Roter Himmel (Afire)
2023
**½
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, Matthias Brandt, Jennipher Antoni, Esther Esche
While forest fires rage in the area, Leon and his friend arrive at a holiday house on Germany’s Baltic coast. Leon hopes to focus on his writing, but a young woman staying in the same house complicates his plans. I failed to warm to Christian Petzold's drama, which seems go nowhere at a glacial pace. Leon is self-obsessed, jealous, and an all-around terrible human being, so his troubles don't amount to a hill of beans. As if that weren't enough, Petzold's screenplay features one of my absolute pet peeves: a struggling writer plagued by writer’s block who can flourish only when life hands him something tragic to write about. The film looks good, and the performances are solid, though.
