In
near future Germany, immigrants and neo-Nazis openly clash on the streets and
emergency services never venture into certain neighborhoods. A robot also plays
a minor role, if you were wondering what made it near-futuristic. Murder might
be a common occurrence, but not for Eliana. She will deal with some pretty
unsavory people for the sake of revenge in Adolfo Kolmerer & William James’
Snowflake (trailer here), which screens
tonight during Cinepocalypse 2017 in Chicago.
Javid
and Tan shot up the kabab shop where Eliana’s late parents were eating, because
they are violent knuckleheads. They deserve some harsh payback, even though
they are products of their savage environment. They too seek revenge for the
deaths of their families, which they blame on a former security minister turned
outlaw paramilitary leader—not without some justification. With the help of her
family’s former bodyguard Carson, Eliana will hire some of Europe’s vilest assassins
to cap Javid and Tan.
There
will be considerable collateral damage, which nobody knows better than Arend
Remmers, the screenwriting dentist. Every violent scene he writes comes true.
When Javid and Tan find an incomplete early draft, they pay him a little visit
hoping to strong arm a better ending out of him, but it is hard to get around
certain principles of screenwriting.
Arend
Remmers, the real life screenwriter, deserves credit for re-invigorating the Don
Quixote/Pirandello-esque conceit of characters acknowledging and responding to
the supposedly fictional works in which they appear. In Remmers’ screenplay[s],
it is presented in a fittingly surreal and post-modern fashion, but it is never
belabored, because there is additional pressing mayhem going on simultaneously,
particularly that involving the film’s wildcards, Hyper Electro Man, the
costumed vigilante, and Snowflake, Javid and Tan’s supposed guardian angel.
Snowflake is an
espresso-charged, pedal-to-the-metal revenge thriller, with a heck of a lot of
moving parts, but it still features some downright shockingly memorable
performances. Xenia Assenza and David Masterson are terrific together as Eliana
and Carson, in what might be the best bodyguard-client movie relationship since
Sammo Hung’s The Bodyguard (which
could be the best ever).
Adrian
Topol also bears watching as Bolek, who turns out to be a surprisingly
compassionate cannibalistic Polish hitman (look, you have to make allowances in
the future). Alexander Schubert earns some big laughs as Remmers, the on-screen
sad sack screenwriter, but neither Reza Brojerdi or Erkan Acar manage to
appreciably humanize Javid and Tan, despite the film’s efforts on their behalf.
However, the insanity really skyrockets when crafty veteran David Gant appears
as Caleb, Carson’s apocalyptic cult-leader father Caleb.
Genre
fans will be relieved to know Snowflake’s
metaness never gets in the way of the violence. For a dystopia, Adolfo
Kolmerer & William James’ Berlin looks a heck of a lot like our world, but
it is still an unusually dark vision of the future. Yet, somehow, they also
make it wildly entertaining. Highly recommended for fans of cult cinema, Snowflake screens tonight (11/5), as
part of this year’s Cinepocalypse.
