MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a three-hander that broaches big themes, but doesn’t transcend dry academia
Spider-Man: Far From Home
DAN GLAZEBROOK eavesdrops on the bourgeois intelligentsia and the stories it tells itself at this moment of crisis
JAN WOOLF is bowled over by a major retrospective for the YBA artist
LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze
KATHRYN JOHNSON recommends the work of Norman Kaplan that was a tool in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a bold feminist subversion of classic folktales that are ubiquitous in the Irish imagination
Spider-Man: Far From Home (12A)
Directed by Jon Watts
AFTER the emotional roller-coaster ride that was Avengers: End Game, this new lighter-hearted Spider-Man sequel is fun entertainment.
It provides a recap at the beginning to the events in the last Avengers film, with a hilarious over-the-top “in memoriam” montage and an explanation as to how people disappeared and then reappeared without warning five years later in what was dubbed “the blip.”
It sets the tone for what follows, with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) — reeling from the loss of his mentor and father figure Tony Stark — deciding to take a break from his superhero duties and go on a school trip to Europe.
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