The Golden Glove

Fans of "The Last Podcast on the Left" may appreciate "The Golden Glove." This dark comedy/horror film from German director Fatih Akin is certainly not for the faint of heart. Its ideal audience has a fascination with serial killers, a bleak even nihilistic sense of humor and an unflinching stomach.

As an adaptation of Heinz Strunk's eponymous novel, this true crime inspired movie shows the four murders of the German serial killer Fritz Honka. Active in the early 1970s, Honka brutally murdered four women and hid parts of their rotting corpses in his apartment. And when neighbors started complaining about the horrific stench emanating from the murderer's apartment, he blamed it on the ethnic cooking of the neighbors downstairs.

Honka was a barely functional alcoholic who fed on women of his own kind – sad, lonely, desperate woman who would do almost anything for a friendly smile and a free drink. Many of these woman turned to sex work, though they were hardly high rent, so they frequented The Golden Glove, a filthy dive in the red-light district of Hamburg.

Jonas Dassler plays the repulsive Honka, but the man whom "Variety" Once claimed had "strong heartthrob potential" has been defaced into a hideous monster. Dassler has been honored with a German film award for his performance of in this film, but a special award should go to his make up artists.

In fact, the entire film was selected to compete for the the coveted Golden Bear at the Berlin International film festival. Though this film doesn't quite live up to the director's previous work.

The film wavers between gross-out horror and sinister satire, making certain that none of its characters are sympathetic and all of them are as unappealing as possible. Much of this most likely comes from the comic sensibilities of the source material's author. ("Strunk's debut novel was titled "Meat is My Vegetable.")

Strunk's humor defaces his characters as completely as Dassler's makeup, and his plot simply moves from one insult to another. The most humorous part of the film arrives in Honka's ironic comeuppance.

Incidentally, it has to do with the neighbor's ethnic cooking.

"The Golden Glove"
Blu-ray $30.99
cohenmedia.net/films/