Author: Amy Diaz

Black Widow (PG-13)

The Avengers’ Black Widow finally gets her stand-alone, sorta-origin movie with Black Widow, the first movie to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.

You don’t have to be a total MCU completist to enjoy this movie but it does help when it comes to orienting this movie in the MCU timeline. If you’ve seen Avengers: Endgame and are wondering how Black Widow is having any kind of adventure, stand-alone or otherwise, this movie’s “present” quickly sets up that we are immediately post-Captain America: Civil War and a while pre Avengers: Infinity War. There are actually five movies (Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther) that come between those two Avengers-heavy films and you could easily imagine a world in which Black Widow was also sandwiched in there. It could have given more oomph to her Infinity War and Endgame character arc and helped make Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow feel like a more fully rounded member of the Avengers and not just an “and also.”

Here, we see not the beginnings of Natasha, who we’ve learned previously was an assassin trained by some kind of quasi-governmental (like S.H.I.E.L.D.?) Russian spy entity, but the origin story of her sense of the importance of family. In 1995 Ohio, a tween/young-teen Natasha (Ever Anderson) is living a boring suburban life with her 6-year-old “sister” Yelena (Violet McGraw) and their “mom” Melina (Rachel Weisz) and “dad” Alexei (David Harbour). But, as we realize when the family suddenly has to flee, their boring suburban life was actually a boring suburban cover and all of these unrelated people are secret agents.

Years go by and Natasha becomes the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned Avenger turned anti-Sokovia-Accord fugitive we know from MCU movies past. Yelena (Florence Pugh) meanwhile has grown up to become what Natasha once was, a Widow who still works for the shadowy Russian organization mostly as an expert assassin. We see her chase a target who has been marked for assassination and who has a case Yelena is meant to retrieve. But as she’s getting the case, the target, who is herself a former Widow, sprays Yelena with a red mist. Yelena and all the Widows are acting under the influence of some kind of mind control and the spray has released Yelena from it.

The two women reunite and decide to work together to bring down Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the man who runs the Red Room, the organization that turns vulnerable girls, like Natasha and Yelena, into super soldiers (the ones who survive training) and continues to control not only all their life choices but their minds.

Helping women regain their agency — someone smarter than me can write a thesis about how this mission fits in the MCU worldview and what it says about the MCU’s attempt to course-correct from putting its Strong Female Characters on the sidelines until, like, 2019 and Captain Marvel. But I enjoyed it. Enjoyed it a lot, actually. I feel like this is a really solid examination of this character we didn’t get to know as well in previous movies. It makes sense with what we know about Natasha, it helps us understand her motivations (all the desire to atone and importance of family that was part of her arc in previous movies) and it actually gives more depth to how her story plays out in Endgame.

Johansson of course does a good job with what she’s given here. I say of course because she’s been playing this character since 2010’s Iron Man 2. But she’s also able to bring more to Natasha, more than that goofy “lot of red on my ledger” speech from The Avengers and her sorta romance with Hulk. I wish we could see more of this Black Widow (I mean, I guess we could, conceivably, with a post-this-pre-that sequel, Fast & Furious style).

I also hope there’s a way to see Pugh’s Yelena again. Pugh matches Johansson’s energy and creates an intriguing character of her own. The women have solid sisterly and buddies-on-a-mission energy.

And there is a post-credits scene (of course there is) that suggests how this slice of the MCU can continue (also, if you haven’t caught up on all the Disney+ Marvel TV shows, the post-credits scene might be the incentive you need).

Black Widow is one of the better examples of Marvel’s ability to balance sentiment, humor and action; fill in a narrative hole, and create something that is an overall good time. B+

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence/action, some language and thematic material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Cate Shortland with a screenplay by Eric Pearson, Black Widow is two hours and 13 minutes long and distributed by Walt Disney Studios in theaters and on Disney+ for $29.99. It will be available on Disney+ without the extra fee on Oct 6.

Featured photo: Black Widow

FILM

Venues

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester;
151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua;
150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square
24 Calef Highway, Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Midsummer Silent Film Comedy with Sherlock Jr. (1924) and Our Hospitality (1923), both silent films starring Buster Keaton, on Thursday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.

• Disney Villains 21+ trivia night at Chunky’s in Manchester on Thursday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. Admission costs $5, which is a food voucher.

• Road Runner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18, at 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.

