A pompadour hairstyle, rape and child molestation in one uneven film.

Billy O'Sullivan in The Secret Kingdom (1998)

Frederik Winther Rasmussen and Villads Bøye in Speed Walking (2014)

Karim Ait M'Hand and Said Mrini in Salvation Army (2013)

Max Kellermann

Winfried Glatzeder

Nicole Weber

Wallace Hamilton

Peter Kern

Axel is 14 years old, male prostitute, living in Düsseldorf. His mother drinks and her friends abuses him. He is sent to a bar to pick up customers. There he meets Karl-Heinz, and a loving relationship begins.

Gossenkind

Being a virtually unknown German film, I wasn&apos;t exactly sure what to expect with this one. I figured it would probably have to take either the gritty, realistic, downbeat route or one that was more cynical and filled with dark humor. Unfortunately, Peter Kern tried to combine the two and it didn&apos;t work out well at all.

Our protagonist, Alex Glitter(!?!), is a teenage prostitute who comes from the usual broken home with a substance-abusing mom and an abusive stepfather. Rather than go to school, Alex hangs out with his friends in the center of town and cruises a gay bar to try and find johns. His personality varies wildly from friendly and playful to spiteful and violent so it&apos;s difficult to know whether to hope he finds some joy in his life or hope he gets arrested and sent to juvenile hall.

The plot is precarious but I&apos;ll try and describe it. Alex becomes involved with a man who is unhappily married and has a son of his own. The guy&apos;s kid is off in the countryside doing who knows what and it&apos;s one of several subplots mostly hinted at but never fully fleshed out. Another thin subplot concerns Alex and his buddy who is sleeping with Alex&apos;s girlfriend. There is also a completely half-baked subplot involving the unhappily married man. He supposedly has been molesting the young boy of a friend of his. This final revelation is what drives the film to its conclusion so I won&apos;t go into further detail. Let me just say that unlike the masterful film &quot;Happiness&quot;, this specific plot device seems completely manufactured and provides no actual drama to the story.

I suppose this might be classified as one of those &quot;slice of life&quot; films. There is no concrete plot and the quality of acting is negligible. The film jumped around too much in tone and couldn&apos;t stay focused on any single plot line. Ultimately I found it quite dull and unsatisfying. 2/10

Being a virtually unknown German film, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with this one. I figured it would probably have to take either the gritty, realistic, downbeat route or one that was more cynical and filled with dark humor. Unfortunately, Peter Kern tried to combine the two and it didn't work out well at all.

Our protagonist, Alex Glitter(!?!), is a teenage prostitute who comes from the usual broken home with a substance-abusing mom and an abusive stepfather. Rather than go to school, Alex hangs out with his friends in the center of town and cruises a gay bar to try and find johns. His personality varies wildly from friendly and playful to spiteful and violent so it's difficult to know whether to hope he finds some joy in his life or hope he gets arrested and sent to juvenile hall.

The plot is precarious but I'll try and describe it. Alex becomes involved with a man who is unhappily married and has a son of his own. The guy's kid is off in the countryside doing who knows what and it's one of several subplots mostly hinted at but never fully fleshed out. Another thin subplot concerns Alex and his buddy who is sleeping with Alex's girlfriend. There is also a completely half-baked subplot involving the unhappily married man. He supposedly has been molesting the young boy of a friend of his. This final revelation is what drives the film to its conclusion so I won't go into further detail. Let me just say that unlike the masterful film "Happiness", this specific plot device seems completely manufactured and provides no actual drama to the story.

I suppose this might be classified as one of those "slice of life" films. There is no concrete plot and the quality of acting is negligible. The film jumped around too much in tone and couldn't stay focused on any single plot line. Ultimately I found it quite dull and unsatisfying. 2/10

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