RUN LOLA RUN (aka LOLA RENNT) review

Alrighty. Well, I really would like to apologize for not having seen RUN LOLA RUN earlier. We’ve had great reports on this film for ages now, but really... I feel a bit lame for not having been able to see it at ROTTERDAM back in late January.

Then again in Los Angeles on one of my trips, but it seems that at every turn I have made towards this film, some sort of Hitchcock-style camera move made the film recede far beyond my grasp.

So I had to wait for the first day it screened here in Austin, Texas... which was this past Friday. Same day that the stunning Cora Smith was arriving to town.

I spent most of the day awaiting her presence. Scrubbing my skin with turpentine. Getting a S.O.S pad to clean my teeth and washing the birds and the bees, the flowers and the fleas from my hair.

You see, one does not meet Cora Smith in any condition beyond the best of their ability, cause that is what Cora deserves.

You see, this was Cora’s birthday and we had it all very well planned out. Annette Kellerman, Tom Joad, RoRo, Peter Blood, Father Geek and the infamous Johnny Wad were going to take her to see RUN LOLA RUN, then out to eat and drink and make merriment at Trudy’s. Then we were to funnel in large amounts of Guinness at The Alamo Drafthouse while watching a pristine widescreen print of GHOSTBUSTERS. Then we were to do... whatever it was that the evening cried out for. Hopefully it would involve pagan orgiastic activity, but we would ultimately settle for slumber instead.

At approximately 1754 hours (Cool Standard Time) I felt the pheramonical presence of the dear lil Cora Smith on the otherside of my door, and quickly thereafter I heard the ever so soft pounding of her pearl handled 25 caliber automatic against the 30 feet high gothic arched doors that grace the front of geek headquarters.

As I opened the door a golden “Pulp Fictiony/Repo Man-y” style glow flooded into the room followed by a ravishingly retro-styled Cora Smith, who instantly embraced me and forced hot passionate whirlwind inducing tidal waves of hot cha cha cha chaaaaas throughout my brain.

After she Mathilda May-ed me, she stepped into the house and went to the bathroom to clean up and get ready for the evening. Luckily she did not discover either the potty cam nor the ventilation shaft cam we had set up in anticipation of this move. (Coming Soon: Revealing Live Streaming Cora Smith at Geek Headquarters Facilities Footage *TM*)

Quickly after she escaped the bathroom she melted us with her wit and beauty and we left for the Arbor Theater to see RUN LOLA RUN.

We were arriving about an hour and a half early to insure no problems procuring tickets for this highly anticipated (in Austin) film. I sent Father Geek on to Starbucks to grab a table, while Cora Smith and I sought out one of those Daleks that spew out money when properly programmed. The first thing you learn about these money-spewing Daleks is to ignore their cries of “DESTROY!” and to just enter in the secret ‘bah ray ewe’ code and spew... money comes out.

I went over to the Arbor box office, with my ‘easy money’ and asked for 3 tickets to RUN LOLA RUN... This rather cool James Bond villain looking character towered behind the box office attendant and tapped her spine as I approached the window. I pushed a double X at her and she refused my money, and instead asked, “Name?”

Looking at Cora and nearly losing myself in her eyes, I swung my pendulum back at the automaton and said, “Walt Sent Me.” She wrote the word Walt down and handed me three torn tickets and the towering man was now nowhere to be seen. Hmmmm...

With this development, I decided to further impress Cora with the greatest monument in all of Austin. It’s not the UT tower from which Charles Whitman killed all those people. It’s not Threadgill’s where Janis Joplin learned to sing the blues. It is not the 23rd Street Renaissance Market with it’s Austintatious mural. No.... For me, the monument... the artistic achievement that defines the insanity of this town I so dearly love, lays and stands and kneels in the soft green grass of the Arboretum.

I am, of course, speaking of those cows... Those glorious marble cows. According to ancient Austin bohemian legend, a small herd of cattle wondered upon this patch of Earth and realized that one day in the future Junior Wells will belt out tunes in this very spot. So the cows being the music lovers that they were.... Stayed there. And they waited. Centuries went by, even geologic eras... until finally the event occurred. For one day, a few years back, Junior Wells sung for these cows and for those present they heard an ever so soft ‘Moo’ escaped the stoic lips of the buffed bovine.

Of course that is just legend, and I have certainly never heard the sacred marble cows go ‘Moo’ but they do seem to extract the phrase from nearly everyone that touches their stone hide.

Cora was, of course, impressed beyond words upon seeing the petrified pre-hamburgers. She hugged them, she straddled them... And suddenly I wished to be a marble cow.

After our journey to ‘moo-ka’ we met Father Geek at Starbucks only to find him on his 5th Double Expresso. He was shaking in and out of our plane of existence, so we ordered some strange fruity tea and smoothie and sat to join him.

Soon, Annette Kellerman and the hari Krishna edition of Tom Joad arrived and we sat and shot the shit for quite some time.

There was a general feeling of happiness and togetherness as we marched side by side into the Arbor. Those styrofoam clouds and giant sized screens awaiting our attendance.

We went straight to 4th row center and sat back to watch RUN LOLA RUN.

Peter Blood, Johnny Wad and RoRo all filed in, in short order, and soon it was time for the movie.

