How to Be Really Bad

It is not often until lately that Americans have easy access to foreign movie productions, but it appears that Netflix is flooding its programming with them. Like Korean movies which appear to have set them on a level perhaps even exceeding the entertainment value of American productions in a number of ways, apparently they are not the only ones. This German rom-com has a refreshing different take on the devil-inspired subgenre. What the director and scriptwriters accomplished here was a fascinating balance between comedy, drama, good, and wily evil that set a consistent tone that both allowed a creative edgy darkness and avoid the serious horrific motif that would have been impossible to balance with the lighter, innocent goodness of the premise that this movie was built on. The ending scenes were brilliant in their twisty way the daughter of evil made her indirect presentation in her attempt to carry out a bargain made in hell with her father of turning someone evil on earth above. Deliciously sly badness with goodness.

An "evil" teen comedy. The devil's daughter, Lilith was to be as evil as her father but she is charming and in love instead. (Not as charming as Samuel... 😉) The performances of all the actors are convincing as hell! The movie has a perfect plot twist. Loved it!! 😈😈

Good funny movie I found on Netflix. Perfect to spend a good evening and to forget everyday life problems. Actors and scenario are corrects too. Give it a try, you won't regret it !

I haven't seen many German movies. I liked some of them, others were just fair. This one is really good and smart. It's one of those movies which makes you smile at the end. Although the end and many actions may seem predictable for many experienced viewers, the movie is witty and funny. The devil's daughter has to turn someone good into a bad person, and then her father sends her to the house of a very kind naive and silly girl who does not have a boyfriend. Right at the beginning, you can see that the bad girl willl have a hard time trying to turn that sweet girl into a wicked one. There's never a boring part. The pace is good and entertainement. It's just worth every piece of your time. Much better than a lot of nice American romcoms.

This is a high school feel-good movie, much better than any Disney made-for-TV movie or series. The Netflix description and absurd 14+ rating (not to mention impossible to find by browsing) results in a lot of the intended audience not knowing that this movie exists.

The movie is in German and has English subtitles. But it isn't too dialogue-heavy, so there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy the film without constantly reading.

The premise is pretty original - it could have gone a lot of different directions but somehow ended up as a high school comedy, with fun creative takes on the different high school tropes. The film doesn't waste time on random scenes or rambling dialogue - every scene and conversation pushes one of the several plotlines forward.

The acting, directing, and editing are all top-notch. You can tell it's not quite Hollywood, but at the same time it's not an artsy indie film or a made-for-TV movie. At least 6 members of the cast had what I call "presence" and really immersed you into the film. It makes me want to explore contemporary German cinema to see what else is out there.

One could nitpick some of the plot elements and character decisions, but at the end of the day it's a high school comedy and it delivers 100%. One small nitpick is that one of the love interests had a great introduction and personality, but then the film made him too passive for second half of the film, taking away his fun persona.