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F9, Werewolves Within, Asia, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide
Asia ***
A premise that might have played as fundamentally melodramatic instead gives its emotion some jagged edges in writer/director Ruthy Pribar’s Israeli drama. Asia (Alena Yiv), a 35-year-old single-mother working as a nurse in Jerusalem, has a somewhat typical head-butting relationship with her teenage daughter, Vika (Shira Haas)—until Vika’s ALS-like degenerative neuromuscular condition begins to progress rapidly, changing the dynamic of their interactions.
June’s 12 Minutes Max
This series of 12 Minutes Max, presented by Salt Lake City Public Library, is a little different than usual, in that instead of the usual three short acts to look forward to seeing, the library has narrowed it down to two acts this time around, so that one of them may be a bit longer.
Luca, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, The Sparks Brothers and more
12 Mighty Orphans **
Fact-based underdog sports movies are a dime a dozen, so if you want yours to stand out, you’ve got to do something more than just show up with the ragtag heroes and triumphant music. This one is set in Fort Worth, Texas circa 1938, where Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson) arrives at the Masonic Orphanage to teach math and try to put together a football team.
In the Heights, Awake, Queen Bees, Censor and more
Awake **1/2
There’s only one major problem with this quick-and-dirty apocalyptic drama, and that’s the “quick” part. Gina Rodriguez plays Jill, a military veteran and ex-addict whose two children—teenager Noah (Lucius Hoyos) and 10-year-old Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt—are in the custody of her late husband’s mother (Frances Fisher).
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Undine, Spirit Untamed and more
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It **1/2
It takes a Costco-size pair of cojones to make a visual nod to The Exorcist in your movie about demonic possession, as this third "official" Conjuring installment does when we get a shot from behind of a fedora-wearing priest arriving at night at a house where a child—young David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard)—is being tormented by a demon. During the ensuing ritual, Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), the boyfriend of David’s sister, invites the dark spirit to take him instead, and Arne subsequently commits a murder where demonologists Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) attempt to prove that … well, it’s right there in the subtitle.
