Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Crazy" is a German 95-minute movie from 2000, so this one is already over 15 years old. It is among the most known works of writer and director Hans-Christian Schmid and he got many actors in here that will be recognized immediately by German film buffs. This includes Stadlober, Klaußner, Schilling, Manzel, Müller-Elmau, Hummer, Herfurth (very first career performance) and Lara, maybe others too. As this film is already approaching the two-decade mark, most of these were still pretty young at that point. The film won several awards and score more nominations, also at the German Film Awards where it was picked as one of the three best movies of the year. I cannot share this praise though. The film's biggest strength is realism. It does not try to depict a world or a life that always results in happy endings. It shows struggles and successes at the same time. All the characters are flawed and fight their own problems, even the minor characters. It is probably Stadlober's career-defining performance so far and this film turned him into a bit of a star that he hes not stayed until today. But Bravo etc. were all crazy for him back then. So yeah, I personally do not see great range or talent in him, so I am not surprised by the path his career took. And his character was also a major problem for me here in this film. There is so much emphasis on his disability really, but honestly nobody really hated him because of that or discriminated against him. It's tough to feel for 'him I think when (apart from one scene maybe) there is no discrimination at all. Same can be said about Schilling's character. I personally found him really unlikable and I find it difficult to understand that we should cheer for his friendship to the protagonist with all the mean stuff he does to everybody around him. All in all, I felt Schmid was pretty focused on writing human characters with flaws and he somewhat managed to hide the flaws this film has at the very same time and sometimes it feels like they are as justified as the imperfect characters.As for the story, this is the tale of a teenager who struggles with school, especially maths, but much more struggles with lack of acceptance. At least that's how he feels it is. This also includes his relationship with girls and you can wonder if he will get the girl of his dreams or if he will succeed and make it to the next grade. Just remember: realism is king in here. Anyway, another problem I had with the film is how the character interacts effortlessly and in such a self-confident manner on many occasions, even with the girl he has a crush on. I think it did not fit the struggling, shy, introvert character that the protagonist was depicted as early on. But that's just my personal perception. Same goes for the cookie wanking scene. I found it really gross to be honest. I am not sure how realistic it is if people really do stuff like that at the age of 16 or so. I know I didn't. But maybe it's just me and here again my dislike is entirely of a subjective nature. Overall, I think none of the performances or the script wowed me at all and I feel the negative outweighs the positive. I cannot agree with the awards attention the film received or with the IMDb rating here. Thumbs down from me and I don't recommend it.
