Stereo
A seemingly reformed gangster has to take a long, hard look at himself in this ingenious and hallucinatory German thriller.
- Director Maximilian Erlenwein
- Producers Alexander Bickenbach, Manuel Bickenbach, Khaled Kaissar
- Screenwriter Maximilian Erlenwein
- With Jürgen Vogel, Moritz Bleibtreu, Petra Schmidt-Schaller
- Germany 2014
- 95 mins
- Sales Beta Cinema GmbH
German genre cinema gets an adrenaline shot to the cranium from Maximilian Erlenwein’s second feature, a stylish psychological thriller that gives the gangster-in-retirement trope an hallucinatory spin. Jürgen Vogel stars as Erik, a rough-edged biker dude living out in the country with his girlfriend Julia (Petra Schmidt-Schaller) and her young daughter. Life is sweet for the former city rat, until one day he encounters a hooded figure named Henry (Moritz Bleibtreu) who may or may not be a figment of his imagination. This coincides with the arrival of another stranger, this one certainly real, who tells Erik that he knows his true identity and that unless Erik helps him, he will reveal his whereabouts to an underworld kingpin who wants him dead. The ensuing drama fuses mystery and mischief in a film that wears its influences – Fincher, Cronenberg, Refn – on its sleeve but keeps its characters one step ahead of the audience.
Damon Wise
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