The Trailer for THE FIGHT CLUB began and we were instantly in an even better mood. Annette pointed out the similarity between my abdomen and Brad Pitt’s and we all smiled.

After the annoying as hell commercials, many of which grace the top of my site, like the DEN ads and the VISA ad... Only Pepsi seemed to be missing from my site.

On a website they’re tolerable... You can scan past if you are not interested, and if your curiosity is piqued, then you can click and learn more.... However, in a theater you can’t hit mute, fast forward or scan past... You must watch them in their entirety.

Ahhh... seems the advertisements of Europe’s theaters have finally swam the ocean dividing us. Where were those pesky CGI sharks when you really needed em.

Finally.... RUN LOLA RUN began.

Instantly this movie grabs you. Not half an hour in, not ten minutes in, but instantly. This movie is literally the movie my sister has been waiting her entire life to see, and I’m taking her in the next couple of days.

For all you women out there that are tired of the damsel in distress flicks. And for all you guys tired of having to rescue the damsel in distress... Well finally we have a movie to turn to where, from beginning to end it is our stunning Lola who must rescue the dude in distress.

Tom Tykwer is instantly a talent that needs support and a fan following. His direction in this film is electric, brisk and completely in control. The movie is breathless and the film is a rush of methamphetamine in an all natural health food sort of variety.

Remember the opening moments of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS where Tak Fujimoto’s camera is gliding alongside a full out running Clarice Starling and something inside your head clicked and thought, “Cool”? Well yeah, we have a lot of that here.

The title does not lie to you, this is literally a movie that is more about running than WITHOUT LIMITS, PREFONTAINE or CHARIOTS OF FIRE. However, the film is never truly about running. In those films the act of running is in fact the primary subject of the story. About winning the race, out running your best time, the guy next to you. It was always about the finish line.

Here though, while Lola is indeed running, the movie is instead about a transcendental love that plays with the very fabric of our existence.

You know the ‘cool’ vibe you get from movies like PULP FICTION, TRAINSPOTTING, THE MATRIX and LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS? Well, this film has that very same, ‘we know we have a soundtrack that rocks and we’re going with it’ sort of feeling.

The movie is paced very much to the techno groove that is pounding like a boogie beat metronome and if you ain’t completely convinced that the soundtrack belongs in your car upon leaving the theater, then perhaps your pulse is in fact not beating.

Franka Potente (aka LOLA) is a wonder in the film. She runs as though she has never run, but simply must run. She doesn’t have a professional’s gait, nor does she simply trot. It’s that desperate last 10 minutes of Edmond O’Brien’s DOA*. Lola is a character that realizes the odds are against her and her treasured Manni. She knows she’s in the Kobayashi Maru, and dammit she’s gotta be James Tiberius Kirk for this twenty minutes.

This is not a matter of choice, but simply a matter of fact. It’s a bit of GROUNDHOG’S DAY without the ‘I have all the time in the world’ lack of urgency. Instead it’s “I have to get it all right, this time cause I only have one shot at this,” ya know?

If you are tired of the ‘traditional’ action film, this is your movie. If you are tired of the mere conventions of the genre, this is your movie. But if you hate the genre and have never ever loved it, then perhaps you’d best spend your time amongst the RUNAWAY BRIDEs and BIG DADDYs of the world.

The film makes excellent use of animation, sped up motion, slow-motion, camera tricks and style to create a movie that I didn’t want to see a frame changed in.

Now, beyond the hyper-ventilating nature of this film there is a heart. Particularly revealed in the ‘all red’ sequences which I felt were beautiful last moments of thought, that revealed everything about the characters involved.

Meanwhile, I’ve seen it discussed all over the place, so I might as well address it. Lola’s superhuman siren’s scream. Why’s it there? What purpose does it serve? Well... I’ll tell ya.

It’s merely that contrivance that is there to tell you strange things are afoot in the world of Lola. That all is not merely as it seems. That she is not a mere gutter trash punkette, but in actuality a goddess of cool walking this earth and every earth in pursuit of the one she loves.

It’s a mythical quality that firmly lifts this cinematic experience off it’s feet and into flight. Because this is one movie that doesn’t tell you to keep your arms and legs in the cabin. Stand up on that hump and during the loop-de-loop. Cause this movie is one hell of a ride that provokes thought as well as make your adrenal gland all sweaty and pumpy.

Afterwards the AICN group was all doing the LOLA beat outloud and singing the movie’s praise. And not once during the whole film did I remember Lola (Dietrich) and ya know.... That’s a testament to Franka.... What a cool goddess we have here.

There is so much that is perfectly cool about this film that I could write on about the various coolosities for days on end, but then that’d be taking away from the film. It is not my place to introduce you to each of these treasures, instead it is now your place to go seek them out.

Search your local paper for that theater you rarely visit and go there tomorrow to see this film. Then you’ll be back with the friends whom you have hounded into the lobby of that self-same theater they never visit.

Personally now, I have found my Lara Croft and her name is Franka. Run Geek Run to see RUN LOLA RUN. It is one of those films you migrate in droves to see quickly and often. It is a film that works whether you are depressed or fully toxic... It’s a film to talk ears off of talking about.

And thus far I do believe it is hands down the coolest film I’ve seen.