• Pig (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18, at 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

• Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)(PG-13, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18, at 4 & 7 p.m.

• Dream Horse (PG, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18, at 1 p.m.

• Space Jam: A New Legacy (PG, 2021) a sensory friendly flix screening, with sound lowered and lights up, on Saturday, July 17, 10 a.m. at O’neil Cinema in Epping.

• Theater Candy Bingo family-friendly game at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham on Sunday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. Admission costs $4.99 plus one theater candy.

• Elf (PG, 2003) at the O’neil Cinema in Epping on Monday, July 19, and Wednesday, July 21, at 10 a.m. as part of the summer kids series. Tickets to the screening cost $2 for kids ages 11 and under and $3 for ages 13 and up. A $5 popcorn and drink combo is also for sale.

• Hotel Transylvania (PG, 2012) a “Little Lunch Date” screening at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua & Pelham on Wednesday, July 21, at 11:30 a.m. Reserve tickets in advance with $5 food vouchers. The screening is kid-friendly, with lights dimmed slightly.

• Grease(PG, 1978) a senior showing on Thursday, July 22, at 11:30 a.m. at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham. Free but reserve tickets in advance with $5 food vouchers.

• 21+ Scratch Ticket Bingo on Thursday, July 22, at 7 p.m. at Chunky’s in Manchester and Nashua. Admission costs $10.

• The Sandlot 21+ trivia night at Chunky’s in Manchester on Thursday, July 22, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is a $5 food voucher.

• 21+ “Life’s a DRAG” Show on Saturday, July 24, at 9 p.m. at Chunky’s in Manchester. Tickets cost $25.

• Branded a Bandit (1924) andThe Iron Rider (1926) silent film Westerns with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, July 25, 2 p.m., at Wilton Town Hall Theatres. Screenings are free but a $10 donation per person is suggested.

The Tomorrow War (PG-13)

Chris Pratt stars in the old-fashioned summer save-the-world popcorn movie The Tomorrow War, released on Amazon Prime Video.

Dan Forester (Pratt) is having difficulty getting ahead in his career (science something or other) but has all sorts of admiration from his wife, Emmy (Betty Gilpin), and young daughter, Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). He’s in the middle of a consoling snuggle with the two of them while watching World Cup soccer when a wormhole opens up on midfield and soldiers come pouring through. They announce that they are from about 30 years in the future and are losing a war with an alien force. Come and fight with us to save humanity, they say, and, as news clips explain, the countries of the world eventually agree to a draft. The people drafted are both random and specific: They are men and women, fit and doughy, but most tend to be older — perhaps because, as Dan and fellow draftee Charlie (Sam Richardson) surmise, they will all be dead by 2052 and therefore won’t accidentally meet their older selves and cause a paradox.

When Dan is called up, it’s after nearly a year of the present sending soldiers to the future, with few returning and no sign that humanity’s prospects for winning the war are improving. He learns that draftees get very little training and not much in the way of uniforms; it’s just “here’s a gun, try not to get eaten.” The aliens, white insect/crustacean-y creatures, don’t have weapons (except for the sharp spikes that shoot out of their tentacles, hence their name “white spikes”) or even an organizing structure. They eat, people and whatever other animals cross their path, and once a week they go back to their nest-holes and rest (or, as we later learn, breed, which is why there are now so many of them). White spikes move fast and only lucky neck or abdomen shots take them out, so when Dan shows up in the future for his seven-day stint in the war, it’s clear that the outlook for humanity is bleak.

Dan, who once served in the military and did a tour of duty in Iraq (where he had a leadership role), is also a science teacher who has shared his love of science with his daughter. Charlie is also a former science professor who now works in tech research and development and makes up for his lack of military prowess with quips. Dan has a difficult relationship with his father, James (J.K. Simmons), who also has a military background and now has a shifty job fixing planes and skirting the law. I could list a few other Chekhov guns in the packed metaphorical armory of the first segment of this movie that go off in the final action set piece. There are a lot.

And that’s OK.

