MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards
Black Widow
MARIA DUARTE welcomes the first solo film for Marvel's Black Widow
MEHDI ACHOUCHE explores the constant fascination of cinema with Marxist alienation from Fritz Lang and Chaplin to Bong Joon Ho
FIONA O’CONNOR steps warily through a novel that skewers many of the exposed flanks of the over-privileged
MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere
MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
Black Widow (12A)
Directed by Cate Shortland
⭑⭑⭑⭑
LONG overdue and warranted, Scarlett Johansson’s Russian spy turned Avenger black widow finally joins her male colleagues with her very own solo film, tackling issues of sleeper cells, child abuse, abduction and weaponisation.
These form the backbone of Natasha Romanoff’s rich and dark backstory, hinted at throughout the other Marvel films. This opens with a 12-year-old Natasha (an impressive Ever Anderson) living a happy life in Ohio in 1995 with her six-year-old sister Yelena (Violet McGraw) and their parents Melina (a phenomenal Rachel Weisz) and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour).
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