German cinema as a whole, but German genre cinema in particular has been a mess for decades. Blatantly mediocre at best, utterly cringeworthy at its worst with very, very few glimmers of hope in between. "Jugend ohne Gott" is just another addition to the pile of rubbish that my country has unfortunately accumulated while attempting genre cinema. The movie is terribly pretentious, on the nose and cliché-laden. The social commentary is formulaic, simplistic and superficial, the dialogue is mostly cringeworthy and inauthentic. The movie as a whole lacks depth in every aspect and is only saved from being completely unwatchable by the halfway decent cinematography and the good production values by German standards. Nevertheless: Avoid.
Review of Godless Youth
