Testing Life (2011) Poster

(2011)

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6/10
Good idea, but shallow
This is an interesting topic and how pharmaceuticals drug approval is practised merits critical attention. However, it would have been a really excellent movie if the oppressive atmosphere during the experimental phase would have been depicted without making the hospital staff resemble as prison guards (or maybe even worse: concentration camp guards). In the current form, the plot appears too stereotypical, too shallow, and unrealistic.

One may wonder at the end how Testing Life Ii will turn out? Will Ans Suess ever have any remorse that she scammed the social system back in Berlin? Will she maybe come to realize that struggling for survival can typically be much more brutal in L.A. than back in Berlin? And finally, even though a bit of a stretch too far: What will she think about individuals sentenced to death and being - intentionally - killed with pharmaceutical cocktails in her dreamland (quoting Ana Suess: "...the land of the free and the land of the braves")?
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6/10
I Dislike People Who Always Smile
nammage2 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The writer, director, and star is smiling all the time. I dislike people who smile all the time; not because I believe they're hiding something but that it seems like a complete façade of who they actually are. Even, as in the beginning, she's reading a book or talking to her boss and is upset: she's smiling. Freaks me out.

She plays a girl who has a dream of being an actress but she can't get into the school she wants to because it costs too much but there's an alternative school she can go to in Los Angeles, California for considerably less but even that seems too taxing for her so she pretty much, to get the money for L.A. she "sells" her body to a 'clinic' that pokes and prods (exaggerated) her body for scientific research; in this vain: pharmaceutical research.

Of course when she gets to the clinic, her smile is gone. She appears timid, distracted, uncomfortable and then back home: all smiles. Façade. She feels like an angsty teenager. They hate their life but everything will be better if their dreams will just come true but at the same time: the world is against them, their family's not wealthy enough, and nothing's ever just the way they want it. That's life: everyone goes through that, even the wealthy. If you can't make your dreams come true then make new ones. I wanted to be in the US Navy ever since I was seven or eight years old but I failed the physical. I created a new dream and wanted to go to college and become the teacher I should have had when I was in school (the one who actually cared) but I found out I had dyscalculia. Though very poor in Mathematics in school, I passed every grade but they forced me to leave when I turned 18 because I didn't have the right credits to graduate even if I stayed my full Senior year. Took the GED twice, failed the math both times. Didn't find out until it was way too late for a difference to be made. The younger you are, the better. Thought about playing professional baseball but a car wreck when I was 20 took that dream away. I kept creating new dreams and most didn't work out but now I'm really content with my life and have no regrets about the lack thereof or anything else. I'm fine. I like my life.

I think she's more of who she really is in the clinic then outside of it. If she became an actress, that would be her guise while the clinic would be her reality. If looking at it that way, this film could be seen as a Thriller, somewhat. The direction is average. It's the little things that cause minor distractions like the fading focus in the beginning, cutting from one scene to the next (or lack of). The composition is also okay. It's not terrible but it doesn't necessarily add anything. It doesn't matter really if it's there, or not. The acting is wooden, at times, but that could be me not used to seeing too many German films (more into French, Norwegian and Arabic films). The narration is over used especially when she narrates over herself; that's just annoying.

All in all, it's not too bad. Not great; most likely will never watch it again. One time's enough especially since it leaves you hanging, at the end.
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