System Crasher

There's a better story buried in what this failed, but decent movie ends up proposing. The plot is efficient because of young Helena Zengel's wonderful performance, but this plot also suffers from an excessive and misguided idealism. It's one thing for you to believe in the situation posed by the narrative, and quite another to understand that this girl needs some kind of medication instead of a therapy like the one we see being applied to her. Because this movie certainly points to that girl's desire for liberation, but for her to be loose in the world like that, it's not a positive thing for her in any way, because there's no question that you have to admit it - and the movie does, slightly though - that there are other more serious difficulties to consider. System Crasher is an stimulating movie that doesn't fit all of its pieces together, but it does raise interesting questions about the system and its blatant inability to handle cases like these. Because how many children like this were, and are lost in it?

"System Crasher" is my first major disappointment of the still-young year, after critics and audiences alike showered it with praise. I simply can't understand it. Nora Fingscheidt's second feature film is nothing more than pure, public-service-broadcasting feel-good cinema. A film for people who are very well off, perhaps too well off, and therefore develop a need for a safe catharsis.Because instead of seriously engaging with social work and the field of child and youth welfare, "System Crasher" simply ticks off the classic story tropes. The constantly shaky camera and natural lighting are supposed to create "realism." However, the script is diametrically opposed to this goal: A school aide who takes a nine-year-old girl alone to a cabin in the woods for three weeks, for which he has absolutely no training? This same aide takes Benni home with him, thereby endangering his own family? Serious injuries aren't treated for hours?All these absurd and illegal actions are presented in "System Crasher" as necessary to demonstrate to the audience just how difficult life can be. The film's message: If we only have enough people willing to sacrifice themselves, endanger their own families, and even adopt violent, mentally ill children (!), then our social system will work out.I won't even begin to comment on Helena Zengel's "acting"—it's not difficult to make a child constantly scream and shout "bad" words. She probably had the time of her life on set. The other actors are okay, if you can tolerate the constant screaming.Disgusting: The way Benni's mother is portrayed as the antagonist because she (justifiably) fears her child and her other children.Unintentionally funny: Benni tears little Justin apart while ice skating.Conclusion: a horribly failed attempt to address an important topic – therefore perfect for the 3sat/ZDF themed evening with a subsequent discussion round.