Fox and His Friends

Now Playing

2h 3m

Drama

List

86%

21 Reviews

Tomatometer

87%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this dark examination of love and money, Fox (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a young, gay member of the German working class. When he meets the older and dapper Max, who has upper-class roots, Fox thinks he may have found someone to help him out, but Max refuses to do so. However, this changes when Fox wins big on the lottery, and Max becomes friendlier and helps to reinvent Fox. But, in fact, Max and his friends are slyly trying to swindle him out of his new fortune.

Read More

Read Less

Now in Theaters

Now Playing

Buy Tickets

In Theaters

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Max

Watch Fox and His Friends with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

peter w

Fassbinder effectively pokes his finger in the eye of middle-class pretensions but, instead of completely giving it the finger, Fox falls victim to it. I was hoping for him to carry on with is life after his rejection but the impact proved to be too much for him to handle, no thanks to the anti-depressants prescribed for his anxiety, and so we have the suicide of Fox which foreshadows Fassbinder's own demise ten years later.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

William L

"Nonsense. Everyone's to be had." Fassbinder's Fox is both the only one who seems to feel any sincere emotion in this film, and is at the same time the dimmest bulb in whatever room he happens to be in. Fox and His Friends treats money as a corrupting influence and love as both a commodity and a poisonous tool wielded for impure purposes. While that's perfectly fine as a central theme and has plenty of strength, the screenplay here stays relatively stagnant and conventional for the most part, apart from the intimate gay perspective that would have been considered modern in 1975. There isn't much in the way of surprises or nuance as the runtime rolls on, we are just given more and more of Fox's quiet suffering as the subject of jabs about his 'common' nature, and the setup of questionable investments that can only end one way. I'm simplifying, and not touching on some of the more subtle character features of Fox himself (who is naive but not innocent, and kind but not exactly benevolent), but it's an awfully vaunted reputation for a narrative that boils down to "money can't buy happiness" with some generic cynicism about human nature, and gay characters that have actual features instead of being caricatures. (3/5)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

11/18/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Franz is a low-life looser that earns his living on illegal circus shows. He earns a few bucks having his way with shady men, but one day he wins the lottery and he decides to change his ways and get's commited to a rich, classy fella. We watch as his ups and downs. Known to be one of RWF's most accessable films and one that he worked hard for during pre-production. He lost a lot of weight and he plays the main character. It's an all right film, but maybe a bit long and repitative. I never connect much with the characters and I have seen better movies from the guy. OK stuff, but it's not the most interesting piece to hang on to. 5.5 out of 10 bouquets.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

s r

1001 movies to see before you die. Despite the German appeal, this one got weird and unnerving.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ein ergreifender Film aus den 70ern über Liebe, Einsamkeit, Klassengesellschaft und Habgierigkeit. Ebenso eine Fabel über das Gute und Böse im Menschen. Fassbinder ist beeindruckend und echt in seiner performance und man möchte ihn einfach nur drücken und beschützen.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A suitably tragic-comic film from Reiner Werner Fassbinder, that's also perhaps his most personal. Casting himself in the lead, Fassbinder plays a young homosexual man whose in conflict over whether his lover is with him because of emotions, or whether he's just interested in wealth. The film really utilizes this timeless theme to explore issues regarding class, bigotry, and finance, all of which are still relevant for society 40 years later. It also contains some of the director's best use of sets, with really calculated colors and film space used to express the isolation of the main character. Fassbinder had said that Fox and his Friends was a work of his that he very much favored, and it's easy to see why: It's at least very close to being his best.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Director

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Franz Bieberkopf alias 'Fox'

Peter Chatel

Eugen Thiess

Karlheinz Böhm

Max

Harry Baer

Philip

Adrian Hoven

Wolf Thiess, Eugen's father

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

73%

80%

In a Year of 13 Moons

76%

85%

Veronika Voss

84%

85%

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

92%

90%

The Marriage of Maria Braun

96%

92%

Stroszek

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

On DVD This Week: Ouija: Origin of Evil, The Girl on the Train, Train to Busan, and More

View more photos

Richard Brody

New Yorker

This melodramatic fable of emotional extremes is sharp and precise-nowhere more than in Fassbinder's attention to the price of domestic comforts and industrial necessities.

Sep 15, 2014

Full Review

Richard Eder

New York Times

It excludes all life that is not within the very narrow intentions of its author. Its pores have been painted over.

Rated: 2/5

May 9, 2005

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Here is a movie about characters who define themselves by their sexuality, but the movie doesn't. It takes the sexuality as a given, and defines them by their values and morals.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

... one of Fassbinder’s most affecting, accomplished, and personal films and he delivers a sweet, wounded performance as the proletariat Fox in a den of cultured, upper-class hounds.

Mar 8, 2024

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

One of Fassbinder's most poignant melodramas, Fox and His Friends has lost none its resonance as both pointed social commentary and a moral fable.

Rated: 4.5/5

Sep 15, 2020

Full Review

Leigh Charlton

Los Angeles Free Press

Offers the most intimate look thus far into the complex and probing psyche of [Rainer Werner Fassbinder] who, although only in his early 30s, is already making significant contributions to the art of filmmaking as an actor, writer and director.

Oct 28, 2019

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

In this dark examination of love and money, Fox (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is a young, gay member of the German working class. When he meets the older and dapper Max, who has upper-class roots, Fox thinks he may have found someone to help him out, but Max refuses to do so. However, this changes when Fox wins big on the lottery, and Max becomes friendlier and helps to reinvent Fox. But, in fact, Max and his friends are slyly trying to swindle him out of his new fortune.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Screenwriter: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Christian Hohoff
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Production Co: City Films, Tango Film
Genre: Drama
Original Language: German
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 6, 1975, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 17, 2017
Runtime: 2h 3m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1), Flat (1.66:1)

Most Popular at Home Now