Yella

Directed by Christian Petzold, Yella follows Nina Hoss’ Yella Fichte as she attempts to start over by moving out of town and away from her abusive ex-boyfriend – although it becomes clear fairly quickly that this might be easier said than done. Filmmaker Petzold does an effective job of initially luring the viewer into the deliberately-paced proceedings, as the director effectively establishes the central character and her plight – with this vibe undoubtedly heightened by Hoss’ enigmatic yet entirely captivating turn as the soft-spoken protagonist. It’s equally clear, however, that Yella slowly-but-surely begins to lose its already-tenuous grip on the viewer, as Petzold offers up an often unreasonably uneventful midsection devoted mostly to Yella’s business dealings alongside a new colleague – with the less-than-captivating nature of these scenes compounded by a pace that’s ultimately just unreasonably glacial in its execution. And although Petzold does pepper the proceedings with a handful of compelling moments, Yella builds to a somewhat anticlimactic finish that’s as expected as it is baffling. (This is especially true if one knows the movie on which the story is loosely based.)

** out of ****