"Reine Geschmacksache" or "Fashion Victims" is a German 95-minute movie from 2007, so it has its 10th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Ingo Rasper and it his certainly his most known work. The cast does not really feature any of Germany's most known actors, but the likes of Slge, Bartholomäi, Krause, Schwarz, Walser and Kobus may at least be known to some. Also Fassbinder regular Irm Hermann plays a very small part. This one we have here is a comedy for the most part. There are several areas elaborated on in here. We have a dad who struggles with a new rising entrepreneur in his company and also with his son, who does not want to follow in his father's footsteps in terms of his career. The mother of the family is not really happy with the relationship and has her own problems. The son struggles with his sexuality and also with his new potential partner, who is actually the father's colleague that I mentioned earlier. So yeah, this is really a huge coincidence and honestly it takes away a lot of the realism here. There are more serious moments in here too, but they are all depicted from a comedy perspective, even when one character has a huge gun and seems to fire at other or when one almost drowns another character. It is pretty odd and these moments towards the end really did not help the film at all because it turns it into something that we call "Klamauk" here in Germany, which basically means spectacular showy stuff that is never authentic but just feels included for the sake of it.
This film is (if you look at the lists on the right here on IMDb) sometimes also called a gay(-themed) movie and I really hate that description, not just for this film, but also in general. Yes the homosexual relationship is one essential component, but you can also call this film a father-son movie, a job-related movie or a hetero-themed movie. But nobody does that. So why focus on sexual preference here (especially when the main argument for gays is always equality and they just want to be themselves instead of being seen as different) when there are so many more layers to this film here. Of course, I am not saying that these layers are elaborated on convincingly (many certainly aren't), but they are there and that is enough. The acting in this film is overall not too bad, but the story just lacks real authenticity and depth. Like I already said, "for the sake of it" or "style over substance" is a fitting description here. And the worst thing about it all was maybe Franziska Walser's character and performance. Looks like she got her own (gay-themed?) story in here as well and honestly, I could have done not only without this, but even without her character as a whole and with Selge's simply being a single dad. So yeah, overall, the bad outweighs the good for sure and I don't recommend checking it out. Thumbs down and this film is not half as funny as it tries to be.
This film is (if you look at the lists on the right here on IMDb) sometimes also called a gay(-themed) movie and I really hate that description, not just for this film, but also in general. Yes the homosexual relationship is one essential component, but you can also call this film a father-son movie, a job-related movie or a hetero-themed movie. But nobody does that. So why focus on sexual preference here (especially when the main argument for gays is always equality and they just want to be themselves instead of being seen as different) when there are so many more layers to this film here. Of course, I am not saying that these layers are elaborated on convincingly (many certainly aren't), but they are there and that is enough. The acting in this film is overall not too bad, but the story just lacks real authenticity and depth. Like I already said, "for the sake of it" or "style over substance" is a fitting description here. And the worst thing about it all was maybe Franziska Walser's character and performance. Looks like she got her own (gay-themed?) story in here as well and honestly, I could have done not only without this, but even without her character as a whole and with Selge's simply being a single dad. So yeah, overall, the bad outweighs the good for sure and I don't recommend checking it out. Thumbs down and this film is not half as funny as it tries to be.