The Fantastic Four: First Steps ★★★☆☆
Directed by Matt Shakman. Starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson. 12A cert, gen release, 114 min
Marvel makes yet another effort to bring one its oldest hits to the big screen. Set on an alternative Earth, First Steps revels in a retro-futuristic version of the 1960s. True to the original, the Four super-powered chums are charged with stopping giant bore Galactus from annihilating the planet. We are free of any tangled links to previous films or TV series from the MCU. It can be enjoyed or loathed on its own uncomplicated terms. If the film does have a message it is that the greatest superpower of all is a mother’s love. Full review DC
Gazer ★★★★☆
Directed by Ryan J Sloan. Starring Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Tommy Kang. 15A cert, limited release, 134 min
Frankie (Mastroianni) suffers from dyschronometria, a rare condition that distorts her perception of time. To cope, she records second-by-second audio prompts reminding her what she’s doing and where she is. These serve as both narrative scaffolding and existential red flags, tethering us to her unravelling mind and blackouts. It’s impossible not to think of Christopher Nolan’s early work and the classic paranoia of DePalma’s Blow Out and Coppola’s The Conversation. But Gazer swerves from pastiche into Cronenbergian body horror as the already unreliable narrator becomes increasingly unmoored. Lo-fi and disarmingly intense. Full review TB
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Dying/Sterben ★★★★☆
Directed by Matthias Glasner. Starring Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg, Ronald Zehrfeld, Robert Gwisdek, Anna Bederke, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Saskia Rosendahl. 16 cert, limited release, 182 min
Saga concerning an elderly German couple and their unhelpful children. Dying is a film composed like its central musical motif: sprawling, discordant, haunted by mortality. Spanning three hours and five loosely tethered chapters, this dark family yarn plays like a collage of recent festival favourites; early, unvarnished scenes of elder care nod towards Vortex and Amour; a hectic middle section concerning a conductor recalls Todd Field’s similarly themed Tár; a late narrative swerve into assisted suicide intersects with Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. Somehow, the disparate pieces and maximalist clutter find a rhythm. Full review TB
The Bad Guys 2 ★★★☆☆
Directed by Pierre Perifel. Voices of Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne. G cert, gen release, 104 min
Sequel to the so-so animation about a cadre of slick animal criminals. One remains puzzled as to what these films want to be. Not nearly enough is done with the atavistic natures of the heroes. Mr Wolf, voiced by Rockwell, may have big teeth (Grandma), but, the odd growl aside, he does little that George Clooney didn’t do in the Oceans films. In contrast, far too much is done with the increasingly unwieldy plot. If you keep yakking about the McGuffin the audience will worry if they should genuinely care about it. That isn’t happening here. Full review DC
