Soul Kitchen Opens today at the Michigan Theater Review by Jeff Meyers of the Metro Times Grade: B+

Is it a comedy if you don't laugh much? Or if you don't laugh at all? Yes. Especially when it's as amusing and infectiously good-natured as Fatih Akin's "Soul Kitchen." An overcooked cinematic soufflé set in Hamburg's bohemian subculture, this minor effort from one of Germany's ... heck, the world's ... most interesting filmmakers is a sloppy, easy-to-like farce fueled by an incredible soundtrack.

Akin, a German of Turkish descent, has made two of the most arresting films of the last five years. "Head On" was an emotionally gripping and sublimely romantic drama, and "Edge of Heaven" was a superb everything-is-connected drama that vastly outclassed anything made by cinematic showoff Alejandro González Iñárritu ("21 Grams," "Babel"). Taking a break from his love-death-devil trilogy (I'm intrigued by what the third installment will bring), "Soul Kitchen" is a funky, rollicking love letter to the director's past life as a DJ and bartender that makes no apologies for its inconsequence.

Read the full review here