Next Door (Nebenan)
BAFTA nominee Daniel Brühl (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) makes his directorial debut with this meta dark comedy playing a thinly-veiled version of himself who, right before flying off for a casting call on a superhero film, opts to have a final few drinks in his local bar.
Daniel (Brühl) leads an enviable life. A famous actor, he lives in a stylish penthouse apartment in Berlin’s hip Prenzlauer Berg district with his wife and children. One morning, as he prepares to jet off to London to screen-test for a ‘top-secret’ new American superhero blockbuster, he pops into the local dive bar to kill some time. There, he meets middle-aged Bruno (Peter Kurth, Babylon Berlin), initially dismissing him as a(nother) fan. But far from it, Bruno’s in fact Daniel’s neighbour, and has been awaiting this moment.
Bruno sees himself as one of reunification’s losers and a victim of the gentrification of what was once East Berlin and – as the pair banter, and he begins nitpicking the increasingly exasperated (and now late for his flight) Daniel’s career – he gradually reveals a far more intimate knowledge of Daniel’s life than is comfortable…
Less2021Rating: M94 minsGermanyAmusement Park Films
ComedyDrama
Next Door (Nebenan) | Reviews
70%23 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
The Times
Despite Brühl’s winning turn, this remains very much a shaggy dog story about a man who walks into a bar.
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IndieWire
Mercilessly honest as Brühl is being with himself, his directorial debut stops short of its most intriguing ideas.
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Slant Magazine
Brühl’s feature-length directorial debut proves to be authentically self-castigating.
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Screen Daily
Bruhl is convincing in his teeth-grinding, clenched-jaw consternation but Peter Kurth nudges the acting honours, playing with a light, airy touch.
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Variety
The film’s games of genre-shuffling and celebrity self-satire can’t override the essential tedium of its core conflict.
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Hollywood Reporter
An amusing, accomplished debut on its own modest terms, Next Door works best as tart meta comedy...
Full reviewNext Door (Nebenan) | Release Details
Next Door (Nebenan) is available to stream in New Zealand now on Google Play and Academy On Demand and AroVision.