The Flash ★★★☆☆
Directed by Anthony Muschietti. Starring Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Jeremy Irons, Antje Traue. 12A cert, gen release, 144 min
A “troubled production” – detailing the adventures of the word’s runningest superhero – finally arrives and, though no masterpiece, it is probably the best DC film since the pandemic began. A lot of that is down to a juiced-up performance from Miller that keeps the energy high even during the film’s most muddled moments. Miller can’t manage Jim Carrey’s physiognomic contortions, but they have a similar capacity for antic mayhem. The multi-verse stuff is shameless, but even the most resistant will manage a smile (or a smirk) at the variations worked on Superman and Batman lore. Full review DC
De Humani Corporis Fabrica ★★★★★
Directed by Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Mubi/QFT, Belfast, 118 min
A warning for the faint of heart: This visceral tour of the human body is not for you. Indeed, squeamish readers should swiftly move to another review. Centuries after autopsy pioneer Andreas Vesalius’s 1543 seven-volume anthology of the human anatomy thrilled and repelled 16th-century readers, this study dissects the human body on screen. The epic results simultaneously function as endoscopic body horror, a portrait of overworked and underfunded medical staff, and a business study of death. The vulnerability of patients under general anaesthetic is profound and upsetting. Full review TB
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You Can Live Forever ★★★★☆
Directed by Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky. Starring Anwen O’Driscoll, June Laporte, Liane Balaban, Antoine Yared, Deragh Campbell. Curzon, 96 min
Set in 1990s Quebec, You Can Live Forever concerns Jaime (O’Driscoll), a grungy teenager who has recently lost her father. To help her grieving mother, Jamie is packed off to the remote community where her Aunt Beth (Balaban), a devout Jehovah’s Witness, lives and where Jamie is expected to attend religious “meetings”. The enduring tensions between young LGBTQ lives and religious dogma have powered many movies, including the recent conversion therapy drama Boy Erased. This gentle story of queer puppy love delicately pitches these ideologies against one another, without any disturbingly explicit encounters. Full year TB
Extraction 2 ★★☆☆☆
Directed by Sam Hargrave. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt, Tinatin Dalakishvili, Idris Elba. Netflix, 123 min
Hemsworth rescues a family from villains in a noisy, stupid sequel to the noisy, stupid action film that everyone watched on Netflix in the early days of the pandemic. Extraction 2, again co-produced by the Russo Brothers of Avengers fame, is unlikely to be mistaken for anything other than barely recycled snuff trash. But there is a chutzpah to the action that defies complete dismissal. A central sequence cut to look like one continuous shot of some 15 minutes is near unparalleled in its vulgar excess. Not exactly good. But it’s certainly something. Full review DC
