Victoria

As a Berlin native (and around the same age as the protagonists) I really sunk into this movie. The endless club nights, the locations, the expats, the shitty drunk English conversations, even the childish nagging between Sonne, Boxer, Blinker and Fuss hit home. For me it was wonderful to see how "accurate" these characters were displayed, since I now at least one real person that fits each character.

Now, I'm not just giving this movie a pass for that alone. Amazingly, most of the dialogue was improvised, which is an achievement for itself, but also adds to the realism of the characters. And listen guys, the whole movie is ONE SINGLE SHOT! That's right. You will witness a +2 hour movie with countless changing locations and improvised dialogue. And I haven't even talked about the score. Nils Frahm knows what he is doing when changing techno with slow pace ambient.

While I agree that in between the pace of the movie is slow, it never took me out of the movie. The story, while being nothing special, lives through the characters and cinematic style.

If you have the chance to witness this movie in the theaters, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

One of the best 2015 releases (the best of those I've seen at least), Victoria is a complete surprise - a little-known team hits it out of the park ... by a few miles. Much has been said about the one-take "gimmick" - trust me, whoever calls this a gimmick can not have seen Victoria. The way the camera moves, breathes and lives with the protagonists (ultra-realistic play here and perfect casting) is simply outstanding. It's a small, actually a stupid crime story; the protagonists are all drunk and/or high (and not too bright in the beginning, except the titular Victoria) - a bit like a Coen story, but where the Coens prefer an ironic, satirical approach - always keeping that little distance between watcher and screen - Victoria draws us right in from minute one and only lets go in the last 15 seconds. You can't lean back and smile about the crazy, idiotic antics of those wannabe small-time gangsters, no, you're right in there with them and have to suffer through every bad decision with them. And on the other hand, it's also a tender getting-in-love story (of a kind) - and the same applies: As much as you'd like to shout at Victoria: "Step back, girl! This guy and his friends are BAD NEWS!! Don't get involved!!!" - you can't do that, because, you know, the neighbors might hear ... you have to live and suffer through those more than 2 hours with them.

This is what movie-making is all about.

A night out alone for a Spanish immigrant, in a nightclub drinking shots she meets some guys she may lament, as they grab her by the hand and in one take she is enraptured, everything that she then does is caught on film, one piece all captured. On the streets over two hours where the past recalls a debt, a modest bank transaction to acquire, seek out and get, best laid plans do not turn out to be effective or thought through, it's not long before the state is chasing, running, lights on blue.

Wonderful performances all round, in a film that takes your breath away with what it seeks to achieve, and ultimately does spectacularly.

When I saw the trailer of Victoria I was really interested in the movie, because I am a fan of Sebastian Schipper, who directed also "Absolute Giganten", one of the best German movies in recent years. German cinema had to struggle in the last years, too many movies about the German past or really bad and soulless comedies flooded the market. Only really few risks were taken and some of them were pretty good E.g. "Zeit der Kannibalen", but for the most part they sucked.

So...there comes Victoria, a movie by a experienced director, with (for the most part) unknown faces in the cast, a really small crew and shot in a single take in a night in Berlin. Latter is something truly unconventional for a German film, so I went into the theater expecting a good unconventional German movie.

What I got was a masterpiece. Victoria is not only the best German movie in years, but (IMHO) the best movie of the year yet. The tracking shot in the movie isn't only there for effect and a showcase of the cinematographers talent, but a essential part of the films main story, that unfolds around a Spanish girl named Victoria, that meets a bunch of "real Berlin guys", so they call themselves, in the middle of the night. You experience the story of Victoria in real time, you see live character development for instance.

That, the down to earth acting and plot make the movie so incredibly immersive that it becomes something completely new and fresh, which is incredibly rare in recent years. I don't want to give away more about the plot, so I'll talk about the acting. The acting in this movie is fantastic, the dialogue is actually completely improvised, so that the actors, especially the fantastic Laia Costa and Frederick Lau, become these characters in those 140 minutes and it feels real. It feels like they are actual existing persons.

The cinematography is brilliant, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen does a fantastic job in accompanying the main characters and even if there are some shaky parts, which was expected, its never annoying and the viewer becomes the camera. Another aspect of this movie that I adored was the soundtrack. It was perfectly suited in supporting the atmosphere and hypnotic.

I left the theater speechless, what happens in the final act will either throw you off, or you will be completely exhilarated. Either way: Watch this movie and support movies with original concepts, only like this we will continue to get better movies than the usual dog**** from Hollywood and co.

Victoria is a truly exhilarating masterpiece and the first time I felt like watching a new kind of cinema in a long time. Go and watch it. Its worth it.

I never really write reviews or tell anyone about the stuff I watch, but for Victoria, I just had to make an exception

I was never so drawn into a movie before, it was amazing. The characters act so natural you really feel like you are experiencing this night with them for real. No 3D or any fancy stuff that movies do today can draw you into a film this much.

Sometimes during the movie - because all the location changes are perfect - I wondered how much time since the beginning of the movie has passed in "their world" - and then it came to me! You are with them all along, there is no timeskip, no narrating, nothing that could put your focus away from whats important:

The five characters and that fateful night.

I tell everyone I meet that they should go watch this movie: once this has been to a few more filmfestivals and stuff, there is no doubt that it will become a massive hit. I think this movie even surpasses "the life of the others" and I definitely would recommend it as one of the best German movies I know.