"Teenage Angst" is a German thriller from 2008, so this one will have its 10th anniversary next year. The director is Thomas Stuber (recently very successful with "Herbert") and after some short film work, this his his very first full feature film, at slightly over 60 minutes (including credits a really short one though). Maybe that is the reason the film lacks in the story-telling department quite a bit. We have a group of four young men and we see what the "advantages" of their parents' wealth turned them into: sadists, criminals, masochists, indifferent followers, but the humanity is pretty much gone in all of these. Admittedly, the grown-up characters in here are not helping matters (i.e. the boys) either. Nonetheless the film delivers really as nothing but a story of shock value and humiliation. You don't care for any of the characters or their well-being really. In terms of the character study component, it is really an underwhelming outcome I must say. The young actors are nothing special either and I don't really see promise in them. Or perspective. For a decent and especially for a long career in the industry, they need to step things up. Same for the duo who wrote this. Then again, it's been almost 10 years since this came out, so here's hoping they managed to improve already. For daddy Schweighöfer all hope is lost though perhaps age-wise. Then again he probably isn't any worse in here than his equally untalented and horribly overrated son. This film offers almost nothing below the surface and I give it a thumbs-down. It's not a failure, but also miles away from being a good movie. I am glad it was this short. Not recommended. Oh yeah, final note: This film is also known as Spieltrieb and you should not mistake it for the other later title (by Gregor Schnitzler) with that name because that one is actually fairly decent.
Review of Teenage Angst
