Lola + Bilidikid

Don't get me wrong, I liked Lola + Bilidikid. But I think it could have been a lot better. I find that the movie is not always very convincing. Yes, you're troubled and disturbed by the movie but you're left with a sour taste. What I liked the most was the way that the movie shows the daily life of the gay culture in Berlin and the difficult integration of the immigrants in the modern Germany.

7 out of 10.

This film accomplishes what it sets out to do, and it does so in a beautiful way. Not everyone can know what it feels like to be Turkish in Germany, and this movie communicates that feeling without sacrificing the feeling of being within the lives of the people it's about. Why do so few films achieve this?

Within its specificity, you also discover its universality. How many immigrants of color (from all over the world) in white-dominated countries (all over the world) will see something of themselves in this film? This film has the feel of a classic.

I know some people may feel the film is too depressing, or too dependent on gratuitous violence and on queer stereotypes that many of us may want to push into the past. Maybe we can reflect on the possibility that the stereotypes we may want to avoid aren't really a thing of the past, and the depression and violence the film refers to is quite real and current.

I'm not one for plot summaries; so I will get right to the point. Find this movie. Whatever you do...just find it! Beautifully photographed, excellently acted, brilliantly directed, "Lola and Billy the Kid" (U.S. video release title) is a deeply affecting movie that gives us a rare glimpse into the gay-Turkish subculture of modern Berlin and introduces us to characters who -- though they may be far removed from ourselves -- are heartbreakingly real, utterly dynamic, and upliftingly human. The Suddendeutche Zeitung said this movie "has a touch of West Side Story and a pinch of Rebel Without a Cause." It is a very accurate statement. As one who tries to see every gay-themed film out there, I can honestly say that Lola jumps to the top of the list... a well-crafted, brilliant piece of filmmaking that is not only one of the best gay-themed films I've see, but also one of the best films of any genre I've come across. Like "My Beautiful Laundrette," Lola made me laugh, made me cry, and made me want to know more about the subculture and racial dynamics it represents.

Does anyone really need to see movies with gratuitous violence (a gay pimp cutting off a straight boy's genitals) or incest? The writer combined too many story threads trying to create a real shocker. This movie is terrble and truly a waste of money.

Excinting labyrinth of desires, illusions and freedom's skin. Exploration of ambiguous universe and many questions about facts, gestures or games without end. Fall from artificial paradises and slices of original silence. Bones of old wars and innocence of long expectation.

It is a cruel trip in a harsh way of life. Expresion of special search and everyday lost. It is interesting the relation of characters with Turkish memories. The image of run, the limits of refuge, the routine and the dialogs, the touch of disappointed and the hope of a chimeric future.

In fact, the atmosphere of "Lola + Bilidikid" is the same like in latest Romanians movies ("Stare de fapt", "Marfa si banii", "Pepe si Fifi", Prea tarziu", "Terminus Paradis"). Same moral crisis, same disillusion, same stupid games, same torpor.

But the essence of film is the search of Murat. Hero of Dostoievsky, he lives beyond the secrets or lies. He is projection of his personal discoveries and for him the dreams are more that fiction. He hopes.