Oh Boy - DVD

Film: The life of Niko (Tom Schilling) seems to have reached a turning point. His girlfriend has left him, he has dropped out of his studies, whereupon his father (Ulrich Noethen) cuts him off. He's also lost his driver's license and can't seem to get a cup of normal coffee anywhere in town. And since he doesn't quite know where to go in all this chaos, he has no choice but to live in the day and observe in order to perhaps find his place in life. Whether it's his new neighbor (Justus von Dohnanyi), who performs a real soul striptease in front of him while eating meatballs that his wife has made for Niko to move in, or his old school friend Julika (Friederike Kempter), who hasn't quite overcome her psychological problems from the past as well as she herself believes, they all accompany Niko on his odyssey through the city, through this day and through his life. But will everything really be different the next morning and will he actually have the epiphany of how to go on in his life?

With Oh Boy, Jan Ole Gerster presents a wonderful big city comedy that is reminiscent of the early work of Woody Allen, not only because of its black and white visuals and musical score, but also because of its clever wordplay and occasionally very dry humor in its best moments. Tom Schilling is simply wonderful as Niko, who goes through his day a bit screwy and encounters many much more screwy and broken characters in his desperate search for a cup of coffee. This is partly due to his very natural and relaxed acting, but also due to the wonderful dialogues that Gerster has written for him and the other characters.

While something like a stringent plot can be discerned, the film still seems rather episodic in an effective way. So Niko can meet numerous characters in many different situations, which can be picked up again later, but this doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Thus, at the end there isn't the feeling that some plot thread wasn't resolved or that the movie feels too overloaded. Even though the single stages of Niko's day work perfectly on their own and often seem rather incoherent, a closer look reveals how excellently the film is constructed. The individual set pieces of the story are cleverly built on top of each other, and many of the film's best punchlines are very carefully prepared, which is why they can work really well.

In addition to very funny moments, such as Niko's visit to the set of a highly dramatic World War II drama, there are also some quieter moments, though these are especially prevalent in the final third. This is also where the film's only problem lies. The final episode between Niko and an older gentleman, wonderfully played by Michael Gwisek, is not only a bit too long, but its melancholic tone doesn't quite fit into the rather light events that have dominated the film until then. It's true that this scene, like the rest of Oh Boy, is a beautifully observed depiction of the bizarreness of real life. Still, it just doesn't want to fit into the overall picture as harmoniously as the previous scenes did.

However, even though it drags you down a bit at the end after many wonderful moments and extremely good laughs, Oh Boy leaves a very positive impression on balance. It is a very original, excellently written and very well acted big city comedy that shows that even in Germany sophisticated cinema can be presented not always with melancholy, but also sometimes with casual irony and clever wit. Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The black-and-white image of the film also looks very atmospheric on the DVD, the good image sharpness and the successful tuning of the contrasts also leave a very positive impression. The sound is also adequately realized, with the action primarily dominated by the dialogue, jazzy music and smaller ambient sounds from the streets of Berlin. Not a great surround orgy, but perfectly adequate for a comedy like this. Good!

Extras: In addition to an audio commentary by director Jan Ole Gerster and lead actor Tom Schilling, recorded in a noticeably relaxed atmosphere, in which there is some very interesting information about the filming to learn, the DVD has a few nice outtakes to seven scenes (approx. 9 min.) and first improvisation recordings of Tom Schilling and Marc Hosemann (approx. 4:35 min.), which were made almost one year before the actual shooting. In addition, there is a making of the film music (approx. 4:20 min.), in which the musicians are shown providing the musical background for some scenes. This is not uninteresting to see for viewers who are taken with the jazzy music, but the information content of this extra is quite low.

Finally, there is a casting tape of Friederike Kempter (approx. 3:20 min.), a distant scene with Dr. Motte (approx. 1:37 min.), which was spontaneously staged on the latter's 50th birthday, and the trailer for the film. Good!

Conclusion: Oh Boy is a very original and charming big city comedy, which can convince with a wonderful script and a very good ensemble of actors and override minor weaknesses. The DVD presents the film in appealing picture and sound quality, plus some nice extras, so that the bottom line is a more than deserved Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp