Traceroute (2016)

Johannes, the central character of the film, describes himself as a kid, who is fascinated by computers and technical experiments. In "Traceroute" you are joining this grown-up-boy on his adventurous journey to places and people, that not only nerds want to visit.A very personal (and entertaining) film, which you want to show your nerdy kid to tell him/her: go your own way, everything will turn out fine.

A geeky nostalgic road movie (get it? traceroute? trace/route? get it? hop hop? nudge nudge?) that follows a pretty crazy dude across a pretty crazy country.'The United States' were really important to young Johannes when growing up in 1980s Krautlandia, so he pays a visit as a pop culture pilgrim. And while Johannes is covering a topic that has been covered a million times before, he brings originality to the film...lots of.You will either really like this doc, or you will be cursing me for wasting 2 hours of your life. Oh well. I'm just sad that he didn't make it to Oklahoma City.

The viewer is guided on a journey through different stories and experiences of nerd culture and these all accumulate to define how places and people have shaped and inspired filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner's art and politics.Traceroute's quirky and ironic humour is effective throughout and this is showcased from the beginning when Grenzfurthner introduces the first stop on the road trip, San Francisco, as a place of endless opportunity, as well as homelessness. Within the various interviews that take place, there is a real sense that this is a collaborative exploration of creativity: of the old and the new, the past and the present, and the traditional and the digital. The use of photography and drawings interspersed between the interviews with various people associated with nerd culture shows an artistic approach to the material and these images act as reflective snapshots of moments in time, reinforcing the importance of looking back to the past as well as looking forward to the future of the digital age.

It's funny that I find myself explaining what "Traceroute" is, this command line utility that's almost as old as the Internet itself. Basically, it's used to show how your packages reach a certain destination on the internet from your computer.Now I almost feel like using this movie to describe what Traceroute is. Johannes goes on a kind of coming-of-age journey though he's a full blown adult, tracking the origins and path of his own nerd personality through visits to friends, heroes and important landmarks throughout the US.Johannes knows how to entertain using himself as the material as well as how to drag friends, associates and circumstances to round out the whole journey. Personally, I'm clamoring for a sequel!(I'd give it a 10 out of 10, but I'm in the movie for a blink so it can't be perfect.)