It was refreshing to see such a unique storyline centered around an African-American father and son. The pair, 13-year-old Morris (Markees Christmas) and his father Curtis (Craig Robinson, The Office), are living in Germany. And both speak a decent amount of German, be prepared for subtitles. And to my surprise, when Curtis said he originally came to live in Germany to play ball, he meant soccer, not basketball.
The background of how Morris ended up in Germany with his father is slightly fuzzy. It initially seems like Curtis was playing soccer in Germany while his wife and son lived in the United States, and his wife passed away. But then, late in the film, it's revealed that after knowing her for just 3 months, Curtis surprised his future wife by flying from New York to visit her in Germany where she was attending school; his first trip outside of the United States. However, it is clear Morris did not grow up in Germany, because he is spending a great deal of his summer learning German from his tutor, Inka (Carla Juri). Curtis is coaching a team in the German town they are living in, but he also interviews for a coaching position in Berlin, to move them from the small town of Heidelberg to a city. I didn't gather any clarification on at what point Curtis moved to Germany to play soccer, when his wife moved to the United States, and whether he had been in Germany this whole time or both he and Morris moved to Germany at the time of the film. Either way, similar to why a friend of mine said when she has kids she wants to live at least a few years in another country, Curtis tells Morris one day he'll thank him for bringing him to Germany and giving him a perspective on life that will set him apart from other rappers.
The relationship between Morris and Curtis was very believable and close, and yet distant. They were close in that they both shared a love for rap, Morris was quite familiar with rap music that predates his own birth. In fact, upon finding out a friend actually had a boombox to play a cassette tape of his father rapping, he played the tape only to realize it was his dad rapping the lyrics to a Biggie song instead of his own lyrics. The father and son were also close because they were essentially the only Black men in the town. The pair cut each others' hair, and Curtis seems to lean on Morris to fill his loneliness. This is clear from the start of the film, when Curtis cuts Morris' time in his room short, after sending him to the room, because he was bored. Throughout the film Curtis would ask Morris what they would do together for the day, suggesting games or the movies.
But the relationship was also distant. For one thing, there's the natural preteen distance, where kids want to spend more time with their friends instead of their parents. This kind of snuck up on Curtis, because initially, being new, Morris did not have any friends. However, upon the suggestion of his tutor to practice his German, Morris joins a summer recreational program for teens. And likely related to Curtis being a newly, single father who for at least some period of time lived in a different country from his wife and son, Curtis gave an exceptional amount of freedom to Morris considering he was a 13-year-old.
And this freedom, coupled with the blossoming friendship with Katrin (Lina Keller), makes for a movie full of teenage peer pressure, infatuation, and poor choices. Katrin is a 15-year old girl Morris meets at the summer program. She is bad news in many ways, but she is also his only friend. She smokes, takes him to a party with ecstasy (which Morris spits out without her seeing), takes him on tour with a DJ (without him knowing it was a tour and not a one-night gig), and leaves him stranded in another city! Initially, Morris seemed pretty level-headed for a 13-year-old, like saying no to smoking when he first met Katrin. However, slowly he begins to go down a spiral that eventually leads to him being stranded in Frankfurt after a night of smoking and drinking.
Being one of the few African-Americans in a small German town of course lends itself to some incidents of racism, despite Morris being far from the stereotype the others see him as. He is called Kobe Bryant AFTER refusing to play basketball. He is pulled aside at the rec center and asked about marijuana that was found, though at that point in the film he had not smoked anything. He was roughly kicked out of the program and told the police would be called on him for trespassing if he returned, after he used vulgar language in a rap during the talent show and then threatened a boy that began picking on him and who had picked on him from the first day of the program.
The film definitely had some funny moments, but for the most part it is more of a coming-of-age story. Though it mostly follows Morris, adults will still be able to follow and maybe even relate to how it felt to be a teenager. I found myself in one moment wanting Katrin to actually want to be Morris' friend, and in another wishing she wasn't around him to be such a bad influence. And though it centers around Morris, it is not a film for 13-year-olds! The film is Rated R for a reason!
Overall, I enjoyed the film. Markees Christmas did a phenomenal job in his first acting role in a film, and Craig Robinson was great, as always! I highly recommend supporting this very unique film!