Screening Room

DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE

September 12, 2025

Downton Abbey has bewitched the world over six series with its celebration of a bygone world and Britishisms – and this farewell feature is a fond one, loaded with everything one would expect from such an undertaking. By now we’re in 1930 and the clothes are slinkier, the morals looser and times a-changing. The toffs of Downton are facing financial tightness, the Wall Street crash is wreaking US havoc, social stratas are softening and unbeknownst to anyone, World War II is gestating.

Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Paul Giamatti, Simon Curtis — Rory Mulvey/Focus Features

In this between-wars moment Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) causes controversy when she attends a London party as a divorced woman (and of course, wearing a stunning red dress), the Earl and Countess of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) are contemplating moving into the granny flat recently vacated by the late Dowager Countess Crawley (the late Maggie Smith), and Noël Coward (Arty Froushan) and Uncle Harold (Paul Giamatti) turn up with money woes and lessons in acceptance. Goodbyes are the order of the day; below-stairs Mr Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) are retiring and their send-off allows for audiences to process their own letting go of all the characters.

As reliably cosy as the cup of steaming tea served in the library, The Grande Finale ticks all the Downton tropes as it bows out. Society snobbery (at a Mayfair ball and the local agriculture show), a spiffing day out at the races with fabulous period fashions, the servants being sweet on their masters, the aristocrats being the ‘nice’ kind, a huge dinner party causing chaos in the kitchen and, in a button-pushing finale, the ghosts of beloved characters being given their flowers under the gimlet eye of Maggie Smith’s portrait hanging in the main hall. There’s no particular drama (aside from a bit of sauce from Alessandro Nivola’s bounder American visitor) and the silver still gets polished while people sigh about giving up the London town house. Those who have not been along for the ride might wonder about the attraction, but die-hard fans will get their tweed-and-pearls fix.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photography courtesy of FOCUS FEATURES
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is in cinemas now

Screening Room

DEAD MAN’S WIRE

September 3, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

There’s a nice nod to Dog Day Afternoon in casting Al Pacino in this real-life hostage negotiation story of the little man breaking over a loan and sticking it to the mortgage company one frosty morning in Indianapolis. Gus Van Sant’s latest feels as though it’s come from the same era (impeccable seventies production design) and deals with similar feelings of frustration.

In 1977, small-time land developer Tony Kiritsi (Bill Skarsgård) walked into the Meridian Mortgage Company HQ and took the son of the big cheese, Dick Hall (Dacre Montgomery) hostage – looping a ‘dead man’s wire’ around his neck. Attaching the wire to the trigger of a shotgun and to himself, Kiritsi’s crude booby-trap ensured that if he was felled, or his captive tried to escape, Hall would be killed instantly. Kiritsi was aggrieved that Meridian’s CEO (Pacino, with a molasses accent) had ruined his real-estate deals and caused his business to collapse. As cops and the local DJ (Colman Domingo) got involved, Indianapolis was gripped by the stand-off as Kiritsi holed up in his bomb-rigged apartment with Hall.

Van Sant taps into the dark humour of amiable mid-westerners negotiating a high-pressure situation as Tony and Dick are unfailingly polite to each other despite their situation, the cops personally know their perp and unbelievably cool DJ Fred Temple (Domingo, who was made for this role) has chats with Tony during the crisis. In the days before a more coordinated and tech response, the law enforcement and media approach to the situation seems almost quaint. Skarsgård is jittery-righteous as a man who believes that he is making a stand for many people crushed under the boot of big business, while Montgomery exudes the dejected calm of a man who’s got Daddy issues and has never been good enough for his flashy Pa, who continues with his vacation in Florida during the stand-off.

With things to say about corporate America and social media (Kiritsi uses local TV and radio unchecked as a platform for his beliefs), Dead Man’s Wire is both a history lesson on a largely forgotten incident and a reflection on whether we’ve matured as a society since. It’s also a welcome return to form for Van Sant.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photography courtesy of STEFANIA ROSINI/ELEVATED FILMS
Dead Man’s Wire premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival
Released in cinemas at a later date

Screening Room

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE

September 2, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Kathryn Bigelow excels at building tension around real-life horror as seen in the bomb disposal squad in Iraq in The Hurt Locker or the countdown search for Osama Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty. She raises the bar again with a film so terrifying that you won’t know whether to sob or scream watching it through your fingers. Rashomon-style in the retelling, A House of Dynamite follows different US government workers during twenty life-changing minutes when a nuclear missile is detected launching and heading for the US. Over three repeated chapters, Noah Oppenheim’s detailed script tracks the complex protocols triggered by such an event and the bravery required of personnel when the world looks very likely to end. Of course they’ve trained for this, but when it’s real, when 10 million people will die imminently, when DEFCON escalates from four to one within a quarter of an hour – what is the human response?

