Meyjes (The Color Purple) makes his directorial debut here and shows considerable skill both with words and visuals. Nothing is remotely predictable; we never anticipate where the next shot will be--it's witty and askew and very clever as it touches lightly on very heavy themes. Despite a production design that's a bit too obsessed with shades of black, the film looks fresh and profoundly artistic, reflecting the avant-garde atmosphere perfectly and astutely capturing the darkly shaded performances. Cusack is especially good--it's that meaty, adult role we've been waiting to see, and he gets it absolutely right. And Taylor is equally absorbing, even though Hitler-as-written is a bit more problematic. He's just too sinister and slimy to be believable. Surely he wasn't a creepy genocidal maniac at this point in his life; why are the filmmakers afraid to let us have a bit of sympathy with him? And there's no sigh of the charisma that would get him elected to public office. Merely deciding to make this film was a very brave move, but it's a pity the filmmakers didn't go that one step further to make something that actually turned political correctness on its head ... not turning Hitler into a hero, but showing him as a human.