Who would have thought that a dysfunctional, deranged, down-and-out homeless person in pre-First World War Vienna become, 20 years later, Chancellor of Germany?  This peculiar and intriguing film simply named “Max” argues that he succeeded because he had such a burning need to be recognized (sounds familiar ?)–and also, of course, because of luck= good for him, bad for us.

If Hitler had won fame as an artist, the century’s history might have been different.

“Max” imagines a fictional scenario in which the young Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor) is befriended by a one-armed Jewish art dealer named Max Rothman (John Cusack) in Munich in the years following World War I.