A House of Dynamite, Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Kathryn Bigelow, Rebecca Ferguson — Eros Hoagland/Netflix

If that sounds like a standard opener to an actioner, it’s not. There are no easy answers or Jack Ryan figures ready to save the day. Even the sensible president (Idris Elba) is so confounded by his choices when given what he describes as a ‘diner menu’ of devastating no-win retaliation options, fumbles. This is a film that opens with normal people having a normal morning before armageddon begins; in Fort Greenly, Alaska a military team assume that a heatscore on their satallite tracking system must be an anomaly, reporting it to a cool duty office in the White House Situation Room (Rebecca Ferguson) who opens up dialogue with the Secretary Of Defence (Jared Harris), military brass and security advisors. As things become more serious by the minute, the magnitude of being the first to understand the scale of the calamity hits home. And that’s when A House of Dynamite becomes an emotional gutpunch as calm calls to loved ones are made, only select personnel are taken to the bunker to be saved and the time on the clock ticks down.

With on-screen captions explaining the acronyms used in the theatre of war and a script that informs without dumbing down, it’s horrifically easy to keep track of the options (or lack of them) in the case of nuclear war. Without knowing what country has launched the attack there is only a choice of escalation or de-escalation, both irreparably changing the world and killing millions. As the situation is viewed from three different levels of leadership the question remains the same to the audience in each chapter: what would you do? And, perhap more scarily, what would current real-world global leaders do?

Sobering, taut and as precision-executed as the White House procedures, A House Of Dynamite is a classy, almost unbearable watch that will make you squeeze family members close after viewing, breathing a sign of relief that, for now, this scenario remains in the realms of make-believe.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of NETFLIX
A House of Dynamite premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival
Released in cinemas on 10 October

Screening Room

THE SMASHING MACHINE

September 2, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Have we ever seen Dwayne Johnson cry on-screen? Having made a career as a comedy and action ace, Johnson gets uncharacteristically vulnerable in his first dramatic indie role, the moments where he breaks and sobs as far away from his cultivated ‘Rock’ persona as the face prosthetics genius Kazu Hiro gives him to play real-life UFC champ, Mark Kerr. It’s a welcome gear change; beefed up and raw, without a raised eyebrow in sight, it could be the role that takes him all the way to Oscar night.

Benny Safdie, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Mark Kerr, Ryan Bader, The Smashing Machine — Cheryl Dunn/A24

Written and directed by Benny Safdie, the film follows free-style wrestler Kerr during three tumultuous years when his involvement in the sport was pioneering and shaping the UFC behemoth we know today, and when his personal life was a challenge. We meet him in 1997 as an undefeated fighter with an addiction to painkillers, and a relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt) as punishing as anything in the ring. From the off, Safdie and Johnson zone in on Kerr as a gentle giant; he’s a beast when the bell rings but also asks after injured opponents, talks sweetly to kids and grannies, asks for the window shade on flights to be opened so he can appreciate the sunset and likes to prune cacti. Rage is reserved for interactions with Dawn, who knows how to push his buttons to the point of ripping doors off hinges. Though the love between them is clear – beautifully played within the real-life friendship and familiarity of Blunt and Johnson – neither the drugs or the romance are productive. That’s evident to Kerr’s bestie, Mark Coleman (MMA fighter, Ryan Bader) who trains his friend and is another sweet man in a cage-fighter body. As Kerr negotiates his first loss, the rules and pay of the UFC, rehab and police run-ins, he learns how personal experience informs the sport and the teaching moment in not being invincible.

