Toni Erdmann (2016)

(In German with French Subtitles, On TV, June 2019) I can think of an almost infinite list of more enjoyable things to do than to watch a nearly three-hour-long German comedy of humiliation. Unfortunately, one of those things is being obsessive about completing best-movies lists, and writer-director Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann did make a splash in the mid-2010s, earning an Academy Awards nomination along the way. Despite the long list of things going against it, I had to see it. As luck has it, the film is slightly better than what I feared: As it digs into its portrayal of a prankster father and his grown-up careerist daughter, it finds a few things to say that are rarely seen in cinema, and manages a few impressive set-pieces along the way. That, however, is pretty much the extent of my positive comments, because at two hours and forty-four minutes, Toni Erdmann sorely tries anyone’s patience. Its mixture of cringe-worthy comedy set in a blank shooting style doesn’t make it any easier to watch (the film begins with a handheld shot of a door for a full minute, so it’s not as if you’re not warned as soon as possible), something magnified by the cultural barrier of the film’s comedy—it does remain a German film set in Romania. The film has a few excruciating sequences that don’t quite seem to fit with the rest of the film (just wait until you delve into the main character’s sexual fetishes), adding both more irrelevance and length to an already trying result. Toni Erdmann ends up belonging to those movies that reward you for watching every fifteen minutes or so, and end up best appreciated as a checkbox next to a title that you will never have to see ever again.