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Eurovision Song Contest, My Spy, Irresistible and more
The Audition ***
In a character study that walks a precarious tightrope between ambiguous and merely opaque, it’s left to the acting subtlety of Nina Hoss to find safe ground—which she’s more than capable of accomplishing. Hoss plays Nina, a violin teacher at a Berlin conservatory who takes a passionate interest in mentoring scholarship student Alexander (Ilja Monti), even to the detriment of her relationships with her husband (Simon Akbarian) and young son, Jonas (Serafin Mishiev).
7500, Miss Juneteenth, Babyteeth, My Darling Vivian, For They Know Not What They Do
7500 ***1/2
Not gonna lie, folks: It’s a tricky one dealing with a story built around Islamist terrorist hijackers But first-time feature director Patrick Vollrath—who co-wrote the script with Senad Halilbasic—crafts such a profoundly intense experience that it’s hard to shake. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tobias Ellis, the first officer on a Berlin-to-Paris flight left alone and wounded to deal with the aftermath when hijackers attempt to storm the cockpit.
Live streams have kind of … dropped off in recent weeks, as it seems many people across the country have been taken up either by participating in protests or keeping tabs on them online.
Artemis Fowl, King of Staten Island, Da 5 Bloods, Sometimes Always Never
Artemis Fowl *1/2
Those who know Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl YA fantasy book series know the titular 12-year-old protagonist as a “criminal mastermind”—and without that anti-heroic edge, it’s hard to know what the hell was the point of this flaccid movie adaptation. Here, young Artemis (Ferdia Shaw) lives with his widowed antiquities-dealer father (Colin Farrell) in their seaside Irish mansion, and soon learns that Dad’s infatuation with the lore of fairies, dwarves and such is based on their very-real existence when a mysterious figure kidnaps Artemis Sr. and holds him for ransom for a super-powerful magical whatchamacallit.
The Hottest August **1/2
I’m not saying director Brett Story came up with a title and an approach for this documentary, then assumed that the result would be something profound; I am saying it wouldn’t surprise me to discover that was the case. The Canadian-born filmmaker takes a wide-ranging journey through New York City in August 2017, stopping along the way to interview a broad demographic and socioeconomic range of people-on-the-street—from underemployed college grads to working-class folks, from single mothers to skater bros—asking them their expectations and concerns about the future.
It seems every part of American society—from average people to celebrities to brands and companies—is trying to figure out what role they can play in the wave of nationwide dissent in response to the death of George Floyd, along with wider criticisms about racial injustice and police brutality.
