Run Lola Run

The transgressive German chase movie Run Lola Run happily tramples all our usual ideas about narrative structure, chronology and character, and for that alone, it's one of the most fascinating artifacts of the late 1990s. Critic Roger Ebert called it "an exercise in kinetic energy, a film of nonstop motion and visual invention" in which the eponymous heroine, played by Franka Potente, "is like the avatar in a video game -- Lara Croft made flesh." Director Tom Tykwer tells his story of crime, money, love and fate not once, but three times -- a post-modern twist on Rashomon -- each time altering the outcome and the destiny of his characters. The experimental time lines and now-intersecting, now-divergent realities in these 81 minutes may not be for everyone, but Tykwer's frantic cheerfulness -- and Potente's tireless running -- win the day.

Run Lola Run screens Thursday, September 21, as part of the University of Colorado's International Film Series. Showings are at 7 and 9 p.m. in Muenzinger Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. For more information, call 303-492-1531.