Bagdad Cafe

Just watched this 1987 German movie set in the southwestern US desert. It's a kind of surreal comedy playing with various race, class, & social stereotypes. We have a middle-aged Bavarian woman (often a stand-in for all europeans) complete with lederhosen, a strong yet angry & irrational black mother, absent black father, Native American police sheriff, 80's trendy teenager, a sporty white boomerang-throwing hitchhiker, a weird western David Carradine-esque painter guy, and an army of truckers. They're all one-dimensional characters, but it doesn't make it feel flat. It's set at a truck stop in a microscopic dust-bowl town. It was nice aesthetically, at moments reminded me of Buñuel or Twin Peaks, funny, and I don't think exploitative, but at the same time I'm not sure I get the point.