"Leroy" is a 2007 movie that runs slightly under 90 minutes and deals with a black boy's struggles when he finds out his new girlfriend has 5 Neonazi brothers. Actually, this is an interesting premise for a comedy. And that is also why the film works nicely in the first 45 minutes. The girl seems to be quite a rebel even if she does not appear like that. Her last boyfriend was not German either and one of her best friends is a homosexual Jew. The film is directed by Armin Völckers who also released the short movie that this is based on. Sadly, there have been no new projects by him in the last 8 years. Some of the characters are played by the same actors like the central character, but they also brought new ones such as von Jascheroff or the always pleasant Günther Kaufmann (rip) as the protagonist's father. Interestingly enough Leroy (Alain Morel, not much of a career after this movie either) likes hanging out with his fro and Italy soccer t-shirt, right after Italy became World Champion in football in Germany and was very much despised by Germans.
This movie won Best Score and Best Youth Film at the German Film Awards, maybe because Leroy is not stereotypically black. He reads Goether, plays the cello and likes going to exhibitions. Nonetheless, he becomes more and more stereotypically black as the film goes on as a movement of protest against his new Nazi acquaintances and the movie also includes many references on Black communities in terms of music, politics, movies of just lifestyle in general. Sadly, when this film really starts to depict physically violent conflicts between the two extremes, it is where it gets a lot worse. They did a nice job of mocking the Nazi ideology in pure comedy manner (also all the scenes involving animals) for almost the first hour, but when it turns more into a drama, it goes south pretty quickly. That is why I do not recommend it and the really all-negative highlight is when Leroy and the Nazi gang make a music video at the very end. Downright cringeworthy.
This movie won Best Score and Best Youth Film at the German Film Awards, maybe because Leroy is not stereotypically black. He reads Goether, plays the cello and likes going to exhibitions. Nonetheless, he becomes more and more stereotypically black as the film goes on as a movement of protest against his new Nazi acquaintances and the movie also includes many references on Black communities in terms of music, politics, movies of just lifestyle in general. Sadly, when this film really starts to depict physically violent conflicts between the two extremes, it is where it gets a lot worse. They did a nice job of mocking the Nazi ideology in pure comedy manner (also all the scenes involving animals) for almost the first hour, but when it turns more into a drama, it goes south pretty quickly. That is why I do not recommend it and the really all-negative highlight is when Leroy and the Nazi gang make a music video at the very end. Downright cringeworthy.
