Fabian: Going to the Dogs: Dominik Graf’s film starts rather chaotically, which is not inappropriate considering the period it portrays, but it truly finds its stride when the love story at its core takes center stage. The film follows an aspiring writer in 1930s Berlin who falls in love with a prospective actress. The sense of chaos and debauchery right before the Nazi rise to power is palpable. It’s the empathy of the main characters that makes this such a winning experience, however. Tom Schilling plays the young writer, a quietly complicated man who is nevertheless nice and pleasurable; it’s a powerful performance. Saskia Rosendahl is extremely charming as the actress-to-be, and their chemistry is very strong. The film is aesthetically daring early on, with lively and stylized camerawork, by cinematographer Hanno Lentz; his work continues to be very interesting. Editor Claudia Wolscht gives the film a very fine pace despite its long runtime. Composers Sven Rossenbach and Florian van Volxem contribute with a score that is likewise unusual but a good fit.