Oh Boy - 24 heures à Berlin

I did not expect to laugh. Germans aren't famousd for their sense of humour but I could not help laughing out loud a few times. Some scenes were so cringy it turned out to be the only appropriate response.

Nothing really happens during the movie : the main protagonist just goes on to live his meaningless life and interacts with a few broken people. Yet the sountrack, the script and the acting make for a fun and light drama if such a thing is possible.

So much better than « Oslo 31 août » even though both movies could be summed up in the same way: 24 hours in the life of a priviledged young man who wanders in a capital city, and whose existence got sidetracked a few years ago.

Despite these similarities, and despite the fact that the Norwegian version is melodramatic, the German one turns out to be more realistic and even more profound. Niko is more relatable and likable while Anders wallows in self-pity and selfishness.

"Oh Boy" is a special movie and a very German one too. We follow the protagonist Niko Fischer, played by a superb Tom Schilling, through an entire day in vernal Berlin. This day is filled with several episodes in which director Jan-Ole Gerster manages to portrait the various aspects of life in modern Berlin - whether its the Kafkaesque bureaucracy one has to deal with on a daily basis or the never-ending struggle to find normality in the midst of hipsterdom and self-proclaimed avantgarde attitude which makes Berlin so popular amongst party people all over the world.

What is more, Gerster even succeeds to weave Germany's grim past into the story-line by reminding the viewer every now and then how pointless and redundant many aspects of our lives are in comparison with the unatoned horrors committed by Germans on their own turf and all over Europe.

Niko Fischer can be seen as the conscience of those of us who cannot help but deal with what it means to live in Germany and be a German on a daily basis. It might be even difficult to understand the movie in its wholeness for a foreigner as it is with literature by Hesse or Kafka, authors that largely contributed to this piece by making hilarious absurdity and tragedy confluent. The club toilet scene with Niko's schoolmate is key here and has almost Freudian dimensions.

Anyhow, I highly recommend watching this film, last but not least because I tremendously identify with it.

As a German living abroad for the past 12 years, it's been a surprising pleasure to see, back in Berlin, this little jewel of a movie. Step by step the young guy's everyday-life situations pull you in, develop a light but melancholic atmosphere in which great acting, a pensive and funny script, music that reminds the best of Miles Davis and awesome black-and-white camera-work form a wonderful whole of a movie. If you see, towards the end, average shots of Berlin turned into looking poetic… you know the film has found its tone just on the right note.

Beautiful - I hope this (first!) film didn't only accidentally turn out so well. You want to wish the director, all actors and his crew the very best !

Whilst the nouvelle vague phenomenon continues in NY, it's seems Berlin, and Jan Ole Gerster actually has something to say.

At times comedic, at times serious, the writing is wonderfully wry and reminiscent of Woody Allen's darker moments. The tension between the black comedy and the underlying backdrop of Berlin's inescapable history is a knife edge Jan treads with the delicacy of a master.

Berlin looks fantastic in black and white, and the effortlessly understated cinematography and precise editing mean this film deserves all the hype that Frances Ha is getting and more.

Refreshing, and fresh this is an incredibly accomplished thesis film. And trust me, you can live without the trailer.

Oh Boy is somewhat reminiscent of Prozac Nation. The protagonist is an unlikable, spoilt child, leeching off others while breezing through life. It is an anti-"Coming of Age" film, showing how people refuse to "grow up" - even supposed adults. Niko's father is childish, his friend an underachieving actor and the former classmate he runs into is in a way still the little girl with a crush on him. It doesn't end there, even Germany itself refuses to "grow up", clinging to its Nazi past and sticking to absurd bureaucracy.

On top of having an amusing story, Oh Boy has lovely cinematography. Berlin looks great in black & white, and with the lazy jazzy soundtrack it sometimes seems like a 50s film. Quite a promising start from Gerster, who won just about every German film award around.