Chick

Can life be any shittier? Not only does his mother have to go to rehab - again - for a few weeks, and his father goes on a business trip with his young assistant. To make matters worse, 14-year-old Maik Klingenberg (Tristan Göbel) is the only one in his class who hasn't been invited to the party of the most popular girl in the whole grade. Well, that's not entirely true. The new kid in his class, the more than strange Tschick (Anand Batbileg), wasn't invited either. But Maik doesn't really want to be lumped in with him. And now, of all times, Tschick shows up at his place and invites him for a joyride in a stolen Lada. Maik doesn't know why, but he lets himself be persuaded to go along - and thus begins an adventurous journey for the two boys that could turn out to be the best summer of their lives.

With Tschick, director Fatih Akin once again proves his versatility. From comedies to heavy dramas to explosive documentaries, Akin seems to reinvent himself with each film, even if there are certain elements of style that may be common to some of his films. Now, for the first time, he has ventured into adapting a best-selling novel and a coming-of-age story. Wolfgang Herrndorf's multi-award winning novel has been enjoyed by over 2 million readers. The pressure to live up to this success and the legacy of the author, who died in 2013, was naturally great. The film, however, is not affected by this, as it exudes a pleasant lightness that has an extremely infectious effect on the viewer.

In how far Akin has captured the spirit of the original, I cannot judge at this point, as I have not read the novel - ashes on my head. Regardless, however, I can say that the director has done a very good job of capturing the upheaval in the lives of his young protagonists. Visually, the film has some quite wonderful moments to offer, enriched with a wonderfully unusual soundtrack (by Richard Clayderman, among others) and a lot of humor. But again and again the film leaves time for quieter, thoughtful moments, in which the dreams, longings and fears of the protagonists are revealed. The whole thing happens not always subtle, but quite credible.

This is also thanks to the two great young actors, with especially Trsitan Göbel (West) again reveals quite great talent. True, there are also some weaknesses. For example, the scenes with the street girl Isa (Mercedes Müller) seem a bit tough and too contrived. In addition, it is difficult to identify a target audience for the film. For teenagers, the film might be too dialogue-heavy; for adult viewers who appreciate Akin's work, some moments might seem too flat or simply incomprehensible. Of course, there is an interface: a youthful audience that is open to more sophisticated fare, and adults who want to reminisce about their youth with films like Stand by Me, The Outsiders or Tschick. It will be interesting to see how large this intersection ultimately turns out to be and whether it will be enough to make the feature film as big a success as the book was. Fatih Akin and his team should certainly hope so, because despite a few weaknesses, Tschick is not only an amusing road movie, but also a very nice, entertaining film about the end of childhood. And for that it gets a more than deserved: Worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp