Learning life's lesson the hard way. Poor guy. Niko is having a really bad day. All he wants is a ##$$%% cup of coffee, and his day just keeps worse and worse. Looks like he's not getting his driver's license back, his father has shut off his bank account for being a slacker, and he gets busted for not having a ticket for the subway. Grainy, gritty black and white photography of Berlin. Tom Schilling does a great job of showing us a pretty rough day in one man's life. Really quite good at showing us all the issues that weigh on him, but he keeps on trucking. The rough day turns into a bad night, but then... when morning comes, we are given just a smidge of hope. Directed by Jan Ole Gerster. He had only done a couple things prior to this, but does a fine job. The music is eerie in the right places. Not too much talking. We see a lot just observing. One of the characters, an old man he bumps into at the coffee shop goes into a long tirade talking about Kristallnacht, and how it affected him as a small child. That went on for quite a long time, but this IS a film about Berlin, so clearly someone thought it was important to include here. Good stuff.
Review of A Coffee in Berlin
