So no Coldplay review tonight, because I wasn’t home in between the hours of 1 PM and 2 AM. But I did watch a great movie last night which I will review now.
Run Lola Run, written and directed by Tom Tykwer, to use Harry Knowles‘ term, is bugnuts. It’s only around 70 minutes long, and starts out with immediate intense action with only two small breaks. Lola, played by Franka Potente (better known as the female lead in The Bourne Identity), is called by her boyfriend, Manni, who asks her why she was late and tells her that he’s a dead man because of it. We (the audience) are confused. We find out more from the rest of the conversation associated with flashbacks, and we discover that Manni, standing in a payphone, needs $100,000 in 20 minutes or he will rob the grocery store across the street, which is essentially suicide. Lola’s job is to try to get the $100,000 before he does just that. She goes to her father for the money, with varying degrees of success.
The story is told three times, each starting the same way and varying more and more as slight differences affect other events which interconnect and create three radically different storylines in a really cool way. Most of all three involves Lola running. Run, Lola, run.
The acting is really fun and cool in this, with some outrageous performances coming while being played straight-faced, especially from the father. The writing is utilitarian – after all, it’s only a 70-something minute movie, so lines are short and sweet. However, the concept of the movie is part of the writing too, and we can’t discount how awesomely this movie is thought up.
But, the part that makes all of this work is the directing. I have no idea who Tom Tykwer is, but he really owns this movie. The short animated sequences are awesome, the quick shots which sum up people’s lives in photos (really), the fades and split-screens, all of them are used perfectly and the movie just fucking bolts you to your chair while you’re watching. I couldn’t believe how tightly this movie was made, how fast it moved. In a way, I wish that this movie was longer, because the direction was so blissfully awesome and the feel of the movie was so bugnuts, but in a bigger way, I like how short it was, because that’s how short it needed to be. Any longer, and the sequences would have to be slower, stories would have to be extended to near-breaking point, and the movie just wouldn’t work as well.
I don’t think this was a perfect movie, but this movie wasn’t built to be perfect. People would love this movie like they would love Shoot ‘Em Up – don’t ask why, just enjoy the shit out of this movie because it forces you to. I kind of feel dirty analyzing the movie as it is, because it is so NOT that kind of movie, but that’s why I’m not getting into plot choices or anything like that. Suspension of disbelief is so key to this movie that overanalysis would sap enjoyment from this movie dumb quick. I highly recommend this movie, and will show it to anyone who says they want to watch a fun movie and don’t have a lot of time.
P.S. – Franka Potente is super hot in this movie, so you know. Rocking the pink hair.
I Ate My DVD Collection 
Kriti Godey said
That sounds like a really cool movie. I should watch it.