Sunday, April 10, 2016

Run Lola Run

Year of Release: 1998

Director: Tom Tykwer

Stars: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Armin Rohde, Joachim Krol, Ludger Pistor, Sebastian Schipper, Julia Lindig, Suzanne von Borsody, Lars Rudolph

Genre: Crime, Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 8
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis & Review:

"Run Lola Run" premiered in Germany in August of 1998, followed by the Venice Film Festival, but it only started creating buzz and attention when it expanded across all the screens in 1999 (including in the US where it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival). The film rightfully placed the talented Tom Tykwer and the wonderful Franka Potente as new fixtures to follow (and both their careers have enjoyed staying power). The film is divided in three vignettes and follows the story of Lola, a young and impetuous German girl, who receives a call from her boyfriend, the desperate Manni, whom while running an errand for a local criminal, lost the package he was suppose to deliver. Each vignette showcases the fate and the hurdles that Lola has to endure in order to help Manni and get to him in time, before the crime lord comes looking for the package. Each vignette showcases different obstacles and different endings.
Tom Tykwer has had a very interesting and eclectic career since "Run Lola Run" came out and established him as a directorial force to be reckoned with. He has had some really interesting ventures, such as "Cloud Atlas" and "The International" and others more divisive, such as "Heaven" and "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer". "Run Lola Run" is a film that bursts with inventiveness, and an energy that owes a lot to commercials and even comic books, but it's a film that is filled with ideas, sense of humor and such joy that is contagious to the viewer. The array of characters may not be profoundly expanded, but Franka Potente in particular creates a character that is simultaneously impetuous, young, and filled with emotion, that the viewer can't help but be fascinated by such an explosion of motion, color and joy. It's a film filled with attention to detail, where the humor is one of the main components, and where both the cinematography and score also have high marks. A truly wonderful film from an interesting director.