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Why Not You

Country: Austria | Belgium, Language: German | Italian, 107 mins

Gay | Drama | 2020

Original Title

Hochwald

Director: Evi Romen
Writer: Evi Romen
Producer: Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu; Bady Minck

CGiii Comment

A debut feature that bites off way more than it can chew...ultimately, it completely collapses under the weight of a ridiculous and ubiquitous wig!

Two problems: Mario is utterly reprehensible and, identifying as a dance, he is an absolutely atrocious one at that. Empathy is impossible to muster for a character as difficult as this...he's a thief, a drug addict, a prostitute...he's more parasite than pariah. Although, being a pariah, he is so by choice! He is contrary and fickle rather than troubled and complex.

Then...there's a mass shooting at a gay nightclub which he survives, physically unscathed. His best friend/boyfriend is killed...cue: descent into grief and post-traumatic stress? No...there is absolutely no differentiation in his character, other than, he coverts to Islam and his Imam miraculously cures him from his drug addiction and undetectable grief...and, all is hunk dory, briefly. Is this radicalisation, or conversion, PSTD...or, just whimsy?

We'll never know...Evi Romen fails to tread where other auteurs would jump right in...Why Not You barely scratches at the surface on so many issues. Paring it down would have helped, emotion would have helped...it's all just so issue-laden and sterile.

And...just when you think that ridiculous wig has disappeared forever, it makes a come-back for the ludicrous final scene.

Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Known by everybody in his small South Tyrolean home village, the somewhat odd and sensitive Mario loves to dance. Tolerated, but with a critical eye, by his fellow villagers, his true ally is his father. When Mario bumps into his childhood friend Lenz at a village festival, old memories and feelings rise to the surface. Lenz, having left village life behind, now lives as an actor in Rome. When he leaves again, Mario immediately decides to follow him to the Italian capital. Here they meet in a gay bar, and Mario becomes painfully aware that Lenz hasn’t necessarily been waiting for him. When armed men suddenly rush in and panic breaks out, it’s already too late: Lenz falls victim to the attack and Mario escapes unharmed. Back in South Tyrol, his life takes a drastic turn. Director Evi Romen has succeeded in creating a resonating drama around the question: why him – and not me?