Shaved heads, Australian tracksuits and Nike Air Max sneakers: the gabber movement was a phenomenon in the 1990s. The film Hardcore Never Dies pays tribute to the Dutch subculture. NU.nl lists the reviews.
Fidelity – two stars
“Seventeen-year-old Michael (Joes Brauers) lives with his parents, works as a tomato picker and studies hard to be admitted to the conservatory as a pianist. His older brother Danny (Jim Deddes) is cut from a different cloth. Danny is a gabber who goes crazy gabberhouse.”
“The circumstances are quite simple. Michael willingly lets himself be led by his older brother. He not only takes his first pill, he also becomes involved in his brother’s drug trade. It feels like a swamp into which he is sinking further and further. Michael gets kicked out of the house by his dad and loses his job.”
“Hardcore Never Dies is a film that mixes the gabber drama (does boertje go to the galmieze?) with a fairly clichéd crime line.”
Het Parool – gives no stars
“Gabber Danny puts at the very beginning of Harddore Never Dies his vision of life. It’s a great monologue in bold Rotterdam. Perhaps born and bred Rotterdammers have something to say about the accent of the born Amsterdammer Hardcore Never Diesbut for the uninitiated, Rotterdam sounds very authentic.”
“Being fun Hardcore Never Dies the references to ‘ordinary’ Netherlands in the 1990s. Danny and his mates talk full of praise about Feyenoord footballer John de Wolf. And when one of them has the television on at home, a quiz is on, presented by the completely forgotten, but then popular Rolf Wouters.”
Watch the trailer for Hardcore Never Dies here
NRC – three stars
“Hardcore Never Dies beautifully recreates the Rotterdam of the 1990s. The sports jackets, the bathrooms with mosaic plants on pastel tiles, the cars and of course the parties in the Energy Hall. Shirts off, colorful lights, waving ‘aussies’ and bald primeval humans with wishing well-sized pupils, stomping as if luring earthworms to the surface.”
“Especially during scenes in which Danny is fooling around, the gabber culture feels close, realistic, enchanting. Unfortunately, that enchantment fades away after half an hour. The beautiful staging then turns out to be just window dressing for a predictable drug story. It feels as if the film has a wig and removes sticky beard: Sinterklaas is actually grandmother.”
AD – four stars
“To say that the incomparable Jim Deddes steals the show as Danny is an understatement. He is one lump of dynamite. Perhaps the contrast with Michael as the ultimate blank slate is a bit too great. Fortunately, the character remains authentic.”
“The fact that the crime plot is sometimes somewhat predictable is more than compensated for by the convincing acting and cinematic ingenuity of director Jim Taihuttu (Rabat, Wolf, The East). And his flaming cocktail of images has exactly the right melodic structure. From Beethoven to gabber and back again.”
The post first appeared on www.nu.nl