Lulu und Jimi (2009) Reviews

• Something Got Lost in the Translation

  ArizWldcat2009-02-15

  This was one of the first movies we saw at Sundance, 2009, and one of the most disappointing. It follows the story of a young black man in Germany in the 50s (or possibly the 60s), and a rich white girl. They fall madly in love, and that should have been enough for a good story. But the girl's mother is a loony Nazi sympathizer who brings in a "Dr. Mengele" type to drug the girl. Just seemed weird weird, weird. The actor who played the lead did a good job with what he was given, but his English accent was awkward (he is British, we found out afterward, which would explain that).. Some people from Germany sat behind us and said that the movie was much funnier in German, so either, something needs to be done about the subtitles, or a reworking of them might help.

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• Weirdness and quirkiness

  Horst_In_Translation2017-03-30

  "Lulu und Jimi" is a German 90-minute movie from 2009, so two more years and this one will have its 10th anniversary. The writer and director here is Oskar Roehler and it is one of his more recent works. But sadly, it is also one his worse efforts. The only area where the film is somewhat convincing is the visual side with the bold colors and sets and I am fine with it receiving a German Film Award nomination for its cinematography. This film may suffer from some problems that i have also seen in other films. One example would be that there are only 100% good and 100% bad characters really. Now here, it is somewhat justifiable as the over-the-topness with which it is all depicted makes it somehow bearable, almost in a way of Helena Bonham Carter's Evil Queen for example. Anyway, in terms of the story I was never convinced. I know this was not intended as a typical romantic love story, but the bizarre approach Roehler gave it here is certainly not for everybody including me. This also includes the forces working against this love story (so basically everybody), especially the mother, driver etc. and the ways they use injections on the girl. Now in terms of the acting, Jennifer Decker and Ray Fearon felt very gimmicky, especially Decker, from start to finish. This may be partially due to bad dubbing. I guess both were dubbed for the German-language parts (so everything except the singing), but it did not work out at all. Others may beg to differ as the way Decker's character was talking fit her character and performance somewhat nicely, but the problem is that I object to her character and performance in general. Of course, realism was probably the last thing the film was going for, but all this quirkiness was hard to bear. If you believe Zooey Deschanel was bad, then you have not seen Jennifer Decker. Maybe she is better in other stuff and I am being too harsh on her, but the idea I am getting from this film here is really extremely embarrassing. As for Fearon, he was very forgettable ultimately and also felt lackluster on several occasions, which is an absolute deal-breaker here for the negative of course. I also object to the really stereotypical scenes about racism. They do not go under the surface at all and are just randomly thrown in for purposes of shocking and entertaining the audience at the same time. This is not how you depict antagonists if you are trying to make a film that offers depth in its plot and characters. Overall, I think Roehler has some good and some bad films in his body of work. This one here is certainly among the latter. Final note: Don't be fooled by the poster here on IMDb. This is not a comedy, but downright drama. Music is solid without ever becoming outstanding, but that's it. Don't watch.

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• There was ONE good scene in this movie...

  vixenviewer2009-11-22

  ...when Jimi points out that the War (WWII) was fought to make everybody free from racism/xenophobia and made a guy apologize for a racist comment he made to Lulu. The acting was good, and both protagonists were attractive and fairly believable in their roles. I liked the controlling mother, though showing the father's self-castration was a bit over-the-top. In general, I agree with the first poster that this movie was weird, and I was actually nauseous from the gunfire, blood, fight scenes, and views of hypodermic needles by the end of the movie. Also, as an American, I was hoping to see a German movie, and there was all this English dialogue, American music, and American cars in the movie, which spoiled the experience for me.

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• Annoyances

  rnussle2009-11-22

  There were several things that were anachronisms, most notably the movie took place (supposedly) in 1959 and yet the girl was driving a Mercedes 230SL which wasn't manufactured until 1963. He sang the Temptations song "My Girl" which wasn't written and performed until 1965. The subtitled version I saw had the translation close to what was said in German. I don't know if the Sundance version the other reviewer saw had the same subtitling or not. On the whole I felt the film had a director, but no direction. If it was trying to make a point it was lost on me. It also seemed that the writer wanted to embrace too many genres: Romance, comedy, fantasy, mystery, social consciousness, and a smattering of crime drama and adventure. At best it held my attention by always posing the question "what next?" I'll be kind and say it was interesting - and not bad.

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