Netflix Suggestion of the Week: The Wave (2008)

I have been burning the candle at both ends for the last week, so I haven't had any time to go catch a free movie at SIFF!  LAME!  I still need to get out there and see Side Effects.  And there has been a Japanese Animation series going on... but to be honest, I'm not really into that, so I'm not too sad I missed it.

However, today I had time to watch a movie I've been meaning to see on Netflix, the German remake of a 1981 movie, The Wave.  And I'm so glad I did!

It's the story of a high school class that is doing group  projects studying a particular political ideology.  A popular teacher gets assigned the topic of "Autocracy" and engages the students in a practical lesson by getting them to buy into his own little microcosm of a dictatorship.

That premise sounds predictable, and in some ways it goes down the expected path, but this movie has really well-crafted characters, and doesn't shy away from showing both the positive and negative effects of being a part of a group that encourages (and eventually enforces) uniformity. It explores the modern German self-concept, with its mix of historical shame and desire to heal and press forward.

This movie does have a few flaws.  First, it's subtitled.  Blech. Secondly, it has some weird inconsistencies. For example, there are a few characters that randomly change their motivations for no clear reason. Like, there's a girl who is very wrapped up in The Wave movement, but then just suddenly rejects it, for very weak reasoning. But that kind of thing probably only irritates me. Overall, the story is pretty solid.

One thing that was really fun about this movie was that the teacher was all hot and beefy. He had gross teeth, though. He was kind of a Daniel Craig, where he's a weird mix of ugly and hot. And he coached a water polo team full of hot dudes. I assume they are all over 18 in real life. If not, then... yuck. But for now I'm going to assume it's ok for me to think they are foxy.

The filmmaker plays with visual metaphor, and if you pay attention to the art in the backgrounds of many of the settings, you'll notice that it has some nice layering. One of my film teachers would say that it had well-crafted "mise-en-scene."  He was an old stoner burnout that wore FUBU jeans and once read his lecture notes off of a bowling scorecard. He was kind of a loveable douche.

I recommend this movie if you loved the 1990 classic Pump Up The Volume, because for some reason, it had a similar feel. I also recommend it if you enjoy reading subtitles and looking at foxy dudes.

Peggy's Rating: Four out of Five stars