Review of Morris from America (2016) by Spangle — 17 Nov 2016

Morris from America is an alright coming of age film. Sporadically funny and insightful to the struggles of living in a new country, Morris from America offers little new insight on the minefield of youth and is not as funny as it could have been. That said, the acting is terrific - even from the youth characters - and Craig Robinson really steals the show. Every time he is in the frame, the scene is guaranteed to be included in the film's highlight reel.

Though typical, the film finds much of its charm in the relationship between Curtis (Robinson) and his son Morris (Markees Christmas). Highlighting the struggles they face together as black men living in Germany, as well as having lost their wife/mother, the film really soars when they bond. Though the film never satisfactorily dives into the emotional drama enough with the deceased wife/mother, the film does show some good father-son bonding. Here, the film winds up being deeply affecting, particularly in the final sequence when Curtis begs Morris to be on his team and not continue causing problems for him. Of the entire film, the writing is strongest in this area.

However, the second strongest area of the film is Morris' relationship with Katrin (Lina Keller). Though he falls into the cinematic trap of thinking she is actually into him when she has a boyfriend, Morris still learns a lot about life through his encounters with Katrin. Not only does he gain the confidence to become a rapper, but he learns to go with the flow and experience new things. Above all, even if he does not yet realize it, he learned a lot about German culture and took a step toward adjusting to his new homeland.

That said, the film does struggle at times with its comedy. While the film can be injected with a lot of fun energy and comedy from Robinson or even Morris himself, the film does heavily rely on cringe comedy. Since I hate cringe comedy, this does not work for me too much. In particular, the scene when Morris "raps" and then gets kicked out of the youth center really caused me physical pain. I can only imagine it was intended to be comedic since it was so poorly put together and really just caused me to look away from the screen. This was hardly the only scene where I had to cover my eyes, unfortunately.

Additionally, the film's characterization of Katrin left a lot to be desired. As is usual, we are left looking at her character negatively even though Morris is the one who obsessed about her and just assumed she would be into him. In fairness, she dropped a lot of hints (even asking him if it is true what people say about black guys and their...members), but she equally owed him nothing. Even worse, he is the one who assaulted her boyfriend when he got mad and decided to fight over Katrin. Really, if anybody misstepped in this relationship, it is certainly Morris, which is why it is unfortunate to see her painted negatively to the audience.

All-in-all, Morris from America never really provides satisfactory looks at certain emotional elements and its entertainment is quite fleeting. However, it is fun while it lasts, even if I already largely forgot about it and what I remember will only include scenes with Craig Robinson.