Florian Pochlatko’s How to be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World follows Pia as she gets out of psychiatric hospital and tries to adapt to life outside. With all the craziness going on around us at the moment, a film that questions the sanity of the world is certainly timely.
It starts out with good character development and agreeable humor. A scene with an Ed Sheeran lookalike named Ned and another where a psychiatrist tap dances to “What Is Love?” are among the comedic highlights.
Later the lines between what is real and what is in Pia’s head start to blur and they become increasingly hard to differentiate. The changing aspect ratios, which could have been utilized as a guide for the viewer, do not appear to serve a useful purpose either.
Luisa-Céline Gaffron is terrific as Pia. The colorful cinematography is pleasing. However the incoherence of it all left me frustrated.
