Toni Erdmann

Maren Ade, Germany/Austria 2016), 162 mins 

Rating: R16 sex scenes,nudity, drug use, offensive language

Writer/director Maren Ade’s epic comedy about a prankster dad’s campaign to connect with his mortified workaholic daughter was the hands-down audience favourite at Cannes, and universally tipped to win.

Assuming the persona of a clownish ‘life coach’, the eponymous anti-hero lays siege to the corporate lifestyle.
Trust in the creative impulse informs every aspect of the film, from Ade’s dazzling script which has just enough of a classical comedic structure to support two hours and 42 minutes of surprises big and small, to her direction, which is designed to liberate the actors as much as possible while the camera rolls, to the performances (Simonischek and Hüller seem to be as amazed as we are by the things their characters lead them to do)…

– Amy Taubin, Film Comment
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