‘Axolotl Overkill’: Film Review | Sundance 2017

Overkill may indeed be the appropriate term to describe German author turned director Helene Hegemann’s feature debut, adapted from a bestselling novel she penned at the age of 16. Chronicling the wild nights and aimless days of a Berliner girl who just wants to have fun, and possibly find some real affection in the process, Axolotl Overkill vaguely follows in the footsteps of films by Larry Clark or Gus Van Sant, though its many scenes of decadence are portrayed with all the polish and deliberateness of an Urban Outfitters ad.