LWLies 68: The Toni Erdmann Issue
As end-of-year poll season rolled to a close, an unlikely victor rose up to defeat all other movie foes. Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann had critics going ga-ga from the very first frames of its premiere screening at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. With little fanfare, this epic comedy instantly became the toast of the festival, the subject of eager conversations about how we had a new master filmmaker in our midst.
It's a hulking, hilarious and profound exploration of how a father develops an extremely eccentric method of reconnecting with his estranged daughter who has entrenched herself in the cut-throat world of global commerce. The film is a model of patient, detailed character building and its humour is derived from fastidious craft rather than hoping that some flavour-of-the-month stand-up is open to a bit of quick-fire ad-libbing.
Little White Lies is so loved up by this movie that they've chosen to dedicate an entire issue to it, taking a deep-dive into its themes as well as a wider scan into the thorny issue of parent-child relationships.