Slumming

Sebastian and Alex are two non-working rich and bored guys who mostly hang around bars in Vienna, meeting women they met on the internet and taking photos of them underneath the table. Once they meet a totally drunk bum, put him in a car and leave him in the middle of nowhere...

In my opinion it is a quite mediocrity movie, the idea itself is good - about guys who make pranks and practical jokes just for fun but personally I got bored few times while watching. What lifts the movie above total mediocrity is the acting of Paulus Manker (Kallman) whose role of an alcoholic was so convincing, without exaggerating, very realistic. As the actor said himself, he really was drunk sometimes while making the movie.

And for the end a quote from a poem, Kallman wrote: "MEIN NAME IST ANGST!"

Sebastian is a snotty-rich thirty-something in Vienna. He, with the help of an enlisted comrade and roommate, Alex, wanders around the city in his Lexus, stirring up trouble. Most evenings are meetings with ladies from the Internet dating sites, with Sebastian setting them up like ducks at an arcade, only to shoot them down. One night, he and Alex come upon a passed-out drunken poet, sleeping on a bench in front of the train station. Always out for a lark, where there are no rules, Sebastian decides to put the man in his car's trunk and drive him across the border into the Czech Republic. There, he and Alex leave the unfortunate gentleman on a bench in front of the much smaller train station. What fun it is, to imagine the startled man when he awakes from his boozed-up state, in a country not his own! Sebastian has also met Pia, a pretty young teacher, and seems somewhat smitten and vice versa. That is, until he spills the beans about his little "joke" on the poor poet. Suddenly, everything is in turmoil. What lessons will be learned by each player in this little drama? This is a sharp look at the modern existence, in the richest societies, between the haves and the have-nots. Sebastian is so rich and yet so despicable in his misuse of his wealthy circumstances, a la Paris Hilton and clones. Pia is the model of the working middle class and the poet is down on life's bottom shelf. All of the actors do an amazingly nice job in their respective roles. The scenery is to die for, as most of us will never hop-skip to Austria or the Czech border. The costumes, production and direction are very fine, also, resulting in little scenes that make big impacts. Just watch Pia and her class twirl around the room in bird beaks and wings or see the poet come face to face with a little fawn and you will be enchanted. By no means will you be slumming, if you select this foreign film for an evening of diversion. It has a diverting story and some powerful messages to ponder upon, long after one pushes the rewind button.

Two guys with too much time and too much money on their hands pass their time by pulling pranks on people. It all starts fairly innocent, but eventually it goes worse and then from worse to evil. And of course, at that point everything comes down on them at once.

Slumming is a slow film that grows on you. At first it is hard not to chuckle at the pranks they play, but eventually it is hard not to dislike the two. It is also a film with more than one story line and one that plays those out rather well. The stories do have a clear common ground and where and when they connect they do it right.

As the film rolls on the characters all go through their changes - some small, some life changing. And all changes are understandable and believable.

The scenery is partly Vienna/Austria, partly some small city in the Tjech republic. The mixture of the two is nice - because of the great differences between the two.

So, all in all, it works out pretty well. It reminded me a lot of films like Funny Games (1997, Michael Haneke), and it really wasn't half bad. Still misses out on a few things, although I've got trouble putting a clear finger on what exactly is missing.

7 out of 10 young adults with rotten attitudes.

I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Suppose your life and surroundings are changed and it affects how you see and want to change your life? Two of the films characters find this out. One on an unwitting journey to the Czech border and another on a journey to Jakarta, Indonesia. Sebastian (August Diehl) is a 20-something yuppie from a wealthy family in Vienna who enjoys discovering the seediest bars in Vienna and rating them along with his friend Alex (Michael Ostrowski) who also enjoys meeting women on the internet and taking up skirt pictures with his cell phone. Kallman (Paulus Manker) is a down and out poet and intellectual who has fallen into an alcoholic binge and is selling poems on the street and stealing for drinking money. Passed out on a park bench he is picked up and dropped off at a Czech border town by Sebastian and his reluctant partner Alex. Pia (Pia Hierzegger) who is a school teacher and Sebastian's latest girlfriend learns of what they did and sets out with one of Kallman's lady friend drinking buddies (Maria Bill) to bring Kallman back to Vienna. This is a black comedy and a drama about redemption with a fine performance from Manker as the central character. Director/writer Michael Glawogger directs in a story he co wrote with Barbara Albert who is also a writer/director. It's worth a look and I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.

Sebastian is bored. He gets his kicks playing real life "games" with unsuspecting people; openly speculating on the lives of strangers in front of them, scheduling multiple chat dates a day. His life changes when he crosses paths with a quick-witted school teacher and a schizophrenic street poet.

The act of slumming, didn't seem to have much to do with the main character of Sebastian. He is just bored with his life and is searching for some meaning within it. Unfortunately, their is ZERO back story provided to explain why he feels/acts the way he does to total strangers or why he makes certain choices. Which left me feeling no connection to him during or after the film.

Good first act, good acting, and amazing locales help this film, everything else...?