Morris from America (2016)

August 31, 2016 12:10 PM

Morris (Markees Christmas) is a 13-year-old African-American who moves to Heidelberg with his dad (Craig Robinson), who coaches professional soccer. The film explores Morris's romantic and coming-of-age misadventures. [Trailer #1 | full soundtrack listing]

YouTube Videos Lead 'Morris From America' Director To Markees Christmas (NPR, August 18, 2016 / YT playlist with 4 videos featuring Markees)

posted by filthy light thief (5 comments total)

I liked the film, was really impressed by Markees and enjoyed Robinson and Inka (Carla Juri), but I wanted to shout "MAKE GOOD DECISIONS!" at Katrin (Lina Keller). Why is she even rebelling? Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:16 PM on August 31, 2016

Germany has a sizable Middle Eastern population; I found it difficult to believe that Morris and Curtis were the only POCs in the community.
posted by brujita at 8:52 PM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

And Katrin's toying with Morris was partly a "fuck you" to her mother.
posted by brujita at 8:53 PM on September 1, 2016

Yup - for a large city with about one third of its population "from an immigrant background," it looked very white. And as a music geek, I wanted to ask "where's the German hip hop?"

See: A glimpse back at hip-hop's roots in Germany

The first wave of English-language hip-hop came to Germany from the United States at the beginning of the 1980s. Hip-hop parties and competitions sprang up at youth centers - drawing rappers, sprayers and break-dancers from across the country. But German lyricists struggled to find a new vocabulary for this emergent style of music.

The Heidelberg band Advanced Chemistry can be credited with helping to change that, becoming pioneers in the scene. Starting in the mid-80s, the group and front man Rapper Torch rapped in German to enthusiastic fans.

Emphasis mine.

It would have been fun to see Morris run across some German breakdancers or rappers, but this was a sparse "fish out of water" + "coming of age" story - a handful of characters, focused primarily on Morris, Katrin, and Curtis, Morris's dad.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:38 AM on September 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Craig Robinson continues to impress me with his acting. This year more than most, he's broken out of the comfortable trappings of comic actor and has pushed more towards serious dramatic roles (see Mr. Robot Season 2). Also, this film is worth seeing if only for the soundtrack, thanks for linking to the full list OP.
posted by Fizz at 6:04 AM on September 4, 2016