“Cut Off,” which is available on VOD as of Friday, July 3, plays like the most demented German episode of “CSI” you never saw … but like a really good and entertaining episode of demented, German “CSI.”
It’s based on the critically-acclaimed, best-selling crime novel “Abgeschnitten” by Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Tsokos and was released under this title in Germany all the way back in October 2018 and later played many international film festivals including the DC Independent Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, FrightFest and L'Étrange Festival.
“Cut Off” focuses on Coroner Paul Herzfeld (Moritz Bleibtreu), who while performing an autopsy finds a tiny capsule inside the decedent’s skull. The capsule contains a note. The note contains the name and phone number of Paul’s estranged daughter, Hannah (Barbara Prakopenka). It turns out Hannah’s been kidnapped by deranged serial killer and rapist, Jan Erik Sadler (Lars Eidinger). Paul’s under strict instructions to not contact the authorities.
Linda (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) is a young comic artist with a stalker ex-boyfriend who gets ensnared in this quagmire when she discovers the corpse of the man with whom Paul was supposed to deal. It turns out Sadler wants to send Paul and whomever is unfortunate to cross his path on a sick scavenger hunt where the clues are hidden inside cadavers. Paul teams with unqualified intern, Ingolf von Appen (Enno Hesse), and Linda pairs off with morgue attendant, Ender Müller (Fahri Yardim), in order to solve the mystery and rescue Hannah.
Bleibtreu is likable as Paul. He’s an actor who endeared himself to me with earlier turns in Tom Tykwer’s “Run Lola Run” and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s “The Experiment.” Then again, it’s hard not to root for a character who’s introduced by beating the snot outta somebody for kicking a pregnant pooch.
I’m unfamiliar with Bauer, who kinda reads like a Swiss Mena Suvari. Her Linda is the audience surrogate to all the craziness that transpires. She injects a good deal of humor into the picture.
Eidinger is freaky AF as Sadler. I haven’t seen him in Olivier Assayas’ “Clouds of Sils Maria” or “Personal Shopper,” which I would assume are his best known and most respected works, but he makes quite the impression here. I straight up hated this sumbitch, which means Eidinger did his job well.
“Cut Off” is written and directed by German filmmaker Christian Alvart, who after making a splash with the crime thriller “Antibodies” in his home country transitioned to Hollywood moviemaking via “Pandorum” (2009) and “Case 39” (2010). These flicks both bombed and were critically-reviled despite starring the respective talents of Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid (the former) and Renée Zellweger, Ian McShane and Bradley Cooper (the latter). Alvart returned to the motherland where he’s been making movies and television series ever since.
“Cut Off” is a fun and effective genre exercise that will appeal to folks who dig Euro-thrillers like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” or the aforementioned “CSI” series of shows. Fair warning: there is a graphic rape sequence in the film and the dissections/autopsies are much gorier than what you’d see on CBS, so this isn’t likely for the faint of heart. The entire enterprise abounds with absurdity, but it might serve as a swell cinematic surrogate to the beach read you’ll likely miss out on this summer.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxgZFixkKM[/embed]