Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Schule" or "No More School" (actually the opposite to the German title) is a German(-language) film from 2000, which means this one already had its 15th anniversary last year. The director and one of the writers is Marco Petry and this one here is still his most known work, even if considerably more than a decade has passed. This has probably mostly to do with Daniel Brühl playing one of the main characters and he is one of Germany's biggest stars right now. But if you are a German film buff, you will find more familiar names such as Jasmin Schwiers, Axel Stein, (the stunning) Lavinia Wilson, Denis Moschitto, Bettina Zimmermann and Mina Tander. They appear in a comedy that deals with a group of students in the last days of their school lives and how they feel a sense of belonging together while they soon have to take different paths in lives, individual paths as they are no longer a community.This is a pretty good premise actually and may have worked as a solid base for a quality slightly dramatic film and/or comedy, but sadly they really messed it up with the script. The plot consists of stupid attempts to cheat during the exams over glorifying drug abuse (and thinking this is comedy enough already) and relationship struggles that come out of nowhere and don't feel authentic at all. Also the pretty young cast was simply not good enough to make up for these problems, actually they make them worse on some occasions even with pretty unconvincing portrayals. And this includes Brühl as well who I consider generally pretty overrated as an actor. Admittedly, the other cast members aren't any better here. There are sometimes solid scenes like the one near the end with one guy explaining to another how he struggles because he has not left, but these are clearly in the minority and actually hard to remember with really cringeworthy stuff like the speaker scene at the end which had zero connection to reality and was neither touching nor entertaining nor authentic as Petry wanted us to believe here. I have no clue why people still love this film, it is almost 100% failure and you need to stay far far away.

jogi_loehr This is really a good movie! I, myself passed Abitur just three years ago and saw it two or three months before the final exams took place - and well: It struck like lightning! The basic message of the movie, that there's just a small amount of time left for you to be with your friends and to live a life without the problems of the adult world, hit exactly the point. This movie helped me, to make the best out of these last days in school!Some comments complain about the stereotyped characters, but hey! it's still comedy and stereotypes are part of it. (if you don't agree, read about it in Aristoteles'"Poetik".)Also the characters are really nice and you can quite identify yourself (not with the stereotypes,but) with some behavior that is depicted.After all I have to say that SCHULE is a really good movie with excellent actors, camera and soundtrack and an fantastic tension (the scene on the schools' roof at dawn!!!)Watch and let it have a place in your heart! - It deserves it!!!

KWiNK This movie just perfectly reflects upon the last days of school for German youngsters. It might surprise some, that actually only about a fourth of the film takes place inside the actual school. What seems a lot more important is the school in the characters heads and hearts, the institution that got them together in the first place and that will now soon be gone. Where will they go? Will their friendships overcome the fact, that they won't see one another so much anymore?In a last attempt to have a good time together a gang of friends explores their conceptions of the future and - more importantly - of the present and their angst concerning the changes at hand. As we follow them around through their small adventures (which include the killing of a huge inflatable penguin and the deflowering of the class-nerd among others), most viewers (Germans for sure) will be able to identify and recognize the characters as their own friends from school. This fictional small town is alive with your own fellow-pupils. You'll be able to ascribe each character to at least one person from your school days.In addition to this, the movie features great acting, wonderful directing and photography that captures northern Germany at its most beautiful.There are few movies I could recommend more. Watch it and you will very probably love it!

ixs The movie "Schule" (School) shows a part of the life of a small group of students, enjoying the last days before graduation.It happens that I visited the movie with some friends of mine from school and we had to agree that the movie did in fact catch the feeling we had at the time of graduation. To every character in the movie, whether it be the A-student or the "loverboy", we could remember the exact counterpart in our own class.But also the contrast between feeling free and the uncertainity what will happen after graduation and where all the friends will go was shown in the film.I think the movie is a realistic portrait of this time, on the one hand making one laugh and on the other hand saddening us.