Schwarze Schafe

8 reasons why this film is fantastic:

1 fantastic black humour

2 rad rock'n'roll soundtrack feat. king khan and BBQ show

3 it's black and white

4 the episodes are great and each one has the x factor - you could never decide which ones your favourite

5 its hilarious, even thinking of certain scenes makes me laugh

6 authentic acting - Marc Hosemann's nice ass

7 Böwe, Hosemann, Stadlober and Schilling at their best

8 overall: this film depicts Berlin in the truest way I've ever seen in a film (i was born, raised and spent my youth in this city)

This is dirty, filthy and frenzied cinema, with an array of cataclysmic characters, hell-bent on creating a modern cult classic. The foul-stench of comical entertainment pollutes the air, but smells of fresh originality. The film's five ludicrous story lines brings the viewer close encounters of the worst kind of Berlin inhabitants, including Satan worshippers, sexually-frustrated teenagers, a drunk lottery winner and a foulmouthed tour guide. The vulgarity of it all will prompt the odd nauseous belch from audience members, but the humour outweighs the crudeness and Oliver Rihs' black and white film blinds with comic crudity and colour. Black Sheep may not break the bank at the Box-Office, but it is almost certain to cause a stir in DVD sales.

I was curious about the movie since having seen some scenes on the official website. And these were brilliant and promising. But after having watched 15 minutes, I wondered whether this was going to be a parody or if the exaggerated clichés were meant to be plausible. Regrettably I still do wonder. There are a few scenes which - although they were predictable like everything in the movie - made me smile, but all in all it was too shallow to be sophisticated and too lame to be funny.

This movie could have been an interesting witty portrait of different subcultures in Berlin - of goths and heavy metal-heads, of gays, of life in social housing and of the 3rd migrant generation. Leaving out the scenes presented on the website only a superficial, longish trash-TV sketch remains.

No pun intended - I actually don't know how the saying came about - and it seems to translate into languages too. German and English for sure to name two languages that play a role here. You have Berlin - the location of the story and movie ... and the characters apparently are giving vibes that people who live there connect too. That said, I do think you do not have to live there to get the movie/story and the characters.

Liking them on the other hand? A different story - there are some really good actors involved in this - quite young but many of them made a career and if you follow and watch German productions ... well you probably will recognize some.

There is some nudity here too - even the last frame may shock those who can't handle some skin ... don't drown in that ... feeling (no pun intended). A weird drama with many stories to follow ... and full of surprises I reckon ... like life? Well not mine ... but then again ...

What a great film! true characters, fondly observed, sincerely played.

It took a Swiss to do the present ultimate film about Berlin, about the city's oh so colorful and diverse life concepts that tend to flow into despair, without spoiling any single character. Everything You always wanted to know about these Berliners. A declaration of love for the city, by showing the absurd extremes of life, truly sticking to the phrase: reality beats every prejudice.

New German cinema without political stickiness. A kind of Short Cuts version of Oh Boy. A must see in the special features of the DVD : the character's future.