It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Curtis (Craig Robinson) is a football (soccer) coach in Germany. His wife is gone and he is a single parent trying to raise 13 year old Morris (Markees Christmas). Morris has a private tutor (Carla Juri) and is crushing on a 15 year old girl he met at the teen activity center. However Katrin (Lina Keller) is being his friend part time, as she still wants to maintain her social standing with her own group, less accepting of Morris.This is a coming of age drama. I was expecting a cultural difference, stranger in a strange land type of comedy and it wasn't there. It was closer to a tragedy with Curtis not getting father of the year award. Morris has a potty mouth, and I am not sure how a 13 year old singing X-rated rap lyrics and rather poorly, is entertaining. Morris is willing to be emotionally abused, just to be near Katrin. What was their target audience? Guide: F-word. No sex. Magazine nudity.

I am beyond baffled at this nonsensical 6 rating. wtf?? This is genius. This is cultures clashing, this is the study of sexism/racism/coming of age/culture is not your friend having it's DAY. this is gorgeous. It's like the realest episode of Skins (UK) ever. honestly just the scene where the kid makes a fake girlfriend and dances with it and humps it is absolutely NECESSARY and so cinematic it reminded me of when I used to make sweet love to my stuffed monkey Gargantua, which is the stuffed animal my grandma gave me before I was even born. This film is truth. This film is straight and gorgeous and it won me over in the first 3 minutes because that is exactly how I would parent. And I'm a 43 year old single, childless white woman. I love this film, this film is everything. Haters can suck it.

"Morris from America" or "Morris aus Amerika" is a German/American co-production from this year and there is also lots of English and German language in here as the action takes place in Germany, but the main character is American. Just like his dad. I as a German was familiar with Löbau and Juri as well as Craig Robinson from the international cast. The writer and director is Chad Hartigan who has also acted in several projects in the past, but maybe this work here and the awards recognition it received so quickly will maybe encourage him to keep making more films in the future. The film runs pretty much exactly for 90 minutes, so it is neither too long or short really. The heart and soul of this one is really Markees Christmas, a definite contender for the best child performance of the year I think. He did really well here and I was as surprised as I was impressed. It's the story of a boy who lost his mother (before the film began) and who lives with his father somewhere in Germany.A big part of the film is about the two being black. But I personally really did not feel this was the center of the story. There are some not so creative moments like the part about the marijuana or also comments like "Blacks are good dancers", but if you manage to ignore these few weak occasions, you will be in for a pretty good watch. It's a solid coming-of-age story about first love, even if unrequited, but also about friendship. I not only liked the way the title character was written, but also the way the big supporting players were written. Lina Keller plays Katrin and she feels very authentic. Not only do we see a strong performance, but we also see a character that has excellent shades. Early on, you still don't know if she is friend or for with the water gun scene and the Ecstasy reference, but she really likes Morris, even if not in a way he hopes she would. She definitely wants to be his friend and her struggles also have a lot to do with the problems she has with her own parents. She just wants to be loved and appreciated like most girls that age really, but the question if she is looking in the right places is eventually not answered because this movie is about Morris and not about her. And I really need to mention Craig Robinson, who proves here that he is also great with dramatic material, even if he keeps mixing it up with the somewhat entertaining approach he gives to Morris' dad. But the phone sex scene and also the speech at the end in the car show how good he is as these were some of the best moments of the film. It's nice to see he already won at Sundance for it and maybe more awards will follow. I would like it.Overall, the film needed a bit to get going and really get me invested, but that's sometimes the case and the way you care for the characters around the 30-minute mark and afterward makes it a deserving watch I believe. The only major letdown here was probably Carla Juri, who not only plays a character that added almost nothing to the story (at least the way she portrayed it), but the approach she gave it (restrained yet hammy) was sometimes pretty painful to watch. I have seen the actress in other works in the past already and there is always something that rings fairly false to me. Also looking at what she starred in I always get the impression that she is all about rising on the career ladder and not really about giving convincing portrayals. But like I said, aside from her, the film is almost entirely a success. There are some great moments towards the end (the rap performance, the talk in the car, the letter) that I actually wished they could have gotten some of these in earlier in the film instead bringing us one after the other in the last 20 minutes, but it is all fine I guess. I certainly recommend the watch and this is finally a film about Black people that also offers something more than boring and uninspired race bait, maybe because it eventually is not about the characters' color at all. I certainly recommend the watch.

Morris from America is about a black kid from the states trying to survive in Germany after the death of his Mom and forced to live with his Dad who coaches football in the country.Although living with Craig Robinson as your dad was made to be a joyous experience. Mr. Robinson was a great supporting actor for this movie. He comes on the scene and shares time with this new kid in the acting scene,Markees Christmas and the chemistry of father and son between them sparks magnificently. Such a touching relationship between father and son put on camera. You could tell that from the moment these two come on the screen in the first scene and Robinson tries to convince his son that his Old School Hip Hop was the joint, It set the tone for what I knew was going to be a humorous and touching connection.The adventures of Morris from America follows Morris as he attempts to learn the language and learn the culture of Germany. It's a hard task with Morris missing his home and his mom and having to deal with the stereotypes place upon him for being an African American.In a sub plot that reminds me of Melvin Van Peoples' The Story of A Three Day Pass, Morris develops a crush on an older hot blonde whose giving him mixed signals.Lucky for him, he has the love and support from his father and his German language tutor, both looking out for his best interest.Morris From America is one of the best movies about growing up there ever was, using an extreme metaphor of a kid alone in a land of a different language to relate to all of us.http://cinemagardens.com