No More School (2000) User Reviews

German answer to "Dazed & Confused"

[hallo-bob · 7/10 · 27 February 2012]

First of all, if you're a foreign student planning on visiting a German school for a year, you absolutely need to see this movie.

In a funny, yet absolutely credible manner you'll get an inside into the hearts and minds of German students on their last days of school. You will encounter all kinds of characters from the pedantic nerd having is first bong (/girl) to the nonchalant, funny fat guy struggling to get his high-school-degree at all.

Throughout the entire movie, I was remembered on the "good old times" where there was nothing to worry about but everything to dream of. It represents the social aspects of school and friendship so accurate that there is hardly anything I could criticize here.

The story is kind of simple, as it portrays a short period of time and a special feeling, where logic and accuracy aren't necessarily the most important aspects. If I want to mentally travel back in time where I sat on the grass with my buddies just drinking beer, having fun, smoking pot, talking about love and our future - I only need to watch "Schule" to get my dose.

However I cannot help but recognize that there are many parallels to Richard Linklater's movie "Dazed & Confused" which is basically the same story set in the United States 1970's. If you watch both movies, you will see that "Schule" was most likely inspired by this masterpiece, which it simply cannot beat.

Nevertheless, "Schule" is definitely worth watching if you understand German properly or if you're simply interested in how high school life actually looks like in a country which many believe consists of goose step marching robots. Far from it.

The last days of school, perfectly revisited

[KWiNK · 10/10 · 26 January 2003]

This movie just perfectly reflects upon the last days of school for German youngsters. It might surprise some, that actually only about a fourth of the film takes place inside the actual school. What seems a lot more important is the school in the characters heads and hearts, the institution that got them together in the first place and that will now soon be gone. Where will they go? Will their friendships overcome the fact, that they won't see one another so much anymore?

In a last attempt to have a good time together a gang of friends explores their conceptions of the future and - more importantly - of the present and their angst concerning the changes at hand. As we follow them around through their small adventures (which include the killing of a huge inflatable penguin and the deflowering of the class-nerd among others), most viewers (Germans for sure) will be able to identify and recognize the characters as their own friends from school. This fictional small town is alive with your own fellow-pupils. You'll be able to ascribe each character to at least one person from your school days.

In addition to this, the movie features great acting, wonderful directing and photography that captures northern Germany at its most beautiful.

There are few movies I could recommend more. Watch it and you will very probably love it!

one of the funniest movies 2000

[CosmicRai_n · 7 November 2002]

ok, this is not some kind of masterpiece, it doesn't introduce a new era, it has no new ideas. nevertheless, it is one of the funniest films i have seen. i'm a fan of axel stein (the fat, funny guy who kinda always plays himself) and i have to say: if he's in a film, it must be good. and the last review (cliché & unrealism) is not really true. the actors are good. there are people in germany who smoke wed all the time, also at school (i'm a bit like this too). and: the jokes are really good. i laughed the whole time because they're just ludicrous. i recommend this movie to everyone who hasn't yet forgot high school and is looking for a funny movie. it's especially good to watch it with friends, because if you talk about i afterwards, it's twice as much fun. a++ one of my fav's

comment

[master_chief_halo2 · 3/10 · 31 March 2005]

hi i saw the movie a few times and i m German in in some part is it in Germany like the movie has shown is very easy to get drugs and alcohol is no problem in Germany you are allowed to drink beer at the age of 16 and hard alcohol like ron oder vodka . . . at the age of 18 but its quiet easy to get hard stuff under 18 u go into a gas station give the guy 10 bugs he told s you ti hide the bottle and done in this movie are some cliché 's right and a love story is in it but its with one of Germany best comedy newcomer Axel Stein he plays Dirk (the fat guy ) and its not like there are no ugly girls there are and some of the guys in the movie are losers i gave the movie a 3 because its was just a little production and no great effects if u have nothing better to do watch the movie and build your own opinion

A realistic movie

[ixs · 10/10 · 20 January 2001]

The movie "Schule" (School) shows a part of the life of a small group of students, enjoying the last days before graduation.

It happens that I visited the movie with some friends of mine from school and we had to agree that the movie did in fact catch the feeling we had at the time of graduation. To every character in the movie, whether it be the A-student or the "loverboy", we could remember the exact counterpart in our own class.

But also the contrast between feeling free and the uncertainity what will happen after graduation and where all the friends will go was shown in the film.

I think the movie is a realistic portrait of this time, on the one hand making one laugh and on the other hand saddening us.

