Horst_In_Translation Review of Verschwende deine Jugend

Verschwende deine Jugend (2003)

Another wild, but very forgettable German movie from the early 2000s

[4/10 · 3 February 2019]

"Verschwende deine Jugend" or "Play It Loud!" is a German (mostly) German-language full feature film from 2003, so this one had its 15th anniversary last year. The director is Benjamin Quabeck and while this was not hs first known full feature film and he is still active in the industry today, his career really went south quickly afterward. If it was north at all, you could even say as honestly I am not impressed by this movie here. His "Nichts bereuen" is as forgettable, but probably even more famous and he recast Jessica Schwarz again for this one we got here. The writers are Ralf Hertwig and Kathrin Richter and this is not their only collaboration by any means, but certainly a contender for their most known. They are more successful than Quabeck these days too, even if you would not cound them anywhere near the elite of German filmmakers in 2019. Now as for the movie: The poster already tells you that this is one of the many many new wave German films that appeared in the aftermath of Lola rennt and were pretty fast, always had a connection to crime and love and just seemed pretty bold and void of compromise. On the first look only though because honestly all this is pointless if the story is so much in your face (as are the characters) that it forgets to be deep, insightful, touching and memorable and you can insert a whole lot of other adjectives in here too in my opinion, all the positive ones actually that this film lacks. The cast is not too shabby. Jessiva Schwarz is solid as always while not really making a big impact either though. Also she shows how the wrong haircut and color can really hurt your visual perception as I think she is/was among the most stunning German film has/had to offer with her long dark hair and dreamy looks. But here she plays more of a punk. Her male counterpart is Robert Stadlober, if you can even say that. He has very little screen time and clearly his star had been falling quickly during that time already as he was the epitome of a successful German teen actor who did not manage a successful transition into more serious movies and rightfully so as honestly I don't see a lot of talent in him gently-speaking. One who is still a force these days is Tom Schilling, who plays the main character. Schilling is also the lead in the very recent German Oscar-nominated movie "Never Look Away", so yeah he is certainly living the good life. In this old film we have here, well relatively old lets say, he plays a man working at a bank who gets drawn in deeper and deeper into a world that is the exact opposite of his solid, well-ordered and responsible work life at the bank and eventually this culminates in him commiting a serious crime. By the way, music is also a big factor in this film. Good music? I wouldn't say so. There is one stage performance by Schilling's character where he lets it all out near the end. Very bold, very much in your face, but as empty as everything else in this movie pretty much, also lyrics-wise. This is a film that is far too much style over substance and the characters seem almost gimmicky the longer it goes. It is more the writers' than the actors' fault in my opinion. I don't recommend watching these slightly over 1.5 hours and give them a thumbs-down. Go for something rlse instead. Even if you love German film, this is not the one for you. Oh well, maybe you can see it if you liked "Nichts bereuen", but I think both are relatively weak to be honest. Also not worth seeing for the young(er) Jürgen, Moschitto and Ulmen, regardless of how talented or not they might be. Skip it.