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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE EDUKATORS
This German thriller may be one of the year's most compelling hybrids - a
left-wing film noir. The title characters are two enterprising and
idealistic young men, Jan (Daniel Brühl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg), who turn
the palatial villas of Berlin's wealthy topsy-turvy. While the residents are
away, they pile furniture in a pyramid and thoughtfully leave a note - "Your
Days of Plenty are Numbered," signed, The Edukators. Eschewing materialism,
nothing is taken. (They would be inspired by last year's documentary, The
Yes Men.)
Peter's girlfriend, Jule (Julia Jentsch), assumes his nocturnal occupation
is plastering posters. Like a traditional, but unassuming, femme fatale,
Jule will inevitability form a triangle between the two best friends. (It's
no accident that two names here recall a certain Truffaut film.) She also
comes with a lot of baggage. Even though she waitresses at a posh
restaurant, she's heavily in debt as a result of a car accident. After
falling behind on her rent, she is evicted from her apartment. Peter asks
Jan to help Jule paint her place back to its original condition before
she moves out. Ever the loyal follower, Jan does so. After bonding with Jule
to folk music and commiserating with her on the night she's fired, Jan
reveals his and Peter's secret hi-tech skills in breaking and entering,
taking her to the neighborhood of the Edukators' escapades, where she
realizes she's only blocks away from the man who has financially ruined her.
Instead of a crime of passion, what follows is a crime of class revenge, and
like in a film noir, no plan is ever simple. (Peter returns to bail them out
of trouble.)
From the eerie opening sequence to Jan and Jules' ill-fated adventure, the
pacing is tight. And the resulting cat-and-mouse game furthers the suspense.
However, as the trio philosophize and justify their illegal actions (which
have spiraled way out of their control), the film sags as they predictably
unite against "the capitalist dictatorship" and advocate Third World debt
relief. However, the film regains its earlier verve, ending with a clever
finish, which shares the protagonists' optimism with a dose of cynicism.
Slyly satiric, it is a cell phone, certainly a symbol of globalization,
which gets the pranksters in trouble. And thankfully, director Hans
Weingartner leaves all of the chaos in the screenplay and not in the
cinematography, shot on digital video. Instead of relying on clichéd
jittery, grainy camerawork to supply the anarchy, the handheld camera
movements are smooth, washed in natural light, with seamless editing. Kent Turner
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