It’s the classic arc of a sports movie and one we’ve seen many times before – with Safdie even popping a Rocky beanie hat on Johnson and giving him steps to run up during a training montage – but the wins are not necessarily about reinventing the wheel. The pleasure here is in watching Johnson disappear inside another person, impressively unrecognisable in a wig and prosthetic nose/brows, his heart on his sweaty sleeve. Blunt is equally delightful as the perma-tanned Dawn, bringing a brightness to the brittle as a woman who wants neither the drug-dulled sweetheart who collapses nor the snippy, sober killjoy she gets after rehab. Safdie also chooses to bring the real-life Kerr into proceedings, giving him his due in a third reel segment that tracks him as he cheerfully does his grocery shop, a curiously moving moment. A standard biopic then, but one that awards bodies will likely reward. Voters love transformation from a performer and Johnson provides that not only in his physically immense muscle mass but also in his decisive reinvention as an actor. That the story mirrors elements of his own hard-scrabble background and fist-bought success can only add to the narrative.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of A24
The Smashing Machine premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival
Released in cinemas on 3 October

Screening Room

FRANKENSTEIN

September 1, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Guillermo del Toro has been yearning to give life to Mary Shelley’s classic story of reanimation, morals and monstrosity for decades and it shows in the care and attention in this ravishing retelling. It begins with a bang as a 19th century Royal Danish ship trapped in ice near the North Pole discovers wounded scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) being pursued by a super-human ‘thing’ which can dispatch sailors with ease and is relentless in its mission. ‘What manner of creature is that?’ asks the horrified captain. ‘What manner of devil made him?’

Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz, Frankensein, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Oscar Isaac — Ken Woroner/Netflix

Those are queries del Toro seeks to explore as we flashback to Victor’s unhappy childhood at the hands of his corporal punishment dad (Charles Dance) and grief at the demise of his beloved mother (Lauren Collins). Determined to conquer death, we next meet Victor as a dandyish rebel showing off his latest experiments to appalled surgeons in Edinburgh. As a gasping, bloodied thorax and arm flails around with electric currents (impressive and gross physical effects), the dodgy doctor attracts the attention of arms dealer Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) who supplies cash for further experiments, a gothic tower to harness lightning and another psychological wound in the shape of his niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth). Dressed like a bird of paradise with a mind as sharp as her tongue, Elizabeth is betrothed to Victor’s little brother (Felix Kammerer) but her extraordinary empathy for others makes her an intrigue to the callous cadaver collector – and the heart of the story when she encounters the product of Frankenstein’s master work; the ‘monster’.

Del Toro keeps audiences waiting an hour before the arrival of this patchwork creature made up of the dead from battlefields that he’s sawn, snapped and sliced asunder (also pleasingly gruesome). When he appears he’s a pale wraith with huge eyes, a cowering animal that can only utter one word. Buried beneath prosthetics that make him look like living alabaster, Jacob Elordi manages to convey a wide range of emotions with his singular utterance and a performance that lives in the physical. As Frankenstein commits the sins of the father, abusing his ‘son’ and punishing him for a lack of perfection, it’s clear who is the true monster in the scenario…
Gorgeously designed – sets and costumes are painterly in detail, gothic and sumptuous – Frankenstein boasts some explosive set pieces that rival action movies and themes that still resonate with world politics all these years after Shelley first published. Just as then gods and monsters are often interchangeable, Man is the cruelest creature on earth, we are what we do and a powerful man hurling insults is often only describing himself. It’s a faithful – perhaps too faithful for some – adaptation with an awards journey that starts at Venice. It is, both literally and figuratively, bloody good.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of NETFLIX
Frankenstein releases in UK cinemas on October 17
Streams on Netflix from November 7

Screening Room

AFTER THE HUNT

August 30, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Luca Guadagnino’s latest is about cancel culture writ large – its opening titles recall Woody Allen and a bar jukebox plays Morrissey, while a philosophy lecture focuses on Foucault’s theory of a Panopticon state where all are under surveillance from society. Those under watch here are a group of intelligentsia; Alma (Julia Roberts) a Yale Yale philosophy professor hoping for tenure who is married to a snarky therapist, Fred (Michael Stuhlbarg), and friends with a flirty department colleague, Hank (Andrew Garfield). Alma, Fred notes, likes to surround herself with people who worship her on bended knee, so the faculty party at their elegant home is also attended by her starry-eyed PhD student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri). Academia talk immediately turns gendered and political when Alma’s incoming promotion is questioned for whether she will get it for being worthy, or for being a woman. It’s against this primed beginning that Maggie makes an accusation of sexual assault against Hank, prompting a spiral of secrets, lies and social politics that will destroy careers. Especially as the school’s Dean of humanities admits to being ‘in the business of optics’…

Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, Julia Roberts, Luca Guadagnino, Michael Stuhlbarg — Amazon MGM Studios

Directing a script by Nora Garrett, Guadagnino’s deliberately provocative film which provides no real answers focuses on hands as characters talk, confess and argue; as though their physical communication tells more truths than their verbal. With this much philosophising and privileged chatter there’s certainly plenty to unpack. And there’s numerous layers to the portrayal of each of the flawed players. Stuhlbarg, so good in Call Me By Your Name, continues to scene-steal with monologues from sofas as a surface-patient man who hides a bitterness and petulance from participating in a marriage that isn’t all it seems. Garfield’s turn from Byron-esque hot teacher to snivelling mess, and possibly worse, is a gradual disintegration that feels the most authentic, while Edebiri manages to sell the ethical twists required of her character, a rich girl whose entitlement is indiscriminate. Chloë Sevigny’s supporting role as a faculty therapist is a study in quiet betrayal.

