“The Audition” Looks Like a Music Class from Hell

Nina Hoss is one of the best actresses in the world, mostly known for her collaborations with German director Christian Petzold. Her latest is The Audition for Ina Weisse, making her first feature since 2008's The Architect.

Hoss won the Best Actress Award at last year's San Sebastian Film Festival for playing Anna, a music teacher and struggling musician. When her son shows lack of desire and musical ability, she channels her frustrations into her new student Alexander, pushing him farther and farther, just like J.K. Simmons in Whiplash. She's also keeping an affair secret. It all collides tragically on the day of the audition.

The film is being distributed by Strand Releasing through virtual theaters on Friday, June 26. (If you're unfamiliar, the distributor and local independent theaters team up for you to rent the film digitally for about the cost of a ticket if you were seeing it in the theater. Then they split the cost so those great venues can stay in business. It's a win-win.)

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.