“Generation incapable of relationships” describes a world in which many prefer to look for non-binding dates rather than long-term relationships. A movie with Frederick Lau and Luise Heyer is now being released.
Berlin / Cologne – The book “Generation Incapable of Relationships” sparked a lot of debates a few years ago: Is it really that way for many people today? Nobody wants to commit anymore because something better could be waiting around the corner?
At least that is what the observations of the Berlin author Michael Nast suggested. Now a feature film with the same title is coming to the cinema.
Tim (Frederick Lau) likes to ride a racing bike and finds it kind of exhausting with the women, they always fall in love the same way. A few years ago he wrote a book whose remnants have long since been shredded and are now ending up as confetti at a party. Here and there he has sex, with no obligations of course.
At a gas station, Tim meets Ghost (Luise Heyer), an unapproachable woman who steals the last Stracciatella ice cream from him. They both meet again by chance at acquaintances. She still wants to go to a costume party and is haunting Cologne with a bed sheet. That is of course a nice idea – because the fate that threatens Tim is alluded to: he is hosted. This is what it is called when the other person just doesn’t get in touch after a few dates.
So even though Tim develops feelings for the mysterious woman, the two of them meet for noncommittal sex, he is suddenly let down by Ghost. Helena Hufnagel’s film (“Once, please everything”) plunges into a world that sounds like cliché, but is closer to reality than you might think. To compare, it is worth taking a look at the pubs in major German cities.
The construction kit for the comedy: man with a fancy bike, woman with a big mouth, “dummy” magazines on the toilet and an app that is reminiscent of dating portals like Tinder and Bumble. Add to that sayings like “We are out of Soy Milk” and music by AnnenMayKantereit, of course, how could it be otherwise? Some things in the film turned out to be rather flat. The actors, however, knock a lot out of it.
The film puts a question mark behind a lot – behind both permanent singles and relationships (“Isn’t it enough that you go for a walk on Sundays? Do you have to get married now?”). A world is shown in which an afternoon together on the sofa causes significantly more uncertainty than sex among strangers. In the end there is probably a question that accompanies us all: Are we brave enough to make ourselves vulnerable in front of others?
Generation incapable of relationships, Germany 2021, 80 min., FSK from 12, by Helena Hufnagel, with Frederick Lau, Luise Heyer, Henriette Confurius, Tedros Teclebrhan, Kida Khodr Ramadan dpa
