13 Minutes

Another entry in the growing catalog of biopics about would-be Hitler assassins, this time the story of Georg Elser (Christian Friedel), a German carpenter and musician who made his failed attempt in November 1939. After growing alienated from the Nazi regime that was slowly ruining his life, Elser detonated a homemade bomb inside a Munich beer hall where Hitler was scheduled to speak, missing him by 13 minutes and killing eight people in the process. As the captured Elser resists revealing his motives and methods to the German authorities, even as he gets brutally tortured, his life story unfolds in extended flashbacks. 13 Minutes was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, who previously made the Hitler biopic Downfall, then followed it with the fiery English-language flameouts of The Invasion and Diana. Back in his element, he delivers a sturdy but routine biopic, one that works best as a political radicalization process film. D.B.