Holy Shit!

Holy Shit! is a likable little high-concept flick that, with the exception of a few shots, takes place entirely in a porta-potty, in which a construction engineer is trapped under bizarre and very painful circumstances and which he must get out of in time before he is buried forever by a planned demolition explosion. In his directorial debut, Lukas Rinker consciously and very exaggeratedly plays with acknowledged patterns and references, thus coming up with a rollicking and intentionally overdone toilet-based paraphrase of both Phone Booth and Cast Away. Stylistically, his absurdist thriller proudly straddles the line between the excessive formalism and intense physicality of the flicks turned out by the duo of Neveldine/Taylor and the insipid bullshit of German television productions (the wilfully stupid crime series Hubert und Staller is a prime example). In places the film exhibits the usual shortcomings of debut directorial efforts, such as the inability to abridge or abandon shots that were either difficult to get or made with ease, and thus the wheels occasionally come off. When, however, it fires on all cylinders and really gets going, such as when it fully revels in exaggerated physicality and depictions of filth and pain bordering on the naturalistic extreme and splatstick grotesqueness, Holy Shit! is a very entertaining spectacle. [screening at the Marché du Film in Cannes] (23.05.2022)

A fun and quirky survival thriller set in one place – a bathtub! The main character wakes up from unconsciousness in a bath, has his arm pierced by a barb, can't move and only has an hour before the whole thing blows up, Considering the premise, it's quite entertaining. The main character thinks rationally and some of the ideas are well executed. There's even a bit of gore, with one scene being really delectable and quite unpleasant to look at. Otherwise, it's a bit of a one-off with no major plot or significant surprises. If you like movies set in one place where someone is fighting for their life, you won't be offended by this one, but it lacked something to get an above average rating. A decent average from Germany that definitely gets plus points for its original idea, rational thinking protagonist and a portion of violence. (03.07.2023)