Sixty Minutes

(60 Minuten)

dir: Oliver Kienle

2024

This isn’t a review of the venerable current affairs program, because that would be really strange.

“5/10 would not recommend. Exists solely as corrupt tool of capitalist establishment to normalise hideous abuses of corporate class.”

No, this is a brand new German film starring some young MMA fighter playing a young MMA fighter who has to get from one suburb of Berlin to a different suburb of Berlin within an hour.

He’s not a courier, he’s not a delivery driver; he’s just a guy who will get attacked a bunch of times until he nearly gets there.

There is some running involved. This is not Run Lola Run by any stretch of the imagination.

Does…does anyone even remember Run Lola Run anymore? I mean, I guess that was more than twenty years ago now.

Fucking hell. Time flies even when you’re not having fun.

This isn’t in league with that earlier Tom Tykwer classic, either thematically or aesthetically, but it’s hard not to think of it.

Here we have a lead in Emilio Sakraya who plays Octa, a guy who’s been waiting around all day for a match to start. He’s meant to fight a particular guy in a particular match, but dark forces keep delaying the match. The reason Octa is antsy is because he’s meant to get to his young daughter’s birthday as well. She lives with his estranged former partner, who has clearly moved on, and is jack of Octa’s undependability. She delivers an ultimatum: get to the daughter’s birthday party within the hour, or lose shared custody forever.

It’s unfair, isn’t it? And completely arbitrary?

But it’s a powerful motivator. And it’s also clear that, having fucked up many times before, Octa is determined to not fuck up this one time.

Unfortunately almost everyone else in Berlin is against him, and wants him to go back and do the fight he was supposed to, the fight he’s been waiting for forever. Even his so-called best friend Paul (Dennis Mojen), who books his fights and wheels and deals on his behalf is less than ecstatic about Octa’s plan to get to his daughter instead of finish the fight.

It doesn’t matter if it’s plausible. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or is in any way fair. What matters is whether Octa gets there or not, or loses his daughter presumably forever.

I mean, or at least until she turns 16, 17, and at that age they barely talk to you anyway, so no great loss…

Octa has a few other friends who were previously helping him train for his fight, talented fighters like him, especially Cosima (Marie Mouroum), who keeps complaining about not having been paid in a long while for her work at the gym. Their loyalty is a thing of beauty, and all of them easily make the shift between fighting as training to fighting for their lives easily.

They are talented stunt people / fighters. It’s one thing to be a decent MMA fighter (like I would fucking know), but that doesn’t naturally translate to someone being a well choreographed fighter onscreen. These people are great at what they do. You cannot fault any of the fights or fighters we get onscreen. The cinematography as well is top notch, and incorporates a lot of recent approaches to making action scenes pop dynamically and energetically.

It’s not as simple as just setting up a camera and letting two people run through their routine. These days the camera has to be mobile, moving with the fighters in the directions they’re moving in or in counterpoint, sometimes simulating taking a “hit” by falling in particular directions or shuddering with impacts. It’s stunning stuff when done well, and all the people here are pros at what they’re doing.

Of course, this isn’t a flick with endless action scenes. They’re fairly discrete, which means there’s plenty of non-action scenes where Octa is re-stating the premise, or where someone else explains a new wrinkle in his plan, a new threat, or a new group even more pissed off at Octa for not going through with the fight. Nothing will stop his resolve, though.

There’s even a weird interlude with some, I think, Serbian gangsters who bet on the outcome of the fight and aren’t happy with Octa. And then of course he has to call his daughter a couple more times to apologise for not being there yet and to reassure her that he’d be there soon. I don’t think they had the budget for something to be non-stop action for the whole 80 or so minutes that the film actually transpires across, and I guess the interludes give some breathing space for the audience.

It means as well that the flick doesn’t outstay its welcome. This is not the 4th John Wick flick, which means it doesn’t have so many action sequences so completely overdone that even the most avid action movie lover comes away thinking “maybe that had a few too many action scenes, not sure”. That’s not to say I necessarily enjoyed the interludes because, honestly, I just wanted to watch Octa and Cosi fuck more people up who have it coming.

It helps as well that their not superspies or master criminals or any of that bullshit. They’re just people trying to get by, and they’re also not killing thousands of people just for someone’s amusement. And trying to get to your daughter’s birthday so as to not disappoint her / lose shared custody is far more relatable than most of the reasons people in movies go on their rampages.

I think the main man Emilio could be a charismatic and effective action star, given some time and some juicier roles. He strikes the perfect tone here, and manages to come across as a badass without also seeming like a preening psychopath, which is the route many of these champs seem to take.

Of all the forms of transport showcased in this (strange tourism commercial) ad for Berlin, I think my favourite was seeing him on one of those electric scooters which I’m guessing are ubiquitous in every big city in the world these days. They litter the streets and waterways of Melbourne, and, based on this flick, I have no doubt they litter the streets and waterways of Berlin as well.

Berlin does look great in the flick. It often doesn’t in movies I’ve seen set there, but just as a matter of geography I have to question the layout of the scene where Octa goes straight from a subway train station into the longest rave / bar I’ve ever seen. If that’s a real place in Berlin, I’d love to visit.

The ending is pitch perfect (though very unlikely), and very satisfying. A tremendous relief for everything Octa (and the audience) went through. And also that moppet of a daughter of his – I’d rather chew off my arm than see her disappointed ever again.

Sixty Minutes is worth at least 80 minutes of an action fan’s time.

8 times solid actioners should not overstay their welcome out of 10

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“You have one hour.” – start running, Lola - Sixty Minutes