But the picture, unsurprisingly, is Roberts’. Dressed in Princess Di white jeans and blazer, her hair a blanching blonde, Alma, in her hands, is a switch-and-bait, a mystery, an ice queen and a woman dropping balls. Yes, she can eviscerate a student who questions her in class and tell the younger generation that ‘not everything is supposed to make you comfortable’, but she’s nursing a secret and an illness that are both incrementally weakening her. And she’s afraid of the consequences despite her philosophical filibustering. By turns Roberts is seductive, morally dubious, sympathetic and ultimately vibrates with rage. It’s the sort of compelling performance that awards bodies will likely recognise even if the film is difficult to parse. Garrett and Guadagnino are not interested in easy answers and their ambiguity frustrates as much as it intrigues.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
After the Hunt premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival
In cinemas 20 October

Screening Room

BUGONIA

August 29, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Last year Yorgos Lanthimos bowed the divisive Kinds Of Kindness starring Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone, an imprenetrable triptych that dared one to like it. At this year’s Venice Film Festival the trio debuted a linear, grimly funny and ultimately profound cosmic comedy that explores the horrors of humanity and the perception of powerful women.

Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone, Bugonia, Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Yorgos Lanthimos — Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features

‘Bugonia’ – though not explained by the film – is an ancient Mediterranean ritual where the carcass of an ox was believed to be able to recreate bee life. A death of a greater beast was required to give life to the pollinating, essential apinae. Lanthimos’ film begins with the bees, as Plemons’ Georgia warehouse worker and amateur apiarist, Teddy, describes their integral role in the world and the need to stop the poison that is killing them. As we watch Teddy prep himself and his sweet cousin Donny (Aidan Delbis, delightful) for the event they’re planning in their squalid farmhouse it becomes apparent that the duo subscribe to web conspiracy theories, are emotionally damaged by Teddy’s opioid-abusing mother (Alicia Silverstone) now being in a coma after a medical trial, and are intent on kidnapping big pharma CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone). Believing Fuller to be both responsible for the stasis of Teddy’s Mom and an alien from the Andromedea galaxy, the duo hope to save humanity with their plan – comedically doing yoga on filthy towels, shopping for Jennifer Aniston masks at Goodwill and chemically castrating themselves in order to be ‘neurologically free’.

Fuller is a precise businesswoman who complains about too much use of the word diversity in a diversity training video and mandates a 5.30pm clock-off time for her workers while also reminding them of the need to meet quotas. She wakes at 4.30am, trains ferociously, wears a stiletto-heeled daily uniform and appears to have no private life – an alien MO to the societal expectations of feminity. When she’s kidnapped by the duo (in a laugh-out-loud physical comedy sequence) and tied up in their basement she continually, coolly, asks for ‘dialogue’. And that’s what Lanthimos provides, as Teddy and Michelle verbally negotiate, power shifting forwards and backwards, audience belief in the truth flip-flopping with every turn. Is Teddy a delusional crackpot with abandonment issues? Or has this random man actually got a point?

Based on the 2003 film from South Korea, Save the Green Planet!, this is nonetheless a Lanthimos film, so darkness creeps into every facet of the process like the black mould seeping across Teddy’s kitchen ceiling. Teddy may not get his ‘news from the news’, but he is complex, bright and riddled with heartbreaking trauma (seen in weird monochrome flashbacks and hinted at by the local sheriff). Donny is driven by love and a need to escape his life, his compassion tempering Teddy’s more ruthless instincts as they torture Michelle. There’s an element of Ed Gein and some shocking blood splatter moments. Throughout though, there is humour and humanity; Plemons has never been better as the product of broken America while Stone’s large eyes (enhanced by a shaved head) and machine-gun cadence convince as both heartless CEO and credible ET. And the more dialogue the two engage in the more an audience is drawn in – not only to the ideological duel that demands a viewer take a stance, but to larger ideas of environmentalism, global accountancy and the sins of man. By the time the final reel is playing soundtracked by Peter, Paul and Mary’s plaintive ‘Where have all the flowers gone?’ you have to agree with the refrain and sentiment; ‘when will they ever learn?’

