In the Aisles

In the Aisles scrutinizes work friendships with a keen sense of how they evolve from clipped, polite niceties to inside jokes and private confidences.

I was shocked by how much I got invested in the world of learning how to use a forklift.

A good cast tries hard, but for a story that finds its origin in short fiction, there's no excuse for letting this run on for over two hours.

In the Aisles has just the softest breath of a plot, but director Thomas Stuber paints a mesmerizing portrait of the grocery store's weird night kingdom and the surrounding community looking the worse for wear, post-reunification.

Like a humble gift, "In the Aisles" makes up for its lack of opulence with quotidian magic.

The stars, it must be said, are slightly more interesting than the characters, which is another way of saying Rogowski and Huller amplify what's there on the page.

With his slightly cleft lip and modest speech impediment, Rogowski is an offbeat leading actor, but those "flaws" somehow only heighten his slightly edgy yet vulnerable appeal.

I find the performances from Franz Rogowski, Sandra Hüller and Peter Kurth very accurate, especially when they communicate things like introspection, confidence, loneliness and affection. [Full review in Spanish]

Their long looks, stolen glances and small kind gestures make the world of the supermarket bearable and a little brighter.

It is a subtle celebration of the concept of the "work family," or the forming of meaningful bonds through the virtue of work, no matter how myopic that work may seem.