Free Fall

Well, before we get into that, I'd like to preface this by saying that I find homosexuality cool and, in the words of Sergeant Hartmann, I don't care if someone is into girls or a filthy slimy faggot. Free Fallis just a bad movie and embodies all the dark corners of contemporary European art, in the pejorative sense. The main character is, again for tactical reasons, autistically disabled so the script can wag him around as much as it likes and in fact the only distinctive feature he has is his homosexuality. Apart from that he doesn't exist, and basically, rather than a look into the travails of gay self-discovery, the film is a probe into the world of a mentally challenged man who can't deal with the basic necessities of life, especially communication with those around him. It's completely unnecessary to embed the protagonist in the macho world of a police SWAT team, as this theme is not dealt with in any way beyond a gay man in any other "power" job, and in the same way the depiction of the breakdown of a traditional family as a result of discovering the protagonist's orientation fails, as the problem here is only built up by the fact that the protagonist can't manage two relationships at once. Last but not least, we have a homophobic work collective and family – both of them as if straight from a catalogue – who here serve as the bearers of the most severe homophobic clichés, regardless of the fact that reality has already progressed a bit beyond that point, simply because queer filmmakers need homophobes to make their art. How progressive Blue Is the Warmest Color suddenly looks... (12/10/2014)

Love relationships in the workplace (or training ground) never bode well, and if you add to that the fact that it is two men, one of whom has a pregnant girlfriend, there is certainly no shortage of strong and emotionally tense moments. I kept Free Fall in my drawer for quite a long time, and in doing so I was somewhat depriving myself of a believably written and acted film about love, family and a confused soul. Hanno Koffler handled the role of Marco in a really convincing way – Summer Storm was a comedic warm-up for him – while Max Riemelt and Katharina Schüttler were great seconds. I probably imagined the ending a bit differently, but I was still satisfied with the result. (22/11/2020)