I know a few others have pointed out the Lola similarities to Vertigo, but I’ll jump on the bandwagon. Firstly, I loved the movie. It was clearly created by a team of artists who love film. The structure, screenplay, editing, direction, music and acting were all so unique and different that I think this film belongs in the category for timeless, culturally important foreign films – it was excellent.

The vertigo references were often times blatant (on purpose) which was great. The spiral spinning behind Manni in the phone booth. The never ending spiral staircase. The credits with Lola running into the spiraling dimension warp. The painting in the casino. Tykwer, the director, took so many different film practices and stuck them together with a twist. I thought it worked beautifully. One thing that I always ask myself when I watch a film is, “What the hell happened to that side character we met for a minute? ” I really liked the Tykwer did the camera motif and showed all these butterfly affect scenarios. Motifs are an excellent way to end a film – it leaves the audience smiling. I also though that the pacing of the film was excellent. Another film that practices the “What if” scenarios is Sliding Doors, but Lola was much quicker and to the point. It was like a cooler version of speed with all these different scenarios. Plus, the subtle hints that Lola was knowledgeable of her previous attempts was very intriguing. Almost God-like. There is a film called Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal which goes through replays of scenarios or the recent Edge of Tomorrow which tackles the ground hog day approach and it works really well.

Philosophically, the film really addresses the theory of compatibilism  which offers that we can live with free will and determinism simultaneously without being illogical. The film starts with the security guard asking us to address these questions. Can we be liberated and make our own choices or are we stuck accepting a predetermined fate?

All in all, the movie is nothing short of brilliant. You can watch it and just have fun with it or you can watch it and dig into deep philosophical questions that will take you down a day long rabbit hole of questions. Not to mention the wild editing choices and directorial design. Awesome movie. Kuleshov would be very proud.