The opening scene of “Touch of Evil.” The hammer fight in “Oldboy.” The nightclub scene in “Goodfellas.”

For many filmmakers, an impressive long shot is a stylistic calling card. A moment to demonstrate their mastery as visual storytellers. Sure, some filmmakers will say an intricately choreographed tracking shot only exists to serve the story. But sometimes it’s just about the panache.

Last year’s German breakout, “Victoria” contains the ultimate long shot — the entire two hour, 15 minute movie is a single handheld shot. An uninterrupted take of such length is difficult to pull off in a contained setting. “Victoria” takes it further by traversing several indoor and outdoor locations in Berlin.

The movie, available on Netflix’s instant streaming service, follows the title character (Laia Costa), a Spanish waitress who doesn’t speak German and knows very little of the city. The movie opens at the brink of dawn in a club where Victoria meets four affable German guys, including the charming Sonne (Frederick Lau).

For a while the movie plays like a romantic travelogue, not far removed from the flirty, character-building scenes in Richard Linklater’s “Before” series. OK, except one of the guys mentions how he just got out of prison, and Victoria and Sonne’s meet-cute culminates with a wee bit of

shoplifting.

Nevertheless, “Victoria” could have easily settled into a casual examination of young, idealistic love, and the continuous shot-style allows the viewer to be swept into the rush of this late-night encounter. The intimacy of the camera does a convincing job of helping us understand why Victoria feels drawn to Sonne and his crew.

After the film’s best scene (boasting a soulful and remorseful piano performance by Costa), the story takes a turn, and the early morning for these new friends quickly turns frantic and violent. While I won’t spoil the events, the movie falters a bit in failing to justify Victoria’s role in the action.

Even if the story stretches believability in the second half, the camera work never stops impressing. The film goes from frantic escapes to quiet, reflective moments with an ease and fluidity that seems impossible given the real-world backdrop.

What director Sebastian Schipper and cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. Consisting of only a 12-page script (and heavy reliance on improvisational conversations between the actors), they reportedly managed the single-shot feat on just the third attempt.

As the trick shot stretches on, “Victoria” leans more into style-over-substance territory. Still, the acting is strong, and the trick itself is masterful, with the handheld camerawork and dark street settings helping to mask the visual gimmick. At no point does the film seem to be calling attention to the trick, which ultimately becomes the major reason it works.

Victoria and Sonne’s first date could ultimately be classified as disastrous. Another new Netflix Instant offering follows a first date that’s equally unpredictable, though considerably less violent.

The British comedy “Man Up” (terrible title) follows a journalist (Lake Bell) who pretends to be the blind date of a man (Simon Pegg) she sees waiting for the real girl to arrive. It’s a broad premise told in broad strokes — the difference being genuine chemistry between the two stars and a rigid commitment to the goofball antics that befall the characters over the course of a single night.

Pegg is always good for a laugh even in questionable productions, and Bell deserves a more A-list career (see her directorial effort, “In a World…” for the only evidence you really need to justify that statement). They both play interesting, non-stock characters, even when the plot ultimately lands in all-too-familiar rom-com tropes.

“Man Up,” by the way, ends on a tracking shot through a house party. It lasts about 30 seconds, and the shot is actually patched together with clunky zoom-ins and brief frame blackouts. If Bell and Pegg want to make another movie in, say, Berlin, they can certainly find a better cinematographer there.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com