User Reviews

"Das Pubertier" is a German 94-minute movie from this year (2017) and the newest work by writer and director Leander Haußmann, surely a bit of a household name here in Germany, and he is also a prolific actor. This work we got here is a definite contender for worst effort of his career and this is true too for everybody else working on the project. I am not a disgruntled fan of the book by Jan Weiler as I have not read it at all, so no idea where the problem lies exactly: in the book or in the adaptation. I just wonder what Weiler thinks of this movie. He also wrote the "ihm schmeckt's nicht" stuff and while these films weren't great either, they were at least watchable. But this one here is a gigantic mess, garbage from start to finish almost. Admittedly the first 30 minutes or so were still tolerable. It is very fitting that Liefers is in the center of it all as he is one of the most overrated German actors out there. I won't deny that he is pretty charismatic, but range he does not have. All about the showiness and make-believe and sadly that is enough for most German audiences if you look at his Tatort success.

Back to this film here now: Liefers' younger co-lead Harriet Herbig-Matten (playing his daughter) is just as bad. Other known names like Makatsch or von Dohnanyi don't have the material too shine, but they are cringeworthy too. What does this film want to be? A father-daughter story, a coming-of-age tale, a story about puberty and sexual thoughts, possibly first love for teenagers and a lot more. It fails horribly in all these departments. What was the weakest moment? Perhaps the "tits monologue" on stage? Or the phone call between the two boys while one is doing strange things with his dick? Or is it the ending when everybody starts singing. This film hits rock-bottom really on so many occasions, especially in the second half that it gets really unwatchable. Oh yeah the scene with the guy under the bed that you see on the poster is another.

I somehow thought this was a small screen release, maybe because Liefers does these often, but no it was a big screen release in fact and people paid actual money to see this garbage. I also think it is truly despicable how production company Constantin Film included all kinds of posters for their other movies. Not only do they produce garbage quality on a constant basis and have that really dubious Abmahnwahn thingy going on for years, but they also spam their films as advertising in this one here. Unreal stuff. This should say a lot about the artistic integrity (or lack thereof) this film has to offer. Boy oh boy, Mr. Haußmann have you sunken low! Same for Detlev Buck who I respect from an artistic perspective. No idea why he would want to be associated with a project like this. As with Liefers I am not surprised. He is a bit of a male Veronica Ferres, keeps closing a bit in on Schweighöfer, the king of German trash movies that the simple part of the population, sadly the big part apparently, seems to enjoy. Fittingly, Elyas M'Barek, another contender for the throne with his unbearable FJG film series has a cameo here too. Playing himself. Ugh. This film here is not realistic, it is not funny, it is not meaningful. It is the cheapest attempt to cash in while offering zero talent and creativity and still getting away with it as I am sure many saw artistic value in here and these probably deem themselves intelligent too. As long as it stays that way, you cannot even blame the filmmakers for coming up with crap like this. People in Germany need to reconsider their taste in film. Or all hope is lost for years, probably decades, to come until hopefully a more respectable generation takes over, in terms of both artists (creators) and audiences. This film here gets a huge thumbs-down from me of course and I highly recommend that you do not watch it.