Film of the week: "Massive Talent", "Aeiou", "A German Party", "Press Play and Love Again", "Hustle"

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Pascal, Cage in »Massive Talent«: The star and his billionaire fan

Photo: Katalin Vermes / Lionsgate

In cinemas from June 16:

»Massive talent«

Actor Nicolas Cage is known for portraying highly neurotic men who are ready to explode at any moment.

Many of his fans love him for it.

For example, the YouTube video "Nicolas Cage Freak-Out Montage," which shows his most impressive outbursts of anger, has been viewed over a million times to date.

In his new film »Massive Talent«, Cage now plays himself and seems more melancholic than choleric.

But again and again he maintains a dialogue with his short-tempered younger self (also embodied by himself, only digitally rejuvenated).

Director Tom Gormican's action comedy wryly plays with the image of the star, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of an alcoholic in "Leaving Las Vegas" in 1996 and was a box office magnet at one point.

Last but not least, Gormican is aimed at Cage fans in Generation Y – i.e. all those who watched Cage blockbusters like “The Rock” or “In the Body of the Enemy” in their youth.

"Massive Talent" is happily surfing the nostalgia wave.

Right at the beginning of his film, Gormican shows how he imagines the prototypical Cage fangirl to be.

She's sitting on a couch smoking weed, watching the end of the action hit »Con Air« – and dreamily looking into a sweaty Cage's eyes.

But then her apartment is suddenly stormed and she herself is dragged away by masked villains.

The kidnapped woman then also gets the plot of the film rolling.

Cage plays himself as a struggling actor with family problems and money problems.

For a million dollars he accepts the birthday invitation of the Mexican billionaire Javi (Pedro Pascal), who turns out to be the leader of a gun cartel.

Throughout the story, Cage has to step into the shoes of characters he used to play, allowing the film to drift through the star's work at whim.

At one point, Cage finds himself in a room full of memorabilia, including a reversible sequin pillow that reveals the actor's face when you swipe it.

This pillow is real, you can buy it.

Incidentally, the film shows in this way what absurd features the celebrity cult can take on.

»Massive Talent«, USA 2022. Director: Tom Gormican.

Book: Gormican, Kevin Etten.

Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish.

107 minutes.

»AEIOU – The Fast Alphabet of Love«

Jean-Paul Belmondo was Pierrot le fou for Godard, Sophie Rois is Anna la folle for Nicolette Krebitz: the main character in a wild love story in which everything always seems to go wrong and which is only loosely connected to reality, but with both feet in French cinema.

Anna, 60, is an actress, even if she gets to play less and less, probably because of her age.

She finds consolation and champagne with her neighbor Michel (Udo Kier).

But only when she meets the delinquent student Adrian (newcomer Milan Herms, a discovery), whom she is supposed to give speaking lessons for the school theater, does she forget her worries and self-doubt.

When they are in a room together, something shimmers between them.

First it's just stray birds, then: love.

But how do you live it when one has a forty-year lead and the other has a penchant for robbery?

Maybe not in Berlin at all, but preferably on the Côte d'Azur, where Pierrot le Fou's love journey ended.

In her third directorial work »AEIOU – The Fast Alphabet of Love«, actress Krebitz dares to tackle a supposedly taboo subject: a relationship between an older woman and a very young man.

Ultimately, however, her film does not break away from the social conventions that enclose such pairings.

Again and again he makes her the subject and thus emphasizes her unusualness, instead of releasing her into dreamlike independence and wallowing in the intoxication of love with Anna and Adrian on the Côte d'Azur.

So »AEIOU« only manages a half escape from German cinema, next time the escape will hopefully be complete.

»AEIOU – The Fast Alphabet of Love«, Germany 2022. Director: Nicolette Krebitz, Script: Nicolette Krebitz, Valeska Grisebach.

With: Sophie Rois, Milan Herms, Udo Kier, Nicolas Bridet, Lilith Stangenberg.

105 minutes.

»Press Play and Love Again«

The beaches of Hawaii look almost as beautiful as the two young lovers Laura and Harrison (Clara Rugaard and Lewis Pullman) in this film.

