Many thanks to Mark Mann for posting the link!
The Münsterländische Volkszeitung has a review of the Generation Um DVD on their culture page. No copyright infringement is intended as we attempt a translation for our readers. Google translator was used for the first pass with additional fine tuning. Apologies to our German readers for any inaccuracies in the translation – we do the best we can with what we have to work with. Any improvements in the translation are welcome and can be left in the comments. The article translates as follows:
Urban Drama Threesome with Keanu Reeves
The night has left its mark on each of the three main characters. Violet (Adelaide Clemens, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), pumped up from drugs and alcohol, has an absurd fight with her cell phone then falls into a comatose sleep. The quiet Mia (Edge of Darkness), who relies on painkillers, has bought white virgin flowers. And there is John (Keanu Reeves) who has only a cupcake for breakfast and nothing else, no juice – not even coffee.
A few passersby stop and watch intently as John chews his mini cupcake and looks at the ground as he swallows. After finishing the cupcake, he licks his fingers as is his habit- he has no napkin. That’s John, on the morning of his birthday! He has come to a point in his life where the disappointment in himself is greater that the disappointment of his parents in him.
Mark L. Mann wrote the script and directed Threesome – A Night in New York. He also wrote the important HBO documentary in 2008, Finishing Heaven, which received an Emmy nomination. Finishing Heaven describes the struggles of Robert Feinberg, who began the film Heaven 37 years earlier as a film student. Heaven, which was produced by a young Martin Scorses early in his career shows a glimpse of the seventies avant-garde culture (? Kunstavangarde) of Andy Warhol.
Threesome was made as a fictional sequel to Finishing Heaven. Both films are about the mindset of a generation whose life goals look for easy answers to difficult questions which is especially a challenge for the lifestyle found in New York.
Threesome, which refers to the Dreickecksgeflecht (?) protagonist, is in the same vein of the American TV series Generation (in the late ’80s) that focused on the lifestyle of this generation and how it applies to its characters. In Threesome, the characters are limited in their choices as they struggle for survival in NY, but they make the best of the situation regardless of how torn up they are inside.
At first John films squirrels and the park environment with the video camera he has stolen. Then he focuses on Mia and V1olet, who are the two people closest to him, and films them as he asks them about their lives. The women tell John about the violence in their childhood, love, friendship – why they are the way they are. The hand held camera records everything that gives clues to the past. As a result, this generation (characters – John) stops fleeing from himself and is able to find a bit of himself that allows him to move forward as he says “It feels good just to be myself again”.
Threesome is a scenic city drama of nocturnal excesses. However, these excesses are not the focus of the film. Instead the main focus of the film is the characters’ desire for a normal life that is based on mutual trust in each other despite the previous hurts they have suffered in their past. Keanu Reeves’ game (performance, story) hovers above the set and not everyone gets his performance at the start with breakfast. You have to see some of the scenes twice and get involved with the game (story, performance) of the three characters and pay attention to some of the secrets hidden in the dialogue for the film to work.
The DVD has no bonus features or deleted scenes.
The original article is here.