Verrückt nach Fixi

There is nothing wrong about using a formula to make a movie.

It's how it is executed. "Verrückt nach Fixi" (Crazy about Fixi) is indeed a well crafted sweet movie about the usual stuff: friendship and girls. The fantastic part of it is merely a funny addition.

People may have rated this so low because they can't watch calm and understated movies anymore. The acting is natural and unpretentious, the humor lies often in the details, though it's not a laugh out loud comedy.

Fans of nerdy teen movies may want to give Fixi a chance.

This German teenage comedy movie is just very clichéd and plagiaristic. Ideas of American teenage comedy are torn out here in a very cheap way. The acting performances are surprisingly mediocre for the bad German conditions (which almost comes close to being "good") and the direction is simply generic. Every now and then the story is very sweet and the fact that the topic of sex finds a place without a woke treatment is now - 5 years later - hardly thought of anymore. It is precisely these last points that save "Crazy About Fixi" from a total crash. A good film is still a long way from being here.

Have we seen this before? In a movie you may recognize in my summary line? I think you can answer or at least guess the answer to my quite rhetorical question. That being said, the movie is light and fun. It does not take itself too seriosly and it does not try to be overly political correct.

And yes we do know most of the beats and twists that we are going to enjoy (hopefully) throughout the runtime. But the actors and the script give us exactly what is to be expected. Even when our main character behaves badly and can't see the truth right in front of him (to be fair, your sight probably is ... fixated on ... well Fixi), we can't really be mad at him. At least not to a degree where it is unforgivable.

This targets a specific audience and that audience will be satisfied - and while the bros before ... well anything else formula is the main selling point here, the performance from the woman who plays Fixi is really something. There's no denying her beauty, but the way she portrays the doll come to life thing ... just awesome.

There are some moral lessons to be learned of course, but they are not too on the nose and can be enjoyed with the comedy the movie serves them.