This Is Not Berlin

Name: This Is Not Berlin
Genre: Drama
Released: August 9, 2019
Duration: 115 min
Rating: 69
Cast: Américo Hollander, Fernando Álvarez Rebeil, Hari Sama, José Antonio Toledano, Klaudia Garcia

2019

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 5 Ratings

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This Is Not Berlin

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Movie Details & Credits

Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: August 9, 2019 | TV-MA

Starring: Américo Hollander, Fernando Álvarez Rebeil, Hari Sama, José Antonio Toledano, Klaudia Garcia, Lumi Cavazos, Marina de Tavira, Mauro Sanchez Navarro, Xabiani Ponce de León, Ximena Romo

Summary: 1986. Mexico City. Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere: not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend1986. Mexico City. Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere: not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend Gera and lets him find his passion for art.… Expand

Director: Hari Sama

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 115 min

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Critic Reviews

Dennis Harvey

Jul 11, 2019

Hari Sama’s fourth feature as writer-director is something special, and one of the best of its particular subgenre. Read full review

The Film Stage Jared Mobarak

Jul 11, 2019

The events onscreen are semi-autobiographical for Sama and thus a document of the turmoil those his age at the time faced when external expectations and internal hopes clashed. At its center: love. The power it has to bring us together opposite its potential to tear us apart. Read full review

Justin Chang

Aug 22, 2019

Somehow existing both inside and outside the moment, This Is Not Berlin is clear-eyed enough to see that rebellion has its joys as well as its limits, and that coming of age — which is to say, coming into one’s own — means learning to recognize the difference. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Tomris Laffly

Aug 9, 2019

Sama owes much of the authenticity and visual panache of This Is Not Berlin to his cinematographer Alfredo Altamirano. The DP’s nervy, panoramic compositions heighten the precise production design of various multimedia art pieces and an assortment of impeccably choreographed street protests. Read full review

Wendy Ide

Jul 11, 2019

Sama’s film captures the quicksilver sparks of an artistic moment – the point at which a loose bohemian community collectively finds its voice and forces the mainstream to take notice. Read full review

Ty Burr

Aug 28, 2019

This Is Not Berlin is a relative rarity: a coming-of-age drama in which the student may have more maturity than the teachers. Read full review

The Playlist Jonathan Christian

Aug 9, 2019

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User Reviews

Brent_Marchant

Jul 2, 2021

Substance over style may be enough for some moviegoers, but many savvy cinephiles require more, and that's certainly the case with this thrown-together collection of images and incidents that have little meaningful cohesion to bind them. Set in Mexico City in 1986, this slow-moving slogSubstance over style may be enough for some moviegoers, but many savvy cinephiles require more, and that's certainly the case with this thrown-together collection of images and incidents that have little meaningful cohesion to bind them. Set in Mexico City in 1986, this slow-moving slog tells the stories of three high school students who become involved with an assortment of metrosexual, drug-addicted sociopolitical performance artists and musicians who endlessly go clubbing to party at fringe and edgy night spots. However, in several cases, it's difficult to fathom the characters' interest (and subsequent radical changes in behavior) in this scene given how divergent they are from their backgrounds, not to mention the events that spring forth from these inexplicable shifts. What's more, the film attempts to provide a temporal context by including references to events of the time, though without elaboration of and explanation for their inclusion in the first place. Despite the picture's relative success at capturing the look and feel of the era, some of it is painfully excessive, most notably the performance art, which is pretentious even by 1980s standards. Director Hari Sama's half-baked effort leaves much to be desired, no matter how stylish it may appear on screen or how allegedly hip it may think it is.… Expand

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LAlcachofaZombe

Oct 11, 2020

!NOT A GOOD MOVIE AT ALL¡ I, as a mexican can tell what is right and what is wrong with this horrible movie. There are some good things like the direction of the movie that is ok but not so good, and the bad things are the acting, the script and the story. The acting is almost as bad as in a!NOT A GOOD MOVIE AT ALL¡ I, as a mexican can tell what is right and what is wrong with this horrible movie. There are some good things like the direction of the movie that is ok but not so good, and the bad things are the acting, the script and the story. The acting is almost as bad as in a Neil Breen movi, the scripts feels really bad and unrealistic just like a bad tv drama series, and the story leaves nowhere and maybe it has a nice message for the audience but is reay poor showed.… Expand

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