1999, 1 hr 20 min., Rated R for some violence and language. Dir: Tom Tykwer. Cast: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu.

You say: "What's the coolest movie you've seen this year?" I say: "Run Lola Run." I know, this may be overstepping my bounds, but the amount of energy and compelling visuals in this film had me riveted.

The action is quick and almost relentless, moving to a penetrating electronica (think techno) beat. There are brief respites where the music is stopped and the action ceases, as these scenes offer background to the story and contributes to the "what if?" theme of the film.

PLOT: Small-time drug lackey Manni left 100,000 deutsche marks on the subway, and will most likely be killed if he doesn't come up with the cash in 20 minutes, by High Noon. Lola tells him she'll find the money, but he's a loose cannon and is determined to rob a supermarket to get the cash. Lola sets out to save her boyfriend, but is fate on her side? Lola repeats the 20-minute period three times, and we see how little differences affect her life and the lives of others she comes in contact, playing as a "Star Trek" parallel-universe episode, only much more real.

It seems as if every style of filming in Run Lola Run was explored: animation, split screens, rotating frozen motion, grainy hand-held, photographs, intense close-ups, high aerial shots, flashbacks, flash-forwards, slow-motion, fast-motion, black and white, replay, sweeping pans, tight edits... Most certainly I say that this is a plus, because it keeps the audience on their toes, without falling into the MTV-style five second snippets of short-attention-span shots with too much movement and loud music. The music in Lola remains underneath the story, adding to it rather well without overshadowing.

Our heroine, Lola ("You're a cuckoo's egg," her dad tells her), is a spirited young punk who is strong yet sensitive, abrasive yet welcoming, finding herself in a situation not her own design.

Lola has hair so red even "Raggedy Ann" would be jealous, and spends much of the film running the streets of Germany in a tank top with a bra strap constantly peaking out. Her Doc Martin-style combat boots have to be uncomfortable, and the pea green pants don't really work for me, but Lola herself is an intriguingly attractive character.

Potente's bright red hair is hard to miss, with a touch of blonde streaking the side, and her soft features show off those big brown eyes which plunge me into a crush deeper than a 12-year-old boy staring at Pamela Anderson's chest. And what a primal scream! It's enough to break glass, literally. What can I say? I found her to be...how do you say? Ah, yes, "sexy".

Director Tom Tykwer steers clear of allowing the film to be repetitive and thus boring, as one might expect when repeating the same scenario three times consecutively. The only standard is Lola's mother on the phone as her quest begins. From there, almost everything is different, from the guy with the dog on the stairwell to Manni finally paying attention to the blind lady next to the phone booth. One might also relate Run Lola Run to Bill Murray's Groundhog Day, but that is in a different universal genre altogether so any true comparison would be a waste of time.

One of the more interesting points is how minor characters' lives are altered by Lola, no matter how minimal the initial contact. For one, she runs into a lady rounding a corner, and the film shows us her future, which is different all three times. The film slyly proves how what we perceive as a bad situation may in fact be the best option, as the alternative universe offers a much worse outcome.

In 81 minutes Tykwer fills in two hours worth, another way to prevent the premise from becoming tiresome, which is just as well since I was worn out after all of Lola's running, feeling more like windsprints because of the sudden stops and starts. And we all know that those leave us much more jarred than a steady pace.