Free Radicals (2003)

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"Böse Zellen" or "Free Radicals" (not a literal translation at all) is a co-production between the 3 German-speaking countries in Central Europe, but the one in the center of it all is Austria for sure because this is where writer and director Barbara Albert as well as most cast members are from. And it is also where it is set. This film received a solid deal of awards recognition and got also picked by Austria as the country's official Oscar submission back then when it came out almost 15 years today, probably more depending on when you read the review, but did not manage to score a nomination. The most known cast members as of today here are Strauss and Friedrich who managed strong careers until now. It is a really long film at almost 2 hours, but this is also needed as it focuses on many characters in here and also very much in depth about all of them. All of these characters are somehow linked to the protagonist that the film starts with and one crucial component here is that the circle of people linked to the main character and her fate closes eventually. I still think she is the main character, even if she disappears out of the movie relatively quickly, maybe also because there is no other character really at the very center of the story. It is an ensemble performance and writer's piece for sure. Anyway, you could also make a reference to the famous six degrees of separation concept here. All in all I enjoyed the watch. I believe there are some sequences that could have been left out, maybe 1 or 2 characters even, but it's never a film that really drags, even if there was potential for better focus that could have made the film strong from start to finish. The way Albert went for there are some good scenes, some bad scenes, but as a whole it is a relatively competent execution and the positive is more frequent than the negative and that's why I give the overall outcome a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out. Probably my favorite film from the director with what I have seen so far from her. I also think that one of the film's biggest strengths is that everybody in the audience will have another character that he ends up caring for the most and whose story interests him the most. Even if quite a huge coincidence involving the central character, this is a film that always feels authentic, which is something German filmmakers could learn from Austria, now as much as in 2003. Go check it out.

Manu (Kathrin Resetarits) cheats death when she is the only survivor of a plane crash returning from a vacation in Brazil but meets her fate six years later in a head-on auto collision while coming home from a disco. The driver of the other car, teenager Kai, (Dominik Hartel) is uninjured but his girlfriend Gabi (Nicole Skala) is left paralyzed and he must deal with feelings of guilt and remorse. In Free Radicals, Austrian director Barbara Albert recognizes that everyone is interconnected and that even in the midst of chaos, structures and patterns exist as she explores how the lives of people in a small Austrian town intersect following Manu's death. The title of the film refers to unstable molecules that react quickly with other compounds as they attempt to capture the needed electron to gain stability. Like the free radicals in the atom, the characters seek connection but find themselves weak and alone, dependent on others for their self-esteem.Though set in Austria, the world the characters inhabit seems very familiar. It is a world of casual sex without commitment or joy (graphically depicted a la Dumont), vacuous TV programs that trivialize and exploit human emotions, shopping malls filled with fast food outlets, scratch and win tickets, and promotional giveaways. In this milieu, the only thing that is not for sale or giveaway is satisfaction but the characters fight hard to find it. The film explores the lives of friends and relatives of the deceased girl and how they are changed by Manu's death. Manu's husband Andreas (Georg Friedrich) works at the mall and has sole care of their young daughter Yvonne (Deborah Ten Brink) who has physical and emotional problems as a result of the accident. Manu's sister rants against capitalism at the mall but can only maintain dysfunctional relationships with broken men.Manu's brother Reini (Martin Brambach) is a shy science teacher who lectures about chaos theory, fractals, and the Mandelbrot Set and forms a tentative relationship with an African girl who works at a cosmetics shop. Manu's best friend, Andrea (Ursula Strauss) is a teacher at the school Yvonne attends and soon begins a relationship with Manu's husband Andreas and there are other subplots. Each protagonist has a burden they must deal with but they do have inner resources and some discover that before they can be with others, they have to be able to be with themselves. Kai is rebuffed by his girlfriend after the accident but goes on the TV talk show Forgive Me to ask Gabi for forgiveness, then hooks up with Patricia (Desiree Qurada), an overweight teenager who stands up to bullying at her school.Free Radicals is a dark film but it is lightened considerably by moments of compassion as well as exuberant musical sequences such as friends singing along with Aha's Take On Me, Patricia dancing to the 60's song San Francisco, and a stirring rendition of the Moody Blues Nights In White Satin by a church choir. It is also an ambitious work that is not afraid to show alternative ways of thinking and does so without condescension. For example, therapy is shown not via the stereotypical psychiatrist hero but as psychodrama in which the participants act out various roles, and, in a scene that is normally fodder for cinematic snickering, the friends make a serious attempt to contact Manu through a Ouija Board and the sequence is depicted in a positive light.Albert seems to be aware that the universe is multi-dimensional and at times her camera shoots from above giving us the sense that Manu or someone else is looking down and guiding us. There are perhaps too many characters and parallel stories that threaten to overwhelm us, but I identified with them and their struggle to find purpose in their lives. Free Radicals is not a perfect film but it is a rare oasis in the desert of cynical and violent films and a harbinger of good things to come from a director with style and a personal vision.

The film opens with a butterfly flapping its wings, causing a tropical thunderstorm to erupt over brasil.Böse Zellen is a movie about many things. Chaos, coincidence and circumstance is one of its topics. Death, loss and desperation is another. Side blows are dealt out to our society of commerce and capitalism in the places selected for the shooting (shopping malls, a fast food restaurant, pedestrian areas, supermarkets).The characters in this movie, while coming from different backgrounds, have a thing in common, they are lonely. Most are also sad and unbearably desperate. They all fight for someone or something, even though they do now know what it is they want. But somehow they find the strength to overcome this loneliness, the desperation and go on, and some of them even struggle hard enough to find happiness.Seeing the movie in a theater here in Austria made me feel uneasy. It is this way with most austrian films I see. Seeing my fellow countrymen on the movie screen makes me ashamed for them. I think I even know the reason why, it is probably because austrian filmmakers have a tendency towards realism in portraying everyday lives. I have been so brainwashed with perfect Hollywood people and their perfect lives it startles me to see real people being portrayed in a movie. Böse Zellen is a class of its own where realism is concerned. Seldom before I have seen people depicted so authentic in the way they go about their everyday lives. Its also an incredibly sad movie, but its not going to make audiences cry because it is sad in a casual way. The characters have accepted what is happening to and around them and that way they can go on with their lives.9 out of 10

Parallel stories about various people in recovering process from a car accident are interwoven into one picture. The director has craftsmanship to incorporate different styles of genre films, such as horror, coming-of-age, and arthouse-erotica. The influence from several European melodrama giants, namely Fassbinder and Almodovar, also permeates on the screen. The rare feeling, which only occurs when I witness the moment of a new talent's emergence, caught me while I was watching this film at New York Film Festival 2003.The screenplay is questionable; the plane crash at the beginning is barely related to the rest of the whole film. The director's explanation in Q&A session at the Festival, that the crash indicates chaos, irony and unpredictability of life in the relation to the entire story, doesn't convince me enough. Also, a bundle of absolutely separate stories, which don't interact with each other, may look dated in the future, though it is admittedly faddish at this moment.Several choices of music, such as Take On Me and San Francisco, are so personal that the director's feeling may not be conveyed to the audience.Overall, this is an unpolished but young and energetic film, which shows the director's promising future.