Falconeer
I purchased "Stratosphere Girl" after seeing the trailer, and thinking how strangely beautiful the main actress was. Model/actress Chloe Winkel has an extraordinary look, and it transfers well to the movie screen. She leaves quite an impression in a film that is equally appealing to the eye, on many levels. The bizarre story centers on a young Danish girl with a wonderful talent for drawing comic book style "manga" pictures of everything she sees, and everyone who she encounters while living her bizarre life. Upon the recommendation from her dee-jay boyfriend, Angela flies to Tokyo, and winds up working in a shady "hostess bar" , where attractive white girls mingle with wealthy Japanese men. Once there, Angela finds herself in the middle of a mystery; another girl, from Russia, was living in the flat she now shares with some very bitchy girls. She disappeared without a trace, and Angela becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to the girl. More than a mystery, this seems to be more of a character study, about jealousy and competition among girls. Her co-workers are quite envious of the young, gorgeous Angela, and rightfully so, as they can't hold a candle to this girls translucent, hypnotic beauty. Don't expect to be too entertained with the mystery angle, as somehow the director has made something that should by all rights be fascinating, into something very slow, and just a bit boring. However I am recommending this film, for it does have much to offer. There is some truly inspired camera work; the film is very stylish. There are those wonderful shots of Tokyo, a city that is always fascinating and mysterious; it all possesses this dreamlike quality. If nothing else, see it for the gorgeous Chloe Winkel; I can't say enough about this girl. Her acting abilities aren't particularly strong, but when she is on screen, (at least in my opinion), it didn't really matter what was happening. Director M.X. Oberg pieces together the film with comic strip images, suggesting that the whole movie is basically a comic book come to life. This makes sense, as what is happening on screen is just too weird for real life. Others have complained about the ending, saying it is a letdown. Personally i thought it was very nice, and quite unique: Angela's suspicions about a grisly murder, and a city filled with corrupt, evil people, turn out to be a mere product of her vivid, artists imagination. The ending is sweet, when she finds out that she was wrong, and the men that she suspected of such evil things offer her a job, as a comic book artist, which is what she dreamed of doing. The ending wraps up so perfectly and sweetly, exactly like the comic books that the film actually is. I am happy to have seen this film, and it is good enough for repeat viewings. Apparently there is a longer version, available in Holland I believe, that is 10 minutes longer. I can't help but wonder what is missing from my German DVD, that runs 81 minutes... Anyway, I recommend "Stratosphere Girl" to those who can appreciate beauty over substance.
cybeerian
This film promised something but doesn't deliver. The story is simple enough, and quite watchable for the first hour of the film (apart from all of the shots of Tokyo highways used as cutaways), and then nothing. The ending is so juvenile. Was this written by a 12 year old, or did the film makers just run out of money and/or ideas? The storyline has the heroine of the film trying to track down a missing friend in Tokyo. She is constantly running into people that seem to know more than they are saying. The film seems to be building toward a showdown between our heroine and the bad guys and then... She finds her friend isn't dead and she is offered a job drawing cartoons for one of the bad guys. PLEASE!!!
maddalena_maddo
this film is disappointing in several ways. 1. the end: the movie just kind of stops after having built up a quite exciting development; what i mean is, the solution is somewhat unsatisfying. this ending might be a good idea for a short film, but for a feature film it's simply frustrating.2. this is supposed to be, as i took it from the promotion material, a film about tokyo. well this it is not. it might almost as well have been shot in Paris or new york. the image this film gives of tokyo mainly consists of a few clichés. you don't get a feeling of what tokyo REALLY is like, of what makes this particular city unique. hadn't i read that it's supposed to be a "tokyo-film", i wouldn't have guessed it. (it's not at all a problem for the film that it lacks this dimension; the film has it's own atmosphere, that is quite interesting and suspenseful enough; i was just disappointed because it was declared as a "tokyo-film" beforehand). thus, apart from the ending, this film is not bad; i just wish we had skipped the last three minutes and made up our own finale.
eli_zaum4
To me, the Stratosphere Girl is the perfect balance between suspense, love story and comic. And the the pictures! Every little scene has been carefully built to reach maximum optical effect. There are so many details to discover that seeing the movie once is not enough. I love this film! There, that is as simple as I can make it out. I am not going into any details about the plot or what takes place in the film, just want to say that this is the real deal. The film manages to carry a thin story with almost no plot whatsoever and be consistently interesting and entertaining throughout. On top of that it is all stunningly photographed. This picture is a must for every true movie fan.
