Opening 6 Aug 2015
Directed by:
Mark Monheim
Writing credits:
Mark Monheim, Martin Rehbock
Principal actors:
Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Heike Makatsch, Aurel Manthei, Simon Schwarz, Sandro Lohmann
This is a story ABOUT A GIRL who doesn’t want to grow up. Charleen is 15, melodramatic, and mega depressed. Her best friend Isa is getting really boring, her alki dad is out of the picture, and her mom has hooked up with her biology teacher. How awkward is that? At least she has a pretty cool apprenticeship preparing dead bodies for funerals. Her musical heroes Jimi and Kurt and Amy are all dead. It’s about time Charleen was, too. But she can’t even get suicide right, and now the adults are all freaked out. She has to sit through therapy with lame Dr. Frei, with his unusual methods. A social worker comes snooping around to see if her family life is stable, which of course it isn’t. Two bright spots in Charleen’s life are her Granny (whose Jimi is called Jesus) and a frickin’ genius named Linus. But when these relationships start to come apart, Charleen suddenly starts thinking about people besides herself.
About a Girl features a theatrically rebellious (and therefore 100% convincing) performance by Jasna Fritzi Bauer, who won the Bavarian Film Prize for Best Up-and-Coming Actress. Punctuated by indie rock tunes, this quirky teen movie will appeal to those of us who sometimes feel like killing ourselves, even though we don’t really mean it. (Brenda Benthien)
