FACK JU GOEHTE - MOVIE [Blu-ray] [2013]

Fack ju Göhte: The English translation for this title cannot even be stated in a review because Amazon will not publish reviews containing expletives (you’ll have to surf over to Wikipedia if you want to find out). The reason for this title becomes clear only after you’ve gotten about ⅔ of the way through the movie. The renaming of Fack ju Göhte for an American audience (“Suck Me Shakespeer”) still makes sense in the context of the story.You know from the beginning that the two characters on the front cover will end up together. While a romcom formula is the unmistakable underlying framework, Fack ju Göhte simply can’t be dismissed as a romcom: there is too much else going on. The first 5-10 minutes didn’t look promising, but soon I was laughing regularly... by midpoint, laughing heartily. The humor at first feels vulgar, but then you come to realize it also makes sense for a story as much focused on youths written off by the system as it is on the adult jailbird character.Here we have Zeki Müller (Elyas M'Barek), fresh out of prison and clamoring for an open custodial position at a high school simply because the loot from his bank heist is stashed somewhere beneath the school. Not exactly landing the job he was hoping for, he ends up as a “temp teacher” at the school instead. Enter Lisi Schnabelstedt (Karoline Herfurth), a prim and pretty teacher who takes her profession very seriously, and one who lacks a grounded social life (including a love life, obviously, which is sure to be resolved by film’s end). Lisi is an orphan, the guardian of her little sister Laura, who to complicate matters happens to be a student at the very same school. Long story short, Zeki reluctantly ends up working alongside Lisi. Laura has her own subplot that eventually leads to a hilarious, very contemporary drama club version of Romeo and Juliet (thus the revised title for the film containing the misspelled "Shakespeer").At first the students are just props to torment the teachers (and to subsequently be tormented by Zeki), but eventually you start to see them as people rather than just caricatures. Towards the end, you’ll be rooting for them. The plot is so predictable that you can guess it: the ex-con rubs off on the juvenile delinquents and vice-versa, but (after a rough start) not in a vicious downwards spiral.Why then 5 stars, if Fack ju Göhte is so formulaic? Because it does very well what a comedy is intended to: make you laugh. The humor is irreverent, provocative, slapstick and slightly obnoxious, but it works. There are even some Nazi-related gags thrown in for laughs, which I wasn’t expecting in a German film (an example: Zeki takes the kids on a field trip, and before finding out what it will be they exclaim in dismay, “Not a concentration camp again!”) There are also other instances of comedy you will not see in American films, such as Zeki pulling out an firearm-resembling assault rifle paintball gun to tag students who are cutting his class.Who will like Fack ju Göhte? If you are a teacher, I can’t see you not liking it. But really anyone who enjoys comedies and isn’t offended by constant expletives should give this a try. I believe it possible for teens and parents to screen Fack ju Göhte alongside one another; there are no sex scenes or nudity that might make Fack ju Göhte awkward to watch with your mom. Comedies can be (but these days usually aren’t) subversive. This one is.If I have one complaint, it’s that the subtitles aren’t paced well: some flash on-screen and are gone too quickly.* Disclaimer * This review is probably biased in favor of the film because Karoline Herfurth is my favorite German actor. A bona fide movie star in her neck of the woods, she likes challenging roles, and this comedy certainly provided that for an actress who routinely appears in dramas. Her role as a socially inept character was not 100% convincing, but that may have been the script or the director. Either way, it wasn't enough to turn me against her performance, and didn't hurt my overall rating of this import.

Sent extremely promptly!A "fun" film, a bit reminiscent of "To Sir with Love."During the current debates in DE about education for all & integration, a fairy-tale-like alternate reality, with a speck of realism and creative vision.A fast-moving package: youth language, German captions for accessibility or language learning, English subtitles; and a 'young' soundtrack.M'Barek of “Tuerkisch fuer Anfaenger,”* stars under the most common German name Mueller as a teacher-impersonator, an ironic twist or a sign of true integration?At any rate, if our twenty-something daughter is indicative of how my college students are going to react, we will have productive, fun-filled, if not uncritical, discussions about contemporary German society, education, social structures, gender roles, integration, stereotypes, youth culture, language, and much more. In other words, from my perspective, the film proves more worthwhile for sociological analysis than aesthetic innovation in film studies--but that does not make it less worthwhile as an instructional tool, or less entertaining for other viewers.*grew up in Munich, AT passport; father Tunisian, mother Austrian.