Wie geht’s and willkommen to another weekly Movie and TV Review!! This lovely week, we’ll be looking at the biopic Köln 75.

There are those of us who come into this world knowing who we are and what we want, and they shake the very foundation while making their dreams a reality; like a drink poured out, they rob the grave by sharing their gifts with the world. One of those special beings is Michael Jackson. Like him or hate him, no one can deny his impact. To this day, we have people impersonating him and going viral for copying his mannerisms to the T. However, this isn’t about him, but the living legend herself, Vera Brandes. Now let’s get itttttt!

The film follows Vera at different stages in her life, beginning at 50 during her birthday party, the one her dear dad disrupted — by the way, who invited him? She then sheds the years as the movie revives her 16-year-old self, when she meets the jazz musician Ronnie Scott, who helps begin her music career as a promoter.

That said, one thing I kept wondering was: how did she get into jazz, and why not rock and roll? I’m assuming her good friend Wanda is the culprit. A free-thinker in her own right, they must have met in middle school, already a difficult age to be, but something must have clicked because even as Vera proudly received her well-earned status as a quinquagenarian, the two were still friends.

That friendship also sits in sharp contrast to what was happening at home. Perceived as problem children, Vera and her brother Fritz were the object of their father’s continued ridicule — and we’re not even going to touch how their mother must’ve felt. However, being the contrarian that I am, I kind of feel bad for the guy. Let me explain: though I wouldn’t want to be in his company, for someone to want to dim their children’s light the way he did, someone must have done it to him first. In his mind, as someone who lived through war and built his dental practice from nothing when he had nothing, he likely saw his children as going astray. History has shown over and over again that people who have lived through troubling times often don’t function well in general society.

Still, my sympathy only stretches so far. I’m shocked he masked that personality long enough to catch his wife, Ilse, but who cares what I think? I’m not a psychologist. My only problem lies in how he dealt with it, and by the looks of it, he did nothing. It’s only now that people are starting to take therapy or counseling seriously. I can imagine that, in his case, seeking help would have made him seem weak or less masculine. After all, I come from the kind of tough background where love is shown by paying the bills, feeding you, and keeping you under a roof — or as Everybody Hates Chris father Julius so aptly put it when asked about an allowance: “I allow you to drink my Kool-Aid, I allow you to nibble on them green beans, I allow you to ask me those ridiculous ass questions.”

By abusing his kids, he created the very monsters he seemed to think they were.

That idea also made me think about how differently people are judged depending on where and when they grow up. Sidenote: what’s the deal with leaving home at 18 years old? Vera’s brother was so nicely labeled a loser by their loving father because he was only 18 and still living at home. Look, if he’s considered a loser, then I must be the ultimate loser because by the age of 25 I was still aimlessly walking through life. Even now, at my present age, though I’m not happy about it, I’m still in my father’s house, but I’m doing my very best to change my life. Everybody’s story is different, and I don’t think it’s right to measure everyone by the same yardstick. But I digress.

What I did appreciate most is that Mrs. Brandes never gave up in the face of impossibility, that she refused to become a dentist, and that today she is still doing what she loves: working in the music industry. Moral of the story: do what makes you happy.

Anypoops, I give Köln 75 a fresh rose.