STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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Black Widow
MARIA DUARTE welcomes the first solo film for Marvel's Black Widow
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Black Widow (12A)
Directed by Cate Shortland
⭑⭑⭑⭑
LONG overdue and warranted, Scarlett Johansson’s Russian spy turned Avenger black widow finally joins her male colleagues with her very own solo film, tackling issues of sleeper cells, child abuse, abduction and weaponisation.
These form the backbone of Natasha Romanoff’s rich and dark backstory, hinted at throughout the other Marvel films. This opens with a 12-year-old Natasha (an impressive Ever Anderson) living a happy life in Ohio in 1995 with her six-year-old sister Yelena (Violet McGraw) and their parents Melina (a phenomenal Rachel Weisz) and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour).
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