"Fraktus - Das letzte Kapitel der Musikgeschichte" or "Ute, Tasche, Vogel" or just "Fraktus" is a German movie from 2012, so it has its 5th anniversary this year. The director here is Lars Jessen and he is also one of the writers. This is probably his most known work, even if you must say that a whole lot of other writers and directors apparently worked on this one according to IMDb. This is a fake documentary along the lines of "Stromberg", only that it is about the apparently quarreling band members of a fictitious band that was very successful back in the day. And now they may be up for a huge comeback. Or for a huge failure? Anything can happen. And this is one of the biggest strengths of the film. Honestly, there have been so so many German comedies (usually with lots of drama and romance too) from the last decade that were so entirely predictable and this one here makes for a nice change to that regard. I think the entire concept is pretty interesting. It's also nice they got so many familiar faces (i.e. people from the music industry) to play themselves in here, even if admittedly they all basically say the same and are interchangeable. But honestly, if this was really a documentary, then they would be as well. So it's all good.
Another smart decision here is probably that they cast people for the band members who are not really known here in Germany, at least no big name actors. It clearly was the makers' attention to let the audience feel that this documentary is as real as it could be. If you don't know that it's all fake, you would actually believe on more than just a few occasions that this was an actual documentary. Could it all be true? Oh well, if you know a bit about German films, you probably recognize Devid Striesow, the most (only?) familiar face that isn't playing himself in here. But it's not a negative deal-breaker for any reason as he also plays his part well. Yes the film does go over the top at times, also in the band members looks to be honest that did not really fit the music style you find them I must say. Or that scene with the news report about an apparent lunatic running amok and so on. It's far from a perfect movie, but the idea is so good that it's not too difficult to look past the flaws it has. It drags on some occasions too admittedly and would have been better at 80 minutes perhaps. Actually it runs for 95, but this includes roughly 10 minutes of credits already. In terms of awards attention, it "only" got in once with the German Film Awards, but that's not too bad either I guess. It's definitely one of the better German films from 2012 and certainly worth checking out, even if the concept here had a lot more to offer than they finally delivered. I may be a bit biased as electronic music never has been a great thing to me, but it's still easy to enjoy the movie, even if you prefer rock, pop, country music or whatever. So all in all, I give it a thumbs-up. Nothing too outstanding, but a pretty solid achievement. Just not on the same level as Stromberg for example.
Another smart decision here is probably that they cast people for the band members who are not really known here in Germany, at least no big name actors. It clearly was the makers' attention to let the audience feel that this documentary is as real as it could be. If you don't know that it's all fake, you would actually believe on more than just a few occasions that this was an actual documentary. Could it all be true? Oh well, if you know a bit about German films, you probably recognize Devid Striesow, the most (only?) familiar face that isn't playing himself in here. But it's not a negative deal-breaker for any reason as he also plays his part well. Yes the film does go over the top at times, also in the band members looks to be honest that did not really fit the music style you find them I must say. Or that scene with the news report about an apparent lunatic running amok and so on. It's far from a perfect movie, but the idea is so good that it's not too difficult to look past the flaws it has. It drags on some occasions too admittedly and would have been better at 80 minutes perhaps. Actually it runs for 95, but this includes roughly 10 minutes of credits already. In terms of awards attention, it "only" got in once with the German Film Awards, but that's not too bad either I guess. It's definitely one of the better German films from 2012 and certainly worth checking out, even if the concept here had a lot more to offer than they finally delivered. I may be a bit biased as electronic music never has been a great thing to me, but it's still easy to enjoy the movie, even if you prefer rock, pop, country music or whatever. So all in all, I give it a thumbs-up. Nothing too outstanding, but a pretty solid achievement. Just not on the same level as Stromberg for example.