Hollywood has a lot of “first steps” this weekend, including a superhero saga that will make you feel like you did the first time you saw a comic book, a story about a 19-year-old Italian who is going out alone for the first time, and a romantic comedy about millennials whose first romantic vacation becomes extremely complicated after they discover a pair of handcuffs.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Now in theaters
Elastic Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and his wife Sue, also known as Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), live in a sort of dysfunctional household with Sue’s brother, Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and their friend The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in this primary-colored, retro-futurist vision of 1961 Manhattan. They are celebrating the delivery of a newborn, but their joy is short-lived as a Silver Surfer, who resembles a sophisticated hood ornament, appears in the sky with the message, “Your world will be consumed by the Devourer Galactus.” There’s always something, isn’t there? The Four decide that perhaps they ought to go speak with this Galactus guy before he begins his eating, and before long, they are perched atop a 3D comic-book rocket that director Matt Shakman and his team have designed to resemble rockets in the way I imagined they would appear before I saw actual rockets: sleek, slender, elegant, and fin-equipped. I must admit that while it was taking them there, I felt a little transported back to a simpler period, which is similar to the feelings this delightfully heroic company conveys on their journey to the regular cosmic showdowns.
Among the many in-jokes is the appearance of the original cast as extras from an unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four directed by Roger Corman. This year’s superhero mode is brisk, brightly comical, and most importantly, genuine and sincere—a combination that works just as well here as it does for Superman in the DC Universe. This is fortunate because The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the beginning of the “Phase Six” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is laying the groundwork for years of plots, thus a lot depends on how well the film is received by viewers. Fortunately, it doesn’t require any prior knowledge to comprehend, in contrast to the majority of recent superhero films. You can begin working with the team.
Oh, Hi!
Friday in theaters
Iris (played by Molly Gordon) discovers she has finally found her true love after an almost unfathomably romantic weekend in the country. Sweet, witty, seductive, sympathetic, and almost always completes her sentences is Isaac (Logan Lerman). They share secrets, go swimming in a lake, buy strawberries on the way to a lovely rural home, and by the time Isaac is preparing her scallops, Iris is envisioning her happily ever after. When they discover some BDSM equipment in the house, their intense lust for one another only intensifies. One thing stands out: they haven’t actually discussed their relationship status, and it might not be the best time to have that discussion when Isaac, who believed he was only having a casual affair, is tied to the bed.
In the early romantic comedy scenes, director Sophie Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gordon, is blissed out, but she struggles to find her feet in the Misery-like scenario they’ve devised for the second half of the movie. Even though the film’s latter scenes push unlikeliness well past the breaking point, the actors’ great chemistry goes a long way, and the story’s darker developments tap into a genuine sense of fear and loneliness in millennial romance.
Diciannove
Friday in select theaters
Although Leonardo (played by Manfredi Marini) has a bleeding nose at the start of Italian director Giovanni Tortorici’s debut feature, it soon becomes apparent that his sense of self has taken a knock. At 19, he is no longer a child, but adulthood is still a ways off. He is going to college without knowing exactly who he should be, spending only a few days at a business school in London before transferring to a university in Sienna that is renowned for its literature department. That should work well: he notes in his notebook that “a breath of corrupted air imbued each of my nerves” after a new hotplate stunks up his room since he forgot to take off its plastic sheath.
But before long, he’s fighting with his Dante professor, considering selling his body to raise money, and getting shots with a relative until he’s admitted to the hospital. He is coltish, impulsive, intelligent, and, as Marini demonstrated, captivating. Additionally, they are self-aware enough to observe “a generational change” in children who are four or five years younger. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, Diciannove (which translates to “19” in Italian) explores the contradictions of a child who turns to Renaissance literature for the kind of moral clarity and guidance that could prevent him from making the mistakes he so desperately wants to experience. Tortorici’s filmmaking veers from jittery and handheld to sweepingly panoramic.
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