Carlo (2004) User Reviews

You can never be sure where it is heading

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 10 October 2017]

"Carlo" is a Belgian film from 2004, so already way over a decade old and you could maybe say that this is the most known career effort still by writer and director Michaël R. Roskam. It runs for 15 minutes only (plus 3 minutes credits) and tells a story about (bad) luck and coincidence. Now the masters of this subject are of course the Coen Brothers, but Roskam's approach is pretty decent too. The Belgians are known in terms of film in not being scared of anything, more like Scandinavians actually than like Netherlands or so. So you can never really be sure what you are watching. Early on, it even could have been a light comedy, but then it gets darker and darker that eventually not even the term dark comedy is appropriate anymore. With the way it ends, you could certainly call it a crime drama really, but it's not yet on the thriller level. So IMDb is correct calling it a drama, even if the genre "crime" is missing here. The football player names and some bizarre situations are probably not enough to say it is a comedy. Anyway, I will not go into detail about the plot, but it is as solid as everything else about this little movie. The fact that you probably won't know any of the cast unless you are from Belgium isn't hurting at all. They don't need to be famous to be good. It is a little movie that is a bit on the underseen side. Go change that now as I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out.

excellent short-movie! a nice dark comedy! it can't be better!!

[dominik96 · 10/10 · 12 July 2005]

I gave it a 10, and it really deserves this rating. The story is nice and the speed of it is high! The movie took all it could out of it, and so it must be a 10. What can I write more? It is a short-movie, and I have to complete 10 lines of text! God, it is excellent craftsmanship! Short but really good!! The only negative point in this movie, could be the translation of it. With french and Flemish , it really needs good translation. Still more lines to write! So get this short-movie, and watch it! You won't be disappointed! I am surprised, that IMDb has this movie as drama, because i see it more as a dark comedy. the story has no flaws it is stringent, and it goes like a red line through the movie! really really good work, but far to short, that i can get more lines to write about! get it, watch it! that's my message!