Fiercely winking social satire centered around a Teutonic Kristy McNichol (Lena Stolze) who runs into stone walls and stiff opposition when she researches her school essay topic, "My Hometown during the Third Reich." The Brechtian distancing devices -- direct address to the camera, stage sets with black-and-white backdrops, spatial dislocations -- are calculated to delight and bewilder, but miscalculated to do the second more than the first. And the skip-and-jump narration by which the spunky heroine tugs the action along is simply facile. Directed by Michael Verhoeven. (1990) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.