The sea is wild, nature on land is tropical and colourful, only the music doesn't sound quite as fresh and a bit worn.

The romantic drama »Press Play and Love Again« is initially about surfing, a hip record shop and the nice custom of recording mixtapes with favorite songs for other people.

But then the director Greg Björkman lets the hero suffer a bad accident and tells a sweet, slightly outlandish time travel story.

Among other things, Björkman worked on the technical staff of the bestseller adaptation »Destiny is a Rotten Traitor«.

Their screenwriter Josh Boone has now come up with the film story for »Press Play and Love Again«.

The idea that listening to an old song can bring a loved one who died in an accident back to life years later may not be very original.

However, this film gains many charming punch lines from her.

And he teaches the cinema viewers: Destiny is a crazy music lover.

»Press Play and Love Again«, USA 2022. Director: Greg Björkman.

Screenplay: Josh Boone.

Starring: Clara Rugaard, Lewis Pullman, Lyrica Okano, Danny Glover.

85 minutes.

»A German Party«

Towards the end of Simon Brückner's film »A German Party«, an AfD delegation is standing in the Ahr valley and no longer seems to understand the world.

Before her is a picture of the devastation that followed the summer of 2021 floods. Why is it so difficult to find anyone who wants the money they brought to rebuild?

In its best moments, the documentary, for which the director accompanied the party from 2019 to the federal elections last September, unfolds a certain tragic comedy.

People who are quite convinced of their own actions are amazed to find that in some places they are not welcome at all.

Brückner's concept was to observe the AfD as curiously and impartially as possible.

In his film, which premiered at the Berlinale and is now being released in cinemas three weeks after Andreas Wilcke's AfD documentary »People's Representatives«, Brückner does not comment on anything.

It shows party leaders like Georg Pazderski in their day-to-day business in parliament and in meetings.

The problem is a bit that Brückner mainly shows members of the party who belong to the bourgeois-conservative camp and not to the right fringe.

But as they talk about which positions they should and shouldn't take in order to attract more mainstream voters, viewers get a good sense of how extreme some members think.

The portrait of a torn, sometimes chaotic party.

»A German Party«, Germany 2022. Written and directed by: Simon Brückner.

110 minutes.

In streaming:

»hustle«

American actor Adam Sandler remains a mystery.

The man has been making silly comedies that hurt to watch for decades.

And at the same time plays his heart out in great indie dramas.

Anyone who has seen him as a gambling addict jewel dealer in "Uncut Gems" will never again underestimate Sandler.

In his new film "Hustle" he once again enchantingly plays the underdog who is not taken seriously and wants to prove it to the world.

As basketball talent scout Stanley Sugarman, he discovers a talent of the century in Spanish player Bo Cruz (Spanish NBA pro Juancho Hernangómez in his first film role), but his team's mean boss doesn't believe in him.

So Sugarman quits and trains with his protégé to make him fit for the NBA draft games.

There is nothing original about »Hustle«.

The film stubbornly follows the arithmetic of sports films that has been in place since "Rocky" and, in a strictly Protestant manner, tells of the success that beckons to those who just try hard enough.

So Bo Cruz has to suffer if he wants to make it, and Sugarman makes him suffer.

Out of love for the game and for his protégé, of course.

When filmed, it is intoxicating in part, with artistic interludes on the basketball court.

In places, "Hustle" looks like an NBA-sponsored sports promotional video.

But it's Adam Sandler who makes this film really interesting.

»Hustle« is a cross between his ballaballa comedies and art films: a drama that squints at the big audience and doesn't care about nuances.

Devotedly, Sandler is the battered guy next door who wants to please everyone until he stands by his passion.

Sitting there in the dugout, intoxicated by the beauty of the game, he looks more impressive than the game itself.

»Hustle«, USA 2022. Director: Jeremiah Zagar.

Book: Taylor Materne, Will Fetters.

Starring Adam Sandler, Juancho Hernangómez, Queen Latifah, Ben Foster.

117 minutes.