I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend, including the antiheroes of “Thunderbolts*” and the crime caper “Another Simple Favor.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 36:05)
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the antiheroes of “Thunderbolts*,” the crime caper “Another Simple Favor” and the bio pic “Being Maria.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Thunderbolts*,” the new Marvel superhero movie starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan now playing in theatres, a team of mostly of reformed supervillains must confront their past deeds when they’re lured into a deadly trap by the manipulative Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
CAST: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Directed by Jake Schreier.
REVIEW: A popcorn movie that delivers big boffo action and introspective moments, “Thunderbolts* is a welcome return to form for Marvel after a rough couple of years.
Marvel has often examined ideas of responsibility within their superhuman characters, but rarely have they delved into mental health issues as they do here.
As Yelena Belova, a Black Widow assassin whose hands are stained by blood, Florence Pugh has the physicality to play the rough n’ tumble character, but it is her meditative side that makes her interesting. She can punch, kill and quip with the best of them, but in her work is tinged with an edge of loneliness and lack of purpose that are the result of her deadly, isolating work.
Handled with maturity, the examination of mental health is sensitive, especially so in the case of Bob (Lewis Pullman), who (SLIGHT SPOILER) becomes Yelena’s guide into “The Void,” a dark place where their trauma is endlessly enacted. These vividly rendered scenes of mental anguish are as vivid and suspenseful as any of the film’s battle scenes, but they also provide backstory that deepens the characters and relationships.
“Thunderbolts*” is meditative up a point, but this isn’t a Marvel movie à la Ingmar Bergman.
The character’s self-analysis fuels the gritty action as the entire misfit team—Belova, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (a very funny David Harbour), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen)—learn they are stronger together than apart.
One for all and all for one.
It’s pop psychology, but it provides a welcome entryway into exploring larger themes of psychological trauma left from a lifetime of killing and personal loss.
Is it too soon to say that “Thunderbolts*” harkens back to “classic” Marvel on the big screen? It’s back to basics, doing away with multiverses and the onerous weight of crossovers with the other films, to deliver an entertaining, relatively straight-ahead blockbuster with action, humor and heart.
