I have heard this movie was very cool, and I really hope that is so, because... well... We need as many cool movies as possible. Well onto the report...
Que tal, Harry. Living Tribunal reporting from Sundance again, this time with a review of RUN, LOLA, RUN. This German movie was like celluloid adrenaline injected directly into the eyeballs--and it was wonderful. The film, written and directed by Tom Tykwer starts at 1000mph and never lets up. But the movie doesn't bludgeon you into screaming "Oh, dear God, please release from this hell!" There's an entertaining story here. Memorable characters. Dialogue that is fun and truly witty.
So what is this story? Lola (played by Franka Potente who looks like a meatier Milla Jovovich) has a boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu, a scion of a famous German acting family). Manni owes $100,000 to a scary-looking gangster. In fact, the gangster will be by to pick it up in 20 minutes. Unfortunately, he left his bag of cash on a subway and some bum stole it. The rest of the movie is Lola and Manni trying to get the necessary money before the gangster shows up. This set up takes Tykwer and his crew about 120 seconds to set up.
I won't spoil the rest because Tykwer takes some crazy twists and turns which worked well for me because I was totally unprepared for them. Let me just say that the camera is almost never still. Tykwer uses slo-mo, fast-mo, animation, split screens, time jumps, flash frames (oftentimes depicting an entire person's life in 20 seconds), falshbacks and I don't know what all to incessant techno-thumping that will turn your brain into a fine purple paste. Don't worry about this sounding like a Valhalla Production. Tykwer is _not_ Michael Bay. This film is good. It is fun. The crowd ate it up. I gave it a five outta five on my ballot.
Sony Classics picked it up and will be releasing it in June (as if we didn't already have enough movies to look forward to this summer). There should be a soudntrack available around that time as well which is cool because the music was, well, cool.
Endearingly Yours,
Living Tribunal
