Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Böse Zellen" or "Free Radicals" (not a literal translation at all) is a co-production between the 3 German-speaking countries in Central Europe, but the one in the center of it all is Austria for sure because this is where writer and director Barbara Albert as well as most cast members are from. And it is also where it is set. This film received a solid deal of awards recognition and got also picked by Austria as the country's official Oscar submission back then when it came out almost 15 years today, probably more depending on when you read the review, but did not manage to score a nomination. The most known cast members as of today here are Strauss and Friedrich who managed strong careers until now. It is a really long film at almost 2 hours, but this is also needed as it focuses on many characters in here and also very much in depth about all of them. All of these characters are somehow linked to the protagonist that the film starts with and one crucial component here is that the circle of people linked to the main character and her fate closes eventually. I still think she is the main character, even if she disappears out of the movie relatively quickly, maybe also because there is no other character really at the very center of the story. It is an ensemble performance and writer's piece for sure. Anyway, you could also make a reference to the famous six degrees of separation concept here. All in all I enjoyed the watch. I believe there are some sequences that could have been left out, maybe 1 or 2 characters even, but it's never a film that really drags, even if there was potential for better focus that could have made the film strong from start to finish. The way Albert went for there are some good scenes, some bad scenes, but as a whole it is a relatively competent execution and the positive is more frequent than the negative and that's why I give the overall outcome a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out. Probably my favorite film from the director with what I have seen so far from her. I also think that one of the film's biggest strengths is that everybody in the audience will have another character that he ends up caring for the most and whose story interests him the most. Even if quite a huge coincidence involving the central character, this is a film that always feels authentic, which is something German filmmakers could learn from Austria, now as much as in 2003. Go check it out.

stensson This Austrian movie has reached Sweden recently. It's the "Short Cuts" concept again, but that form seems to inspire script writers and directors to great achievements.This is about the post consuming area. The phase when everybody seems to accept the society they are living in without protest. But typical for that area is the frustration which finds it way otherwise.Because everybody is unhappy here. Whatever their goals are, friendship, love, a dead mother, everything is a disappointment. Nothing can be reached. And the point is that nothing is their own fault. The people are not blamed and that's hopeful and maybe a prediction of what is to follow after the consumerism era is over.

knochi The film opens with a butterfly flapping its wings, causing a tropical thunderstorm to erupt over brasil.Böse Zellen is a movie about many things. Chaos, coincidence and circumstance is one of its topics. Death, loss and desperation is another. Side blows are dealt out to our society of commerce and capitalism in the places selected for the shooting (shopping malls, a fast food restaurant, pedestrian areas, supermarkets).The characters in this movie, while coming from different backgrounds, have a thing in common, they are lonely. Most are also sad and unbearably desperate. They all fight for someone or something, even though they do now know what it is they want. But somehow they find the strength to overcome this loneliness, the desperation and go on, and some of them even struggle hard enough to find happiness.Seeing the movie in a theater here in Austria made me feel uneasy. It is this way with most austrian films I see. Seeing my fellow countrymen on the movie screen makes me ashamed for them. I think I even know the reason why, it is probably because austrian filmmakers have a tendency towards realism in portraying everyday lives. I have been so brainwashed with perfect Hollywood people and their perfect lives it startles me to see real people being portrayed in a movie. Böse Zellen is a class of its own where realism is concerned. Seldom before I have seen people depicted so authentic in the way they go about their everyday lives. Its also an incredibly sad movie, but its not going to make audiences cry because it is sad in a casual way. The characters have accepted what is happening to and around them and that way they can go on with their lives.9 out of 10

dean237 Barbara Albert's Altman-by-way-of-Austria was the least impressive movie I saw at the festival. Following the life of a woman named Manu, the only survivor of a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico, Free Radicals branches off into the troubled lives of her satellites, her friends who fight off loneliness with the same fervor that she does. Their circumstances are no less tragic to them; one overweight woman is so despondent in her loneliness that she throws herself in front of a train (and survives, ridiculously). Another fights with an older, crippled lover who beats her if she comes in late. Manu's daughter dances briefly and sweetly with a guitarist who plays `San Francisco' for her in a subway station. The idea here is that we are all interconnected, but the movie plays this with embarrassing sentimentality. It has its moments-I love the scene where members of a church choir sing along with `Nights in White Satin' in a darkened pub-but overall, Free Radicals feels juvenile.