It's tough to figure out what director Till Schauder was going for with this. Surely the only reason anyone has seen it (outside of the festival circuit, where films like this go to die) is as an extra on the DVD of Schauder's far (far, far) superior documentary THE IRAN JOB - an appropriate enough place, given it exists as a footnote to far more interesting work.
The plot follows a frustrated architect who decides to blow up a skyscraper when his new building plans can't be realized. To say this is a bizarre bit of character motivation is an understatement. At the same time, he's planning a trip with his daughter, who he asks to meet him at another downtown location at the time of the bombing. (Really?) Naturally, she gets the places mixed up, putting him at a crossroads.
Whatever larger point the film is trying to make about society, capitalism, violence, etc. eluded me. Despite the architect's bomb threat (why is he warning people of the bombing, given he's not making any demands?), businesses refuse to close, though those "in the know" advise their loved ones to call in sick. There's also a bunch of people running around trying to defuse the bomb, but they seem to be falling for a decoy. At the end, father and daughter fly off on their vacation, while the pilot remarks with remarkable dispassion about a major building being destroyed in a terrorist attack just a few hours ago.
It's hard to imagine how this film would have played pre-9/11, but by now, it comes off as unfocused at best and appallingly glib at worst. IRAN JOB has shown Schauder as capable of great empathy and humanism as a director, so I'm sure there must be some larger point he's trying to make that's getting lost amidst the muddled direction and hoary plotting. But in the end, CITY BOMBER feels like what it is - a first try and a warm up, not even presaging the better things to come.
The plot follows a frustrated architect who decides to blow up a skyscraper when his new building plans can't be realized. To say this is a bizarre bit of character motivation is an understatement. At the same time, he's planning a trip with his daughter, who he asks to meet him at another downtown location at the time of the bombing. (Really?) Naturally, she gets the places mixed up, putting him at a crossroads.
Whatever larger point the film is trying to make about society, capitalism, violence, etc. eluded me. Despite the architect's bomb threat (why is he warning people of the bombing, given he's not making any demands?), businesses refuse to close, though those "in the know" advise their loved ones to call in sick. There's also a bunch of people running around trying to defuse the bomb, but they seem to be falling for a decoy. At the end, father and daughter fly off on their vacation, while the pilot remarks with remarkable dispassion about a major building being destroyed in a terrorist attack just a few hours ago.
It's hard to imagine how this film would have played pre-9/11, but by now, it comes off as unfocused at best and appallingly glib at worst. IRAN JOB has shown Schauder as capable of great empathy and humanism as a director, so I'm sure there must be some larger point he's trying to make that's getting lost amidst the muddled direction and hoary plotting. But in the end, CITY BOMBER feels like what it is - a first try and a warm up, not even presaging the better things to come.