Watch A Coffee in Berlin For Free

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Don't Believe the Hype

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Tom Schilling gives a solid performance here, starring as Niko Fischer, a young man, living in Berlin, who's lost his way in life and is currently broke, unemployed, has no serious relationships, and is still taking tuition money from his father without telling him he dropped out of law school some 2 years before.The satirical film will capture one day in Niko's life, as he encounters all kinds of bizarre situations, I imagine trying to be in the vein of Scorsese's "After Hours". He'll also meet all kinds of mostly mean-spirited and malevolent people, but one thing he'll have a heck of a time finding is a cup of coffee.Although I was intrigued enough to want to know how it would all turn out, the biggest problem for me was that I felt the filmmaker Jan Ole Gerster (making his feature film debut) went over-the-top with the mean-spiritedness and thus I couldn't find much entertainment here. I imagine we all meet these obnoxious jerks at times in our lives, so I would have much preferred more of a mixture of oddness and quirkiness rather than constant malevolence, but that's me.

A Cup of Pleasure in film making that scored high with me because of its thoughtful humor, wonderful acting, crisp black and white film work, and commentary on the problems of young men fitting into a modern world. No slapstick comedy here. No raunchy jokes like we get in films made and about young people. The comedy is underplayed. The dialog is sharp and meaningful. I read that this is the film makers first effort. That in itself is amazing since the movie shows such maturity in the craft. I hope that there will be more films coming from the people who made this one. Who said that the Germans don't have a sense of humor. I thing that changing the title from Oh Boy to A Cup of Coffee in Berlin was a good move.

They say Gerster was a film student? Funny school, didn't teach him a single thing about movie-making. That this film exists in it's current form is as ridiculous as letting a hack medicine student who can't tell a scalpel from scissors perform plastic surgery. This movie has no story, it has no characters, it has no meaning. Oh, you mean the meaning is that it has no meaning? That the guy is locked inside his inability to act? Brilliant! Now watch me take a big fat sh*t on that canvas, how you like that, you art experts? At least half of the film is super embarrassing self-referring stuff like our non-acting "hero" sitting on a movie set. Or watching a stage play. Or listening to people talk nonsense. Lots of talking heads all around. And no, this is no deep dialog. It doesn't even try to be written and/or performed in a poetic or artistic way of any sorts. It's just meaningless nonsense, 90% of the time. The movie is totally immature, narcissistic crap, and it doesn't even try rebellion... how pathetic is this? It doesn't really try anything at all. It's really just crap. And the Berlin footage? Cheap, pseudo, uninspired. Yeah it's in black in white, i can see that. Huh huh cool, huh huh. Really guys, to see artistic quality in it means you're intellect is somewhere in Beavis and Butthead land, without the coolness and subversion, that is. And that's a fact.

Just saw this movie, and still struggling to understand what it is about really, so for me its mostly about a certain generation of people in a certain city. These guys, born in the 80s, grew up in when new German mentality is being formed, Germany that is normal and yet still struggling with its past. The past is the nazism and collective guilt, that is receding, yet has its imprint on the people. the new is the normality - a society where kids of rich parents can afford not to work and just wonder around city while enjoying simple pleasures of sex/drugs and sarcasm. Where kids are still bullying the fatties (without making connections with Nazis bullying their victims). Where ridiculous films about important things in life are being shot. The soundtrack is echoing the jazz era's swing (lindy hop and electoswing are very popular among that generation of euros), the black/white style with a lot of closeups reminds of the era too (and of some other movies). There is a bit of a 'funny' line in the movie that allows for some hope: the inability to get a cup of coffee during the unlucky day and a cup available during final shop, at the dawn of the next day.All in all, the film is very reminiscent of "Oslo, august 31st". Both follow a youthful character for a day as he wonders the city, visits with friends, registers surroundings. Both finish at the dawn of the next day. In Oslo, the protagonist is in his mid 30s, here in late 20s. But Oslo has more purpose, a story, sense etc. Yet, Oslo might not be a true 'postcard' to the City in the 00s while "Oh Boy" is to Berlin in the 00s. The sense of tragedy and extreme outcomes of the 20-40s that is in the basis of the screenplay for Oslo, is simply not there for the 90-00's, the result is a similar in atmosphere and structure, yet a very different in a meaning (or lack of it) film. Another thing i wanted to note, that the difference in the stories' outcomes is also reflected throughout the films in how characters relate to the world. In Oslo, the protagonist seems to be completely outside of the world of the others. In Oh Boy, though protagonist talks about this feeling of being a stranger, he, in fact, is very connected to the world, in every scene, you see the character involving himself with the fellow denizens of the city (whether learning from an old German in a bar, escaping a robbery, drinking with a depressed neighbor or ... etc)...I also felt the film was a bit longish, and a bit lacking in coherent story, and somewhat full of quotations, so 7/10 is the highest I would give, maybe even 6 :)