Watch Morris from America For Free

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Did you people see the same film I saw?

As Good As It Gets

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Curtis (Craig Robinson) is a football (soccer) coach in Germany. His wife is gone and he is a single parent trying to raise 13 year old Morris (Markees Christmas). Morris has a private tutor (Carla Juri) and is crushing on a 15 year old girl he met at the teen activity center. However Katrin (Lina Keller) is being his friend part time, as she still wants to maintain her social standing with her own group, less accepting of Morris.This is a coming of age drama. I was expecting a cultural difference, stranger in a strange land type of comedy and it wasn't there. It was closer to a tragedy with Curtis not getting father of the year award. Morris has a potty mouth, and I am not sure how a 13 year old singing X-rated rap lyrics and rather poorly, is entertaining. Morris is willing to be emotionally abused, just to be near Katrin. What was their target audience? Guide: F-word. No sex. Magazine nudity.

Now, this is not Will & Jaden Smith, looking & being cool, and attractive. Nope, this about two overweight black males, father and son, and while the father is likable (and excellent in Mr. Robot) he's no fashion model. That's the first unfamiliar aspect. The film is of course mostly about Morris, seldom has the word 'misadventures' been so applicable to a movie.The second unfamiliar aspect is that father and son Gentry live in boring, nice middle class housing, this is not what is usually seen when we see black people in mainstreaam film. It's usually the 2 extremes, very rich or very poor. There's hardly any serious drama about the non-struggling black middle class, from the suburbs. There's a reason for that: in America, blacks have been RE-segregated to the wrong sideof the tracks, mostly, and there's not a lot of black drama out there. Even this one is both an indie flick AND European made, my point being: big Hollywood bucks aren't going into this type of film.So, the story is about 13 year old Morris, living in Germany, which seems quite strange to him, he's a fish out of water. He doesn't speak the language which isolates him from other people, especially kids his age. His language tutor sends him to a youth home, to meet other kids. This is something with middling success: he doesn't feel like socializing and the German kids react to him in a stereotyping way ("hey come play basketball, Kobe Bryant", which is both an insult and a compliment at the same time). I will give the German kid credits for making an effort, but I totally understand Morris' hostility, he's out of his element and suspicious. He does befriend a super hot blond girl, Katrin, even though it's unclear why exactly she likes Morris, he's not all that charming towards her. But, their friendship grows, which is a good thing.Overall, the characters do not do stupid crap, like in most movies these days, and everyone's actions make sense in the context of the story. The teacher does overreact a bit to Morris' rap, but I get that. She acts responsible in calling the father to go pick Morris up. The father getting mad at Morris' being braggy and not true to himself is one of the best scenes.And when Morris rejects the German boys attempt to include him, their counter rejection is also understandable. When Katrin pranks Morris at the first party, he reacts in a hurt way, which I also get: she thinks this is funny, but he isn't in a self assured place to appreciate the prank. The Germans aren't portrayed stereotypically: The DJ boyfriend getting mad at Morris intruding on him and his girl, I totally get that. He WAS nice to Morris. The only ones which are a bit iffish are the Youth Home leader who clearly lacks people skills to deal with an uprooted 13 year old who's angry about that, and the flutist bully, whose character is too flat.But other than that: normal people reacting normally. It's an excellent film, well acted, precisely because it's unusual and it deviates from the mainstream. 10 for 10.The Melancholic Alcoholic.

Just watched Morris from America even though it got a 5.6 on IMDb. I usually try and not watch movies below 6 as i end up getting disappointed, but Morris from America was different. It was surprisingly short and beautiful!As the title says its about the romantic and coming-of-age misadventures of a 13-year-old African-American boy who moves to Germany with his dad and tries to fit in with the other German kids. He falls for a girl at a youth club and through her own growing up pangs encourages him to open up a little and share his rapping.We've all had that one childhood crush that we fondly remember - puppy love! The director has beautifully narrated a story that captures the essence of growing up and not fitting in, our first crush and pains with our parents and their side of the story and made a pint size gem! So don't go by the rating and watch it when you have the time and want to remember that feeling of puppy love and not really fitting in!

I do not understand why this movie is getting such a low rating when it easily deserves more.Usually when I watch a "coming of age" movie I immediately see what the outcome will be, they mostly go along the same line but with Morris from America I didn't get that. What I got was much better. Albeit some missing plot holes but nothing that hurt the over all story.The movie gives you that coming of age story without the tacky, over played scenarios. Where those movies fail, this movie excels. I never got that feeling. The feeling of a fairy tale life for lack of a better term. It's funny, nostalgic, romantic, emotional, entertaining but over all, it feels REAL.I have never seen Craig Robertson (Curtis) play this type of role and I am happy I did because he did very well, especially with a cast full of rookies. I hope to see more of this from him in the future. Markees Christmas was surprisingly good but I could not end this without saying something about Lina Keller and Carla Juri.. They both played their roles flawlessly and Keller's role was not an easy one.Definitely give this a watch, it is obviously not of the same caliber as The Breakfast Club but it does entertain. I am sure you will not be disappointed.