I Am Guilty (2005)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

A Disappointing Continuation

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This film is disturbing because you are not clear what actually happened and what was imagined. If some of the events did occur, then the film is a disturbing commentary about some young people in today's society. This film is not a typical Hollywood style film because the film moves at a slower pace, the plot is not clearly defined and the ending does not resolve the film. But there are some darkly comic moments and there is good acting.Armin Steeb comes from a nice middle class family and lives in a nice middle class neighborhood. Armin is fresh out of college and applying for jobs, but he appears bored and aimless. His parents have high hopes and expectations for him but maybe that is part of his problem?? His parents and society have these expectations of Armin, but maybe he is unsure how to be what is expected of him. Perhaps he does not want the life that his parents or society believes he should want. The usual routine is get into a good college, get a good job, find a life partner, have a family of your own, and the cycle repeats. His older brother has fulfilled the expectations of his parents; therefore, they are worried about Armin's lack of direction. Armin appears to want excitement and notoriety, perhaps this is why he confesses to a crime that he did not commit.Haven't you met people or heard about people who supposedly came from nice middle class families, who went to college but later were a disappointment to their families? In every family, there are the usual success stories but there is always that one in the family who everybody wonders what happened with them? This is why I did like the film in spite of it's weak points because it shows a period in a young person's life that we have all experienced at some point. At some point you have to leave college and your parents home to decide who you are and what you want. Perhaps Armin feels ill prepared to face his life.

Is the Cannes controversy-meter remarkably esoteric, or is that we Americans are so callous and cynical that we never bother to read between the lines anymore? Be that as it may, with plenty of careful analyzing, "Falscher Bekenner" at no point seems to live up to the hyped controversy it supposedly brought to Cannes in 2005, a puzzlingly drab and aimless movie that rather lives up to it's glum American re-title ("Low Profile").Building on familiar themes of Bourgeoise angst and subsequent sexual liberation (kind of), admittedly it's a film not without it's surface-level interests. It starts out with a grabber, as a haunting shot of a desolate off-the-highway road focuses in on a teenage drifter, who ultimately walks by a totaled car, where supposedly a brutal hit-and-run has left the driver dead in a gory mess. Stunned, he does nothing but pick up a scrap of the remaining engine.Just out of school, the drifter turns out to be Armin Steebe, a product of the German suburbs with minimal ambition. Persisentily pressured by his caring but somewhat nagging parents to find a good job, he endures interview after interview with every haughty interviewer along with it, every one with the same fruitless outcome. Getting mighty sick of it, his aforementioned highway encounter soon provokes his first act of rebellion: claiming responsibility for the crime which he did not commit.Pretending to fill out more applications and going to more and more bizarre job interviews by sunrise, he partakes in roadside sexual fantasies and petty vandalism way after sundown. As the days get shorter and the nights get much hotter, as he goes on living in his suburban neighborhood as if he's doing nothing out of the ordinary.If you seem confused about what exactly is going on, don't worry about being the only one: this is about as far and coherent as the story gets. The plot seems simple enough, and perhaps due to it's seemingly direct purposes that's why "Falscher Bekenner" becomes pointlessly convoluted, becoming enamored with endless false conclusions, dreamlike situations and graphic sex scenes to try and enlighten a story lacking clear logic to an already vague argument (supposedly the soul-numbing effects of the modern suburban wasteland, or something about youth's fascination with crime. Hey, it could even be a coming-out movie.) at hand. It spends a lot of time creating numerous symbols, both tangible and surrealistically allegorical, but they don't seem to be really symbolizing anything of interest. The most fatal flaw, however, is how the filmmakers paint all it's characters in a rough shade of vanilla. There's hardly any distinguishable traits to help understand their purpose, and how the secondary characters (especially the confused relationship between Armin and his rather normal- perhaps too normal- family) catalyze the already under-developed lead character's "plight" never comes into focus. How are we supposed to identify with this young almost-adult's rebellion, with little sense of the world he's living in or the prominent figures around him that help comprise it? Many people drop in and out of the movie (including Armin's sort-of girlfriend Katja, and a strange, affluent visitor who for some reason finds pleasure in watching the protagonist eat brownies) and seem to exist for no reason whatsoever. They ultimately just seem like prolonged padding to an already thin story with pointless subplots that continue to prove the movie is drawing a total blank about where to go next.And even a movie that supposedly toys with reality (especially with Armin's nightly exploits), it ends with a literal, almost moralizing head-scratcher that seems to halt questions to a "story" that does little but put it's viewer in a state of pointlessly exhausted perplexion.Without any color, it's impossible to shade anything vital in.

I saw this movie at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival. I did end up being somewhat disappointed because this movie sounded somewhat like last year's "Quiet as a Mouse" (which has yet to be released in the US, or anywhere with subtitles!) but it turned out to be a lot more confusing. It seemed to be very drifting and vague, with no central plot, and the 'startling ending' wasn't so startling at all. As the final scene ended and the credits came up, the audience cried out collectively. No one had expected it to end with such a little whimper, no bang at all.However, the fantasy sequences were entertaining and the acting was great, so I would still give this movie a 6 out of 10, and see it again in hopes to understand it better...

I saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival. I don't understand how they take titles of films from foreign countries and change the title for American audiences. The distributors took Falshe Bekenner which I guess would translate into False Confessions and changed it to Low Profile. This is a disturbing story about a bright but bored and troubled teen named Armin who comes from a loving family. There is a lot happening in this movie that may have different meanings and you are left wondering about several things. What is real and what is imagined. What did Armin do and what didn't he do. I couldn't figure out why he is so troubled or why he is rebelling when his parents seem like very caring and loving people. This is a very interesting story and is very stylized with a great sound. I would give this a 7.0 out of 10 and would like to see it again.