AllMovie

Hans-Christian Schmid directs this Bavarian coming-of-age film based on the 1999 autobiographical best-seller by 17-year-old Benjamin Lebert. Quiet, reticent Benni (Robert Stadlober), who has a bad hand and a slight limp, is shipped out by his parents to a boarding school up in Schloss as a last ditch effort to salvage his math grades. On his first day, he meets the lithesome Malen (Oona-Devi Liebich) for whom he develops a profound and sweaty crush. He also befriends Janosch (Tom Shilling) who, along with his buddies, is riding a major hormone high, fuelled by contraband beer and nudie magazines.