Slumming

I think it's brilliant that we don't get to know Sebastian that much. It focuses our attention to what is, what's going on and so on. We get to know Sebastian here and now. And that way kind of who he really is. For example, he dose not show his true self when he is chat dating, he never tells them what he does. He dose not say anything, really. So sort of we do get to know him better than most others.

This film totally flipped me over by the end of it. It was exciting to follow the whole time, but it was the end of it that impressed me. It's got the sneaky result of the development of the persons. It's hard to comment without ruining for others who has not watched it yet. But I can say it's the connection between the voice in the beginning and the voice at the end of the film, that really got to me. It's got a beautiful connection between two persons who we thought were so unlike..

The movie is excellent because it has a great direction, a genius screenplay and Paulus Manker as the homeless "Kallmann".

The other actors are good as well - and, what is very important, very natural and credible (some street scenes were filmed with real pedestrians) - but without Paulus Manker, who could be believed as a real homeless, because he liked his role that much (as i just mentioned, in some street scenes he is the only actor beside unsuspecting pedestrians who he shouts at), what we can see and enjoy when watching the movie - the film would miss its heart.

The direction and the screenplay work optimal. The film is not boring at any moment, but it is also not overloaded. The film scores also with spontaneous jokes and punchlines. Very funny scenes happen at the farm in the Czech Republic (and not only at the farm - the whole part of the movie in Czech Republic is very funny, because "Kollmann" speaks no czech, and the czechs don't speak German), where the farmer and his family wonder why austrians suddenly emigrate to the czech republic (in history it has always been the other direction).

One of the best and ambitious austrian movies of the last years - at least of this year.

Its a movie for the critics and the audience as well - thats what it makes a very special work.

Two guys with too much time and too much money on their hands pass their time by pulling pranks on people. It all starts fairly innocent, but eventually it goes worse and then from worse to evil. And of course, at that point everything comes down on them at once.

Slumming is a slow film that grows on you. At first it is hard not to chuckle at the pranks they play, but eventually it is hard not to dislike the two. It is also a film with more than one story line and one that plays those out rather well. The stories do have a clear common ground and where and when they connect they do it right.

As the film rolls on the characters all go through their changes - some small, some life changing. And all changes are understandable and believable.

The scenery is partly Vienna/Austria, partly some small city in the Tjech republic. The mixture of the two is nice - because of the great differences between the two.

So, all in all, it works out pretty well. It reminded me a lot of films like Funny Games (1997, Michael Haneke), and it really wasn't half bad. Still misses out on a few things, although I've got trouble putting a clear finger on what exactly is missing.

7 out of 10 young adults with rotten attitudes.

I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Suppose your life and surroundings are changed and it affects how you see and want to change your life? Two of the films characters find this out. One on an unwitting journey to the Czech border and another on a journey to Jakarta, Indonesia. Sebastian (August Diehl) is a 20-something yuppie from a wealthy family in Vienna who enjoys discovering the seediest bars in Vienna and rating them along with his friend Alex (Michael Ostrowski) who also enjoys meeting women on the internet and taking up skirt pictures with his cell phone. Kallman (Paulus Manker) is a down and out poet and intellectual who has fallen into an alcoholic binge and is selling poems on the street and stealing for drinking money. Passed out on a park bench he is picked up and dropped off at a Czech border town by Sebastian and his reluctant partner Alex. Pia (Pia Hierzegger) who is a school teacher and Sebastian's latest girlfriend learns of what they did and sets out with one of Kallman's lady friend drinking buddies (Maria Bill) to bring Kallman back to Vienna. This is a black comedy and a drama about redemption with a fine performance from Manker as the central character. Director/writer Michael Glawogger directs in a story he co wrote with Barbara Albert who is also a writer/director. It's worth a look and I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.

Sebastian is bored. He gets his kicks playing real life "games" with unsuspecting people; openly speculating on the lives of strangers in front of them, scheduling multiple chat dates a day. His life changes when he crosses paths with a quick-witted school teacher and a schizophrenic street poet.

The act of slumming, didn't seem to have much to do with the main character of Sebastian. He is just bored with his life and is searching for some meaning within it. Unfortunately, their is ZERO back story provided to explain why he feels/acts the way he does to total strangers or why he makes certain choices. Which left me feeling no connection to him during or after the film.

Good first act, good acting, and amazing locales help this film, everything else...?