TONI ERDMANN, the lauded German corporate daughter/prankster dad comedy (?) film by Maren Ade

She also made The Forest for the Trees and Everyone Else, both amazing films

and each progressively better than the last. hoping for another one from her

I've seen this film and Everyone Else, and I may need to see them again at some point; I just read the plot summaries that were occasionally familiar but seemed emotionally remote from what I remembered of the actual experience of watching them.

I need to rewatch it, but I can say for sure I haven't laughed harder at anything in years than at the culminating scene at the end of the party.

Which is immediately followed by its most heart-tugging scene. The timing of the film's beats is perfect even though its rhythms are odd.

and then Plainsong

too good

"The Greatest Love of All" scene truly among the all-timers

So damned relieved the American version never got made

I feel like a lot of recent Euro comedies have been mean-spirited in a nihilstic, mansplainy kind of way, but this isn't like that at all, and I loved that.

yes, imagine Ruben Östlund directing this thing.

The petit fours scene alone ...