Artist Everyone Else

The idea of “fitting in” is embedded in the title of Maren Ade’s sharp, uncompromising break-up film Everyone Else, about a couple struggling for self-definition against bourgeois norms. Other than their looks, enhanced by the lovely backdrop of a working vacation in Sardinia, there’s nothing remotely ingratiating about the couple (or the movie), but there are plenty of truths to be gleaned from their relationship. Birgit Minichmayr and Lars Eidinger star as an odd pair in the best of times—she an open, free-spirited, sometimes childish sprite, he a struggling architect who’s charming but distant, a little too cool for school. When they spend a little time with another, more settled couple (Hans-Jochen Wagner and Nicole Marischka), their fundamental differences are thrown into a harsh light.

Updated 07/21/2010