German filmmaker Dennis Gansel turns the true story of a high-school history experiment gone awry into a glossy, pulse-pounding thriller, employing methods almost as fascistic as those of “The Wave” / “Die Welle” (2008, 110 min) itself. Intentional irony? One can’t help but be riveted by the spectacle of ordinary teenagers willingly submitting to autocratic rule—their überhip teacher is attempting to demonstrate that the Nazis weren’t anomalous monsters—but earmarking one kid as emotionally unstable from the get-go means that we’re just twiddling our thumbs as we await the inevitable moment when he finally snaps.

German with English subs
Free Entrance