Afire 02/20/24

Aka Roter Himmel.  Christian Petzold’s movie wields a big impact on a deceptively modest scale. The problems of a young man sharing a summer house form a self-contained meditation on How To Live. Thomas Schubert’s Leon is an insufferable jerk who can’t understand why he feels so alienated from others. One of his tolerant housemates is Nadja (Paula Beer), the kind of bright, positively-oriented person who can change one’s life … if one isn’t so stubbornly self-obsessed. Trouble is coming, in a fiery form. Can Leon be redeemed?  This one grabbed us and didn’t let go. On Blu-ray from Janus Contemporaries.
02/20/24