School the non-realistic way

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 26 August 2016]

"Schule" or "No More School" (actually the opposite to the German title) is a German(-language) film from 2000, which means this one already had its 15th anniversary last year. The director and one of the writers is Marco Petry and this one here is still his most known work, even if considerably more than a decade has passed. This has probably mostly to do with Daniel Brühl playing one of the main characters and he is one of Germany's biggest stars right now. But if you are a German film buff, you will find more familiar names such as Jasmin Schwiers, Axel Stein, (the stunning) Lavinia Wilson, Denis Moschitto, Bettina Zimmermann and Mina Tander. They appear in a comedy that deals with a group of students in the last days of their school lives and how they feel a sense of belonging together while they soon have to take different paths in lives, individual paths as they are no longer a community.

This is a pretty good premise actually and may have worked as a solid base for a quality slightly dramatic film and/or comedy, but sadly they really messed it up with the script. The plot consists of stupid attempts to cheat during the exams over glorifying drug abuse (and thinking this is comedy enough already) and relationship struggles that come out of nowhere and don't feel authentic at all. Also the pretty young cast was simply not good enough to make up for these problems, actually they make them worse on some occasions even with pretty unconvincing portrayals. And this includes Brühl as well who I consider generally pretty overrated as an actor. Admittedly, the other cast members aren't any better here. There are sometimes solid scenes like the one near the end with one guy explaining to another how he struggles because he has not left, but these are clearly in the minority and actually hard to remember with really cringeworthy stuff like the speaker scene at the end which had zero connection to reality and was neither touching nor entertaining nor authentic as Petry wanted us to believe here. I have no clue why people still love this film, it is almost 100% failure and you need to stay far far away.

Best film for everyone who graduated school in Germany

[ganix-1 · 10/10 · 7 April 2002]

Honestly, this is one the best German films - if not the best one - that I saw! No comparison to the Hollywood teeny movies like "American Pie". Schule is not really a comedy. It lags of jokes that nobody needs. So there is an overall very impressing and serious atmosphere, which is supported by the proper Soundtrack.

Concerning the characters and friendships in Schule I would suggest to compare it to some slayer strips like "I Know What You Did Last Summer". The only difference is: In Schule nobody is killed :)

It lets you think on where you appear in the film. What You have done the same, and what different from the characters.

That makes it very pleasant for me, and I guess for everyone else who got his ABI in the last few years.

More then just a funny movie

[wolfhead_gbz · 10/10 · 25 June 2007]

In fact they made this movie at exactly the school i went to, when i still was a pupil. So i might not really be neutral =). when they shoot it, i wasn't really interested, but later when i saw it, it was just great fun! Not just because i knew nearly every extra boys and girls you can see in the film (the second fat guy who does the fart in class was actually a good friend of mine), but i could in fact identify myself with the film. All these characters appearing in "schule" we had in our classes. Even Stone, the guy who left school years ago and still hangs around. Partying (and at least for some of us the pot-smoking) the hole day and doing as few as possible for school to still pass the exams - that's the way school was! For me this movie is more than just another funny movie. It's a kind beauty memory...

Quite authentic, if you graduated in Germany

[pumpkinland-1 · 8/10 · 22 February 2020]

To be honest, this movie just gets the vibe of Germany's upper schools around the millenium. I know, cause I was there.

A realistic view on German school graduates, but still comedy!

[Heini_Martinez · 10/10 · 11 September 2007]

This is really a good movie! I, myself passed Abitur just three years ago and saw it two or three months before the final exams took place - and well: It struck like lightning! The basic message of the movie, that there's just a small amount of time left for you to be with your friends and to live a life without the problems of the adult world, hit exactly the point. This movie helped me, to make the best out of these last days in school!

Some comments complain about the stereotyped characters, but hey! it's still comedy and stereotypes are part of it. (if you don't agree, read about it in Aristoteles'"Poetik".)

Also the characters are really nice and you can quite identify yourself (not with the stereotypes,but) with some behavior that is depicted.

After all I have to say that SCHULE is a really good movie with excellent actors, camera and soundtrack and an fantastic tension (the scene on the schools' roof at dawn!!!)

Watch and let it have a place in your heart! - It deserves it!!!

Perfect identification for young people!

[doczoidy · 4 November 2004]

As I watched this film the first time, i never heard of it before. And I was quite surprised! It has the same boring and quiet surrounding like every other German film, but there isn't any other film reminding me on my youth like this one! Someone who has never been a young student nowadays would hardly understand the message of the film.

One of the first thing I noticed: The producers invented a completely new town witch doesn't exist in Germany! Kerkweiler! They made new license plates abbreviations (KER) witch doesn't exist, they made a new Kreiswehrersatzamt (Military Recruting Office) on a mail header, and all this details only for not finding out where this film acts! So EVERY German can identify with it!

It's a good film witch I can only recommend! The main actor Daniel Brühl isn't one of Germany's hope in film industries future because he is a bad actor!