Toni Erdmann

Dir. Maren Ade. 2016, 162 mins. DCP. With Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek. In the hands of Maren Ade, one of the most profound and precisely observed films about the condition of contemporary globalized living was also the funniest. Within the story of the frayed relationship between detached high-powered corporate consultant Ines (Hüller) and her more liberal-minded, aging leftist widower dad Winfried (Simonischek), Ade locates both escalating absurdity and a stirring core of humanity. When Winfried decides to show up in Bucharest, where Ines is currently living while trying to secure a deal for an expanding oil company that would outsource their labor, the two begin a dance of mutual distrust and adoration, leading to one brilliantly sustained comic set piece after another. “Winfried inserts himself into Ines’s life, approaching her friends and colleagues as if he belongs to their milieu of worldly professionals . . . Such embarrassments counterintuitively dignify the meaningless by pitting it against the treachery of a neoliberal project increasingly defining the 21st-century vision of European progress.”—Beatrice Loayza, Reverse Shot 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.