If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans

Kalmbach’s laid-back approach proves more likable than revelatory.

A shoot with Fassbinder actress Irm Hermann signifies Tillmans's desire--and the desire of every high-profile German-speaking artist (hello, Fatih Akin)--to huff the fading smell of RWF's genius. Like the rest of the film, though, it does little to convince the unconverted of Tillmans's own.

That curatorial heft is sorely missing from Kalmbach’s final edit; it’s a portrait that neither feels forced nor fully formed.

It’s like choking down 72 minutes of a stranger’s unedited home videos, only without the occasional cute kiddie or pet to lighten the tedium.