An exciting and extremely topical thriller, Cold Hell is a much more complex and layered work than it may at first seem. Stefan Ruzowitzky has made not only a fresco of the city of Vienna in all its multiculturalism and controversial aspects, but also – and above all – a film that brings up complex and sensitive issues such as racism and patriarchy.
Pulled Pork is basically a big marketing product and nothing more, relying too much on the two protagonists (who are, however, at ease in their roles) and proving to be rather predictable and dispersive, with unnecessary cameos and subplots that are never fully developed.
LaRoy is a fictional Texas town that, while experiencing the contemporary financial crisis, seems to us to be almost a timeless place, where modern technology is given as little space as possible and where bizarre cowboy hats still seem to succeed in giving hilarious characters some credibility. Or, at least, that is what the wearers believe. At the Viennale 2023.
In Nikolaus Leytner’s Half a Life, alongside a clear television character, far more complex moral issues concerning anger, resentment, deep sorrow and, last but not least, a heartbreaking sense of guilt are raised.
Pepe Danquart’s C(r)ook pis inspired by US gangster movies, but is also closely reminiscent of contemporary French comedies, thanks to a successful mix of genres, between polar and real comedy.
An Alibi for Death, directed by Alfred Vohrer, is a striking thriller, shot entirely in Vienna, with a hybrid mise-en-scène, a welcome international touch and a (not too) subtle feminist character, although it also includes a certain (not always) understandable basic naivety.
With The three postal Robbers, Prochaska, deliberately targeting an audience of very young people and drawing deeply from past works, wanted to stage a world in which good always triumphs and in which there are no real villains.