Blu-Ray Review: Nothing Bad Can Happen

By Less Lee Moore

The cruelly and ironically titled Nothing Bad Can Happen is nothing less than a hard kick to the stomach. Katrin Gebbe’s debut isn’t a horror film, yet it still horrifies. Nothing Bad Can Happen stuns and unsettles the viewer like the also-incendiary debuts of Maury and Bustillo (À l’intérieur) or Du Welz (Calvaire), yet without the gore of the former and the surrealism of the latter.

Nothing Bad Can Happen twists uncomfortably on the line between drama and exploitation. It would come across as nothing more than cheap shock tactics were it not for the riveting central performance of Julius Feldmeier as Tore. All the joy, confusion, heartache, and serenity he experiences are displayed on his face. The scenes that are most affecting aren’t always the ones you’d anticipate, especially in a movie with such brutality. A low-key conversation between Tore and fellow teenager Sanny (Swantje Kohlhof) brought forth a rush of sobs from my throat that was as uncontrollable as it was cathartic.

Feldmeier’s Tore is a wandering soul looking for love and fulfillment through God, via a group of (ostensibly) straightedge homeless kids called the Jesus Freaks who are also fans of hardcore music. (If you’re not familiar with the Christian Hardcore scene, check out Justin Ludwig’s documentary ChristCORE.) A chance encounter with a family and their stalled truck takes Tore on a journey that is as disturbing as it is frustrating.

Why would a kid like Tore endure the abuse that Benno and Astrid are gleefully willing to heap upon him? This is the central question of the film and one that cannot be definitively answered. What’s frustrating is not that ambiguity but the way that Nothing Bad Can Happen seems to delight in Tore’s torments, no matter how ridiculous or grotesque they become. What’s disturbing about Nothing Bad Can Happen is how the viewer starts to feel that Tore deserves his fate because he seems to accept it without question.

In a movie with such outrageous acts of cruelty and such seemingly masochistic acceptance of it, insight into the answer of “why” comes in the penultimate scene. When Benno’s face, previously a mask of stoic sadism, contorts with disbelief and tears. It is only then that we see something more than a new variation on torture porn. What that something is can only be determined by each viewer, but it’s something that will not easily be forgotten.

Nor will Gebbe’s film. Nothing Bad Can Happen is an exceedingly audacious movie, made even more so by the fact that it’s her first. Here’s hoping we’ll see more from Katrin Gebbe, as well as the incredible Julius Feldmeier, in the near future.

Nothing Bad Can Happen was released on Blu-Ray through Drafthouse Films on October 14. Special Features include “Tore Tanzt: A Conversation with Julius, Katrin and Verena”; an interview with director Katrin Gebbe; a 20-page booklet on the film; the theatrical trailer; and a digital download.