Victoria (2015)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Please don't spend money on this.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This movie was a genuinely hard one for me to decide on my opinion for, because it was by far one of the best movies I've ever come across, in terms of cinematography and style. And it wasn't the "one-take" part that impressed me the most (although it was part of it), but all of the other touches that went with it. For example, most releases tend not to include subtitles for what the German-speaking people are saying, which means that, unless you can speak the language yourself (I can't), then you're basically in the same place as young Victoria. You have no idea what's going on, what everyone else is saying, and, in turn, no idea what's about to happen until it happens.Then there was the seamlessness of the filming combined with the overall chaos of the film; first off, the dialogue is stilted and quite difficult to follow, and not just because of the language barrier - they're talking naturally, and most of what they're saying is improvised. It almost feels like you're there with them, trying to follow a rowdy conversation that you cannot quite remember how it started. And then there's the fact that, occasionally, someone will make a mistake, which ranges from the not-so-serious (Fredrick Lau accidentally dropping the cigarette that was handed to him and making up for it by getting all sullen) to the almost fatal (that part where Laia Costa accidentally took the wrong turning and almost drove right into a crowd of camera crew, prompting panic in the car and her to start cursing in Spanish). It was things like that that made the one-take style so effective. And it was what drew me to the film.However, as mentioned in the title, it was not without its flaws. And the pretty big one was the plot of the film. Let me be fair; it was the second half I'm complaining about. In the beginning, when it was just a Spanish girl, alone, with a low-paying job she has to go to in a couple of hours, following the rowdy group of German guys that she can barely understand through the streets of Berlin and getting on so well with them was just beautiful. Because I've been there. It felt relatable. But the second half didn't just feel awfully contrived. It was awfully contrived. It suddenly lost all sense of realism and felt like we were drifting from a perfectly fantastic story into a cliché-ridden, rubbish version of a heist movie. I genuinely found myself wishing that we could go back to the epilepsy-inducing strobe lights of the nightclub that I could barely watch at the beginning.That said, it was still a great movie. And I'd particularly like to highlight Laia Costa's performance. She was definitely the stand-out of the film, and by far my favourite. Especially the way she ended the film. And, if I may, she has such an amazing smile.

I saw someone had described it as a masterpiece and I wouldn't disagree. I watched it with subtitles but it isn't an issue as it would work in silence in terms of understanding the story line. It begins by making you fear the worst could happen to the young girl who meets a seemingly motley group of men late at night. However it takes a different course and moves at an incredible pace It is shot in a way so that it appears to be one continuous shot from start to finish. This in itself is quite a feat. The unpredictability of the film and the tangents it shoots off at keep you on the edge of your seat. The characterizations are strong and you care what happens to them which also matters so much in any film. The story line has been covered by others I am sure and its probably best not to know too much about that aspect or you could undermine the tension created. If only there were more films of this caliber rather than Hollywood trash like La La Land, which is badly made, crafted and predictable- all characteristics not shared by this film!

Victoria is somewhat sad. The movie itself is a good indie flick. Its very unique with its single-shot and real-time setting. Its starts out a little slow, but really builds up suspense. Its a bit lo-fi, but by design. The actors are also great, scenery in the club and the garage is amazing. But ... the plot.I am not talking about a weak story or plot holes. The main plot is that four guys rob a bank without any preparation whatsoever and instead go to a nightclub before and get drunk. This is obviously a very thin plot to start with, but thats not the problem. The problem is weird things where you as a viewer just loose touch with the movie.It starts out with Victoria going with the four boys who are very obviously up to no good. But the movie gets back on its feet. She is a bit drunk, a bit crazy and also very lonely. She likes the guy and it all makes sense again. That ends when she gets in the car! Why get in a stolen(!) car with people you don't know(!) when you are drunk(!), going to something obviously criminal(!) when you actually have to go to work(!)? Why make the story so extreme that a normal viewer cant feel for the main character at all? Anyways, she drives them into a garage where she sees a guy with a gun and realizes what she got into. The viewer can feel her being trapped, scared and the suspense of the movie is back. But than when they leave the garage the boys tell her to leave, but she says she wants to stay, very calm and determined, no explanation. All the suspense and feeling of being trapped is suddenly replaced by "WHAT?! WHY?!" That is not a traditional plot hole. The movie could have forced her to stay in the car or simply skipped the whole issue all together, no problem. But the movie deliberately takes the time to make her say this ridiculous sentence. A few things can be explained by the chaotic situation, them being drunk and well ... idiots, but even taking that into account there is still a whole lot of "WHY?!"... - after you rob a bank, why park only a couple blocks away? - why then stay right next to the car? - why stay in a group of four? - why go to a night club with guns and 50k€ in cash? - why go back to the car afterwards? - when you can escape a gun fight with the police why take a taxi right next to it and pay the taxi driver 100€ and then actually stay where he takes you? As soon as he hears the news, he will connect the dots. - Even the last scene is ruined... Leaving the dead guy in the room and just casually walking away with the money after an extreme night... OK, good ending! But why the f would you leave the door to the room with the dead guy open and what happened to the ambulance that was called like ten minutes earlier? It makes 0 sense. Why does the movie take the time to call the ambulance if its just gonna turn into plot hole? Just leave it out all together then...I don't expect a perfect story, but there are just so many "WTF?!"-moments, that it kills the movie. Of course you gonna die if you return to the getaway car that you parked just a couple of blocks away from the bank...

This film had the potential to be one of the great ones if only someone had displayed the nous and courage to slash about 20 minutes from the first half.As I watched the film at home I kept shouting. "Okay, guys, we've got the message, now move along to the next step in the story." But my shouts were in total vain and there came several points in the first half where I came within a whisker of giving up on it and finding something else more enjoyable to watch. It wasn't until we got to the first cafe scene that the story began to take off -- as take of it most certainly did.Perhaps the problem for the director and the editors lay in the fact that much of it was a single, protracted shot. But they should have seen the need to delete some of the more repetitive sections.