Very well executed

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I didn't expect this to be such a good movie. Although I found this movie searching for club/rave movies, this is much more than that. At some points one could find similarities with the themes of "One flew over the cuckoo's nest": sanity and psychiatric institutions is defiantly one narrative theme.This film has great music too and I never got bored. I guess I should have rated it with an 8/10; but I was surprised by the quality of it. If you compare it of course with movies of Tarkovsky, Kubrick or Bergman of course it does not stand a chance, but for sure it is better than most mainstream American made movies.

"Berlin Calling" is a German 110-minute movie from 7 years ago. Writer and director is Hannes Stöhr and it is probably his most famous work until today. I also saw his more recent "Global Player" and definitely preferred that one. "Berlin Calling" takes us into the world of electronic music focusing on DJ Ickarus, played by the successful artist Paul Kalbrenner. However, I was not impressed. He certainly is not a trained actor and I cannot take this film seriously from that perspective. There were several really intense scene, but they all left me rather uninterested, especially those about the main character's drug abuse, basically from start to finish. The actress who plays his girlfriend was as bad as the one who played the lesbian relationship. No idea what they were thinking with this sub-plot. Probably grasping for straws in terms of including sex to lure people into theatres. It probably would have helped if they had at least been attractive.No idea why this film has such a good reception and why a decent actress like Corinna Harfouch would appear in here. This was not an amateurish-looking effort, but also not a particularly good one. In my case, it probably doesn't help either that I really do not care for electronic music, one of my least favorite genres. Very forgettable film, in which I never felt for the character. Not recommended.

The movie is dynamic, full of emotions and wonderful electronic music. It is definitely not a movie about Berlin party scene, Berlin is the backdrop of the movie.Club scene is associated with drugs, but it is not a movie about drugs either. Yes the main character is a drug addict DJ who has mental issues but the movie is not Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, neither One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.The movie explores the life of an artist, his choices, his abysmal loneliness, creativity and above all his relations to other people.Even though there are some occasional character zigzags, the movie wanders in our emotions in a beautiful way.I have seen the movie during If Film Festival in Istanbul and regretted that I had missed the performance of DJ Paul Kalkbrenner ten days ago.

I was fortunate enough to view the screening of this movie in Toronto on September 7th. I too have to agree that this movie should have been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival.The movie portrays the life of techno dj as it really is including: gigs, relationships, record deals, touring and drug use. This is the closest you will get to real life. As one of the above users stated anyone who is from the Hardcore/Underground can tell you that this movie will bring quivers up your spine as to how real it portrays.From beginning to end this film is non stop action. An extremely talented cast mixed with a great direction and an incredible soundtrack made for probably of my favourite films related to e-music to date.