemathek is showing his work, which includes over 70 films and some great literary works, until the end of March.
In his documentary, the German writer and filmmaker Thomas von Steinaecker portrays Herzog as a "radical dreamer" who measured himself against forces of nature such as volcanoes, raging rivers or Klaus Kinski in order to capture life in all its wildness and unpredictability.
Listening to Herzog talk about his work and his principles is enlightening and funny, even moving at times.
Visiting a place from his childhood, he wipes tears from his face.
Of course he wouldn't cry with emotion, he says.
Many celebrities pay tribute to Herzog in the film - from Patti Smith to Wim Wenders, from Nicole Kidman to Christian Bale.
Less would have been enough to convince the audience what a great guy he is.
Instead, one would like to see more documentaries showing Herzog - already in the 1960s - at work on his films.
It's almost as if he knew early on that if he turned the camera on himself, he could capture the life of a great artist.
Lars Olav Beier
»Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer«, Germany/USA 2022. Director: Thomas von Steinaecker.
With Nicole Kidman, Patti Smith, Christian Robert Pattinson, Wim Wenders.
102 minutes.
"bros"
The new film by comedian Billy Eichner and veteran director Nicholas Stoller is based on romantic comedies such as »E-Mail für dich« or »Schlaflos in Seattle«.
The standards of these romcoms include: a couple who dress properly before admitting their love, priceless apartments, and postcard images of New York at Christmas.
»Bros« also has all of this to offer.
However, the film makes one important change: The focus is on the successful gay podcaster Bobby (Eichner, also co-author of the film).
He struggles with whether down-to-earth paralegal Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) is right for him.
Because he has a concave chest, Bobby doesn't take his shirt off at the club.
Aaron, on the other hand, confidently presents his mountains of muscles - and Bobby can't help but look.
With his quick wit and his sense of humor, he finally manages to land with Aaron.
But one uncertainty remains: how happy can you be knowing you're not your partner's type?
By Hollywood standards, »Bros« addresses gay ideals of beauty, chemsex or promiscuity in an unusually direct manner.
In fact, the film is the first major US mainstream production in which all of the main characters are played by queer people and none die or are rejected by their parents.
Things have changed in the entertainment business, or as 40-year-old Bobby puts it when he talks about younger queers: »We had to deal with AIDS.
They have 'Glee'.« Otherwise, the story is unfortunately very lame due to its formulaic nature.
But that's hard to blame for a movie dreaming up a gay dating app called Zellweger.
Hannah Pilarczyk
»Bros« USA 2022. Director: Nicholas Stoller.
Book: Billy Eichner, Nicholas Stoller.
Starring: Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane, Miss Lawrence, TS Madison, Dot-Marie Jones, Amanda Bearse.
115 minutes
In streaming
Raymond & Ray (on Apple TV+)
Raymond (Ewan McGregor) and Ray (Ethan Hawke) are grieved when their father dies.
The beating patriarch spoiled the childhood of the half brothers.
His last wish: the sons, with whom he has not had any contact for years, should attend his funeral and dig his grave.
Ray first tries to comfort his distraught brother: »You don't have to go there.
He's dead. He'll never know."
But the power that the father had over them still works from the afterlife, Raymond and Ray submit.
By the time the body is buried, the brothers will be at each other's throats, fall in love again, meet family members with artistic talents, and unravel the mystery that was their father.
Apple's streaming service often shows feature films that deal with difficult subjects without being too much of a burden for the viewer - with the deaf drama "Coda" Apple TV+ recently even won the Oscar for best film.
»Raymond & Ray« wants to tell a similarly entertaining story about the burdens of a difficult childhood in adult life.
The Colombian director and screenwriter Rodrigo García loosens up the material with laconic dialogues and quirky gags.
But McGregor and Hawke's great game suggests that emotional trauma isn't funny at all.
Oliver Kaever
»Raymond & Ray«, USA 2022. Written and directed by Rodrigo García.
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ethan Hawke, Maribel Verdu.
100 minutes