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of FOCUS FEATURES
Bugonia premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival
In cinemas 31 October

Screening Room

JAY KELLY

August 29, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer’s gentle ribbing of Hollywood begins with deliberate artifice: movie star Jay Kelly (Clooney leaning all the way into his public persona) is filming his martini shot on his latest flick, a death scene set on New York’s waterfront but actually carefully concocted in a Hollywood soundstage. As he utters his last line he asks for his co-star dog to come in later, and for another take. His team – Adam Sandler’s manager, Laura Dern’s publicist, Mortimer’s HMUA – flutter around him. But when he shuts himself in his trailer we see his interior life; one where he admits his existence doesn’t feel real, that he nurses regret, that ‘all my memories are movies’. After a failure to connect with his teen daughter (Grace Edwards) and a stinging meet-up with an old roommate (a scene-stealing Billy Crudup) Jay reassesses his cosseted, infantalised life, deciding to embark on european odyssey as he reflects on relationships with his neglected elder daughter (Riley Keogh, also bringing personal insight to her role), a co-star (Eve Hewson) and his acting class friend (Louis Partridge). Along the way there’s meltdowns, a lot of cheesecake, kookie Italians, central-casting Brits and a tone that veers between absurd and nostalgic, with nods to Fellini and Wild Strawberries. Baumbach deploys physical sets to interplay between present day and memory, and a heightened sense of realism that feels intentionally fake to reflect the inauthenticity that has crept into all aspects of Kelly’s life. Is his train ride through Italy really filled with morose German cyclists and cor blimey tourists or is this how he’s filtering it for a story on a late night talk show?

Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup, Emily Mortimer, George Clooney, Jay Kelly, Jim Broadbent, Laura Dern, Noah Baumbach — Peter Mountain/Netflix

Based on Baumbach and Mortimer’s own experiences in the film industry (they met when Mortimer’s son, Sam, starred in White Noise), Jay Kelly recalls other insider-baseball studies of Tinseltown (Entourage, The Player, The Studio) without particular bite. This is an affectionate look at coddled talent who say they are always ‘alone’ just as staff hand them a drink, the way that famous, wealthy people expect full commitment and loyalty from their entourage without giving it back, the disconnect of a star complaining how hard they work while living in a palatial mansion and travelling by private jet. When it’s the affable Clooney essaying such narcissism Kelly’s selfishness and black hole effect on his team’s lives reads as somewhat charming and unintentional. Dressed in perfectly pressed suits, that world famous crinkly smile hiding the pain beneath, Clooney walks a performance tightrope of showing everything while simultaneously holding back. A moment where he watches his real back catalogue of film manages to convey the wonder of cinema, the bewilderment of a star whose life is chronicled by projects, and the impressive career of Clooney to date. Aiding him in this endeavour is Sandler, rumpled perfection as manager Ron who facilitates, parents and apologises for his client while trying to juggle his own work/life balance. He has a minor love story with Dern but the real romance here is the one between Ron and Jay, both men having spent decades married to each other as a work family, missing out on personal commitments with their real nearest and dearest. And it’s seeing Jay through Sandler’s teary, loving eyes that helps us an audience connect with him despite his shortcomings. Though somewhat meta in its depiction of the star ecosystem, Jay Kelly is generalist in poking fun; at its best it showcases the finesse of its players. This is particularly true of Crudup who is masterful in a scene where he Method-reads a menu. Across the table, Clooney/Kelly’s eyes light up in delight at the magic trick performed in reciting entrees and it’s one of several moments that celebrate the artistry of cinema, as well as the sense of community and awe fostered in those who love to sit in the dark and watch it.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of Netflix
Jay Kelly premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival
Out in cinemas 14 November

Screening Room

THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

July 24, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

Yes, that ‘first steps’ title does refer to an origin story of sorts and we meet the Fantastic Four in their retro-future world four years after being zapped by cosmic radiation in space and gaining superpowers. The quartet, in their spiffy blue suits, are just feeling out their position in the world – as protectors, role models, superstars and leaders. But also, as we discover from the off, as parents.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julie Garner, Matt Shakman, Natasha Lyonne, Pedro Pascal, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Vanessa Kirby — Walt Disney Studios

Married supers Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) may have super-stretchy limbs (him) and the ability to shield and turn invisible (her) but they haven’t managed to get pregnant. Until the opening scene when they can’t hide the happy news from their family, human torch and Sue’s bro, Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and rock beast The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). The impending arrival matches another as a shiny, surfing herald (Julia Garner) turns up to declare that planet-munching colossus Galactus (Ralph Inerson) is heading to earth for lunch. Can the four stop him? Will parenthood change things? Is the baby going to have powers?

