A very small, but very rewarding German film which wears its directorial influences—Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Richard Linklater—on its sleeve, but honors them rather than registering as a pale imitation. Set in Berlin and photographed in attractive B&W, the film consists of day-in-the-life vignettes involving a friendly, but desultory law-school dropout and the various idiosyncratic people he encounters, including his emasculating father, a now-sexy woman he used to taunt at school for her obesity, and an elderly gentleman haunted by his childhood memory of Kristallnacht. The film is often very amusing, expertly drawing humor from uncomfortable situations and the small frustrations and grievances of daily urban life. (There is an ongoing gag which finds our hero thwarted again and again in his pursuit of a cup of coffee.) It is also a sad film, though, and even brought a tear to my eye. Without overplaying its hand in any melodramatic way, it understands indecision, melancholy, neuroses, and regret. Its sense of dreamy gloom intermingles with and deepens the conversational and situational comedy, particularly in the third act.

A-

A-

This is the best German cinema had to offer over the past 4-5 years. Finally, a good film not set during WWII or in East Germany before the unification. I guess Oh Boy (which is the original title that I like more than the international one) is a bit of a hipster flick, but it is too damn entertaining and well-paced for me to dislike it. Tom Schilling gives a great performance and the film's portrayal of modern-day Berlin is pretty good.

I prefer the title A Coffee in Berlin. I do not "get" the title Oh Boy. Just seems generic.

Think The Beatles. The original title was suppoed to be A Day In A Life, but the filmmaker thought it'd be too on the nose, so...

I interviewed the lead actor a few months back (for another film). He seems every bit as detached in real life as in this movie. He said that he didn't even own a computer (of any kind) up until two years ago.

He reminds me of James McAvoy.

If you are interested in seeing another interesting modern-day German film, check out Soul Kitchen.

I will put it on the list.

I plan to watch Generation War soon. It was released as a film here.

Oh, yeah, that. I haven't seen it, but it really split the people here.

What annoys me is that Germany wasn't brave enough to submit A Coffee in Berlin for Best Foreign Language consideration, instead opting for YET ANOTHER historical film.

For what it is worth, this film is still completely haunted by Nazism.

Nah, not completely. Playfully, actually, before you get to the final act.

The old man's monologue certainly shines a harsh new light on the earlier scene on the set of the Nazi/Jewish love story.

But that's what I am saying, you only get to that new light at the film's end and that is maybe the only part of the film that I thought was too heavy-handed.