German cinema stoner comedies with whimsical no-gooders in leading roles experienced their heyday around the turn of the millennium: in 1999 and 2001, Peter Thorwarth’s extremely cult Ruhrpott classic “Bang Boom Bang” with the wonderfully planned unlucky Keek and Christian Zübert’s similarly weird comedy “Lammbock”, in which two stoners run a pizza delivery service in Würzburg, were released for abusing cannabis. A quarter of a century later, director and screenwriter Sedat Aslan is now adding another chapter to the endearing subgenre of the much-maligned German comedy.
Like those responsible for “Bang Boom Bang” and “Lammbock”, the Weinheim native also foregoes Berlin, which is so overrepresented in the German mainstream, in his feature film debut “Nothing Useful”: instead, Aslan chooses Heidelberg, not far from his hometown, as the setting for the action. However, his debut cannot keep up with the two genre gems mentioned – which is mainly because a lot of it feels like a tired rehash of what we have seen all too often in the cinema of the 90s and 2000s.
The flat share trio Emre (Deniz Arora), Daniele (Benito Bause) and Freddy (Constantin von Jascheroff) are actually doing pretty well, as everything is currently.
“Good-for-nothing” is about the penniless man in his late twenties and hobby rapper Emre (Deniz Arora), who has been studying for eleven semesters, has a part-time job and has not yet entered professional life – much to the concern of his girlfriend Josy (Sina Tkotsch), who is the same age and works as a legal trainee. She finally wants to introduce him to her parents and ideally wants to move into a shared apartment with Emre. But your boyfriend isn’t in such a hurry: he actually feels right at home in the shared apartment with his best friends Daniele (Benito Bause) and Freddy (Constantin von Jascheroff).
However, his relaxed life is thrown into disarray when he receives a tempting job offer from his boss Bülent (Tim Seyfi): Emre could take on a well-paid catering job in Istanbul, but has to make a decision within 48 hours. That’s not easy for Emre – and so he decides to go one step further with Daniele and Freddy at the weekend and postpone the decision. In addition, his petty criminal brother Eko (Murat Seven) spontaneously asks him for help with a burglary…
In the footsteps of Eminem
Heidelberg is not only characterized by a healthy rivalry with Mannheim, but also by the sociable student life at the foot of the Königstuhl. It is also one of the cradles of German hip-hop culture. It’s no coincidence that speech pioneers like the Stieber Twins and Cora E. appear on the film’s soundtrack, while the former Advanced Chemistry rapper Toni-L even makes a guest appearance in front of the camera as the host of a freestyle battle rap at a 2000s party. Sound familiar?
Exactly: The duel on stage, in which the talented Emre delivers several good punchlines, is a blatantly described homage to the Eminem biopic “8 Mile”. And there are also many other references to the cinema of the decades already mentioned in “Good-for-nothing”. So Emre and Eko give themselves the code names “Batman & Robin” during the break-in, which is winkingly dubbed “Ocean’s Two”. We are also familiar with momentous crashes and a spontaneous tattoo from “Hangover” – and the film is also entirely in the tradition of what has proven to be a recipe for success in German and international comedies during this time.
You can even see the reference to German rap in the masks.
Of course, the “Pulp Fiction” poster in the shared kitchen should not be missing. However, “useless” only has a few original ideas to offer. In Aslan’s first feature film, we usually know what will happen next two minutes in advance: when we meet Josy’s parents (played by the real couple Martin Brambach and Christine Sommer), for example, the latent racism towards a young man born in Heidelberg with a Turkish name is evident (“You look completely different from Justus”). And the drink with Josy’s sleazy boss Wolfgang (Thomas Loibl) turns out, unsurprisingly, to be what was feared when the invitation was given: the invasive actions of a man with power.
Dramaturgically, “Good-for-nothing” is always predictable: the party is followed by problems, the chaos of the hangovers, the noise of the kitsch. That’s not a big deal in this genre, but there should at least have been fewer tepid puns like “Huan Son” and “Perry Ohde” and fewer calendar sayings like “Freedom is what you make of it.” Meanwhile, Eko proves to be a slingshot for one-liners that don’t always ignite. Even the occasional breach of the fourth wall, used here in a very arbitrary way, which we know from the current Netflix hit “Achtsam Morden”, as a now pretty well-worn stylistic device, does not generate any noticeable added value for the plot or the density of the gags.
At least: your heart is definitely in the right place!
The fact that Emre only has 48 hours left to make his decision also seems like a pure means to an end as a time limit for a wild race against time: Emre hardly notices any significant urgency or enormous time pressure, after all, the cheerful nature is doing quite well even without a bulging wallet. The long-term student doesn’t have any henchmen breathing down his neck, nor does he have other worries that he has to get rid of within two days. So why should he panic? That doesn’t really make sense.
After all: “Good-for-nothing” has heart and the cast of the low-budget project is a bank. Even though the big names are missing from the cast, established TV and cinema greats such as the usual great “crime scene” investigator Martin Brambach, Thomas Loibl, Sina Tkotsch and Constantin von Jascheroff lend a helping hand. Deniz Arora (“Schock”) is also convincing in his leading role and, as Emre, is given a lot of scope for development by the script – unlike his friends, who are put into two drawers in the opening minutes and cannot crawl out of in the sequel.
Conclusion: Sedat Aslan’s feature film debut “Good-for-nothing” is a likeable and convincingly cast, but ultimately quite harmless indie comedy. The film never leaves the well-trodden path of the genre and instead uses many prominent role models.
We saw “Good-for-nothing” at the 22nd German Film Festival in Ludwigshafen, where the film celebrated its world premiere.