No spoilers but the answer is yes to all – as Marvel fans know, Franklin Richards will grow to have an impact on everything, not just his Mom and Dad, so this is as much about his first steps as theirs. And while the Jetsons-style world-building is a treat, the real draw here is the emphasis on more relatable aspects of the group’s dynamics. First Steps is essentially a movie about the panic of first-time parents (how can we know what our child will be like? How do we do this right? How do we protect but also nurture?), the primal power of motherhood and the shared experience that connects humanity: family. Anyone who’s ever tried to put a flat-pack cot together or install a car seat will recognise the anxiety of Reed. While the sheer force and yes, superpower, it takes to birth a human is celebrated in Sue’s zero gravity labour. Where it comes slightly undone is in the shifting scale of Galactus (is he planet-sized or Godzilla dimensioned?) and the suspension of disbelief that earth threatened with extinction would happily allow the key to salvation not to be tossed into space in appeasement. But Marvel has a superweapon in Kirby, who sells the emotional pull with her large blue eyes and a demeanour that is the screen definition of an iron fist in a velvet glove. Quite the feat to steal focus from the always excellent Pascal, leaning into his Zaddy charisma and that Grogu daddy softness. A shame that Natasha Lyonne and Julia Garner do not have more to do, but based on this assured debut, the Fantastic Four have many more footsteps ahead of them.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is out in cinemas now

Screening Room

SUPERMAN

July 10, 2025

Words by JANE CROWTHER

If you liked Guardians of The Galaxy and the latter Suicide Squad, then James Gunn’s signature goofy take on Superman is going to hit all the right notes. As the new head honcho at DC (alongside Peter Safran) the filmmaker’s fingerprints are all over this reboot from the irreverent tone to the colour pop visuals, the needle-drop soundtrack to the easter eggs.

Anthony Carrigan, David Corenswet, Edi Gathegi, James Gunn, Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan, Superman — Warner Bros. Pictures

Instead of starting from scratch with an origin story, Gunn’s Superman plops us down right in the middle of the Man of Steel’s (David Corenswet) busy schedule. Having just stopped a war between two fictional countries (though real headline nations could easily be inferred from the geo-politics), he’s taken a beating from a mecha ‘Ultraman’, the design of tech wiz, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and is lying in the arctic in need of help. Enter Krypto, an incorrigible super mutt who lives at Supe’s robot-staffed Fortress of Solitude and is MVP of the film whenever he pops up, one ear cocked. Superman is trying to negotiate his life as journalist Clark Kent, secret boyfriend to ace reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and emblem for good. It’s not going so well. Lois may have the hots for Clark and the cape but she’s uncertain about the relationship, Superman’s media profile is iffy and his purpose is unclear despite his ‘aw shucks’ sweet optimism in the face of social media trolls, spin doctors and world politics. Luthor, it turns out, has an queer coded obsession with Superman that is driving his need to create pocket universes, establish conflict and rip a black hole in Metropolis. If that were not enough to contend with, Superman also has other superheroes to navigate: shapeshifting Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion plus comedy wig), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi, being truly terrific).

As Superman grapples with his identity and buildings cave, Gunn explores themes of imperialism, colonialism, immigration, social media and whether it’s enough to be merely ‘good’. In a zingy interview between Lois and Clark (and the most interesting part of the film) the duo flirt and fight over whether Superman needs to contextualise his actions; if, in today’s complicated and nuanced world, anyone can ever truly be non-partisan. It’s one of a number of moments that pulls Superman very definitely into the 21st century – there’s a cute explanation for why people don’t recognise Supes in Clark Kent’s glasses, monkeys on keyboards are literally represented, Luthor has a relatable vulnerability and Christopher Reeve’s son Will makes a cameo. But there’s also regression; Luthor’s airhead girlfriend seems out of another decade and there’s no getting away from CGI ‘destruction porn’. However, if you’re looking for laughs, a defiantly comic book world and a delightfully relatable Kal-El in Corenswet (who seems physically built for this with his expressive cornflower peepers and a jawline that might have been drawn), Gunn flies high.

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Superman is out in cinemas now

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