Like an Independence Day with a smaller budget and a lower wattage of stars, The Tomorrow War hits a lot of the familiar apocalypse action movie beats with a nice mix of shooting and explosions and humor and basically appealing characters played by actors who have more in them than this movie asks of them. It’s microwave popcorn fare, in the sense that it isn’t quite the fresh popcorn with real butter of summer blockbusters past and in the sense that you’ll be enjoying this one at home, which perhaps lowers the bar a little. If you need it, you can look for some deeper commentary about climate change and the ability of humans to come together (or not) when they really need to. But you also don’t need to dig that deep for a reason to basically enjoy this (long but forgivably so) lightweight summer movie. B-

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language and some suggestive references, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Chris McKay with a screenplay by Zach Dean, The Tomorrow War is two hours and 20 minutes long and is distributed by Paramount Pictures but somehow available on Amazon Prime Video.

The Boss Baby: Family Business (PG)

The suit-and-tie baby of the 2017 The Boss Baby returns in The Boss Baby: Family Business, a cute animated movie that isn’t quite as rich as the original version but is still family-friendly.

And by that I mean not only that it is kid-appropriate (for, I don’t know, elementary schoolers and up) but also all about family. In the first movie, Boss Baby, also named Ted (voice of Alec Baldwin), is the younger brother of Tim (voiced in this movie by James Marsden). Though appearing to be a regular goo-goo-gaa-gaa baby, Boss Baby is actually a 30 Rock’s Jack Donaghy-style corporate ladder-climber sent by his company, Baby Corp., on a mission. Tim deeply resented new baby Ted at first but eventually learned to live with him, in part by helping him with his corporate ambitions at Baby Corp., the company that is bullish on babies and tries to keep their affection rankings higher than those of, say, puppies.

In the years since, Ted and Tim have grown up and grown apart. (Actually, in the years since 2017, Boss Baby and Tim have had continuing adventures in a Netflix TV series called The Boss Baby: Back in Business, which has an enjoyably oddball sense of humor. For example: Boss Baby finds himself battling an outside consultant brought in to evaluate Baby Corp. managers and makes regular cracks about why you can’t trust the marketing department. In one episode, when the boys’ grandma fights with a department store over returning a blouse, she ends up unionizing the store workers. It’s weird and I recommend it.)

But now adult Tim is living in his parents’ (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow) old house with his wife Carol (voice of Eva Longoria) and their two daughters, second-grader Tabitha (voice of Ariana Greenblatt) and baby Tina (voice of Amy Sedaris). Tabitha has recently started at a new school and seems stressed out by its expectation for advanced math and proficiency in Mandarin. Tim, a stay-at-home dad, is worried that she is growing up too fast and growing away from him, not unlike how he and Ted have grown apart. Though they were once best friends, Ted is now very busy with his executive businessman lifestyle and mostly interacts with Tim by turning down invitations to come and visit and sending overly elaborate gifts.

This can not stand, decides Tina, who is, like her uncle before her, a Baby Corp. executive. She needs both Ted and Tim to help fight a new threat: Dr. Armstrong (voice of a very Jeff Goldblum-y Jeff Goldblum), the head of the international chain of high-achievement-focused schools (including Tabitha’s). Tina and Baby Corp. are certain he has some sort of shifty plan and they need Boss Baby to help them. Thus does Tina lure Ted to the family home and then dose both Ted and Tim with special de-aging formula that temporarily turns them back to roughly Tabitha-aged Tim and Boss Baby.

The first movie used the Boss Baby conceit as a way to play out Tim’s feelings about going from only child to oldest child with a pushy infant sibling. Likewise, this movie uses it to work through various family relationships — Tim and Ted, Tim and Tabitha and maybe Tim and his own sense of self if his oldest daughter doesn’t need him as much. And it works about as well as the first movie did, but this feels less kid-focused. Though he appears in a kid’s body, Tim is really an adult person with his adult person worries and the movie is more centered on those than on executive baby humor or kid antics.

That said, the movie did seem to have enough wackiness to entertain kids — there’s a lot of silliness with a horse, we do still get some “the horror of other babies” moments with Boss Baby. Goldblum brings a nice element of weirdness to his character who is a villain but not violent or particularly mean.

I think I liked the original The Boss Baby (which doesn’t appear to be streaming anywhere but is available for rent or purchase) more than a lot of reviewers. I still like the overall universe, as presented here, even if the sequel doesn’t quite match up. B

Rated PG for rude humor, mild language and some action, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Tom McGrath with a screenplay by Michael McCullers (based on the books by Marla Frazee), The Boss Baby: Family Business is an hour and 47 minutes long and is distributed by Universal Studios in theaters and on Peacock.

The Forever Purge (R)

The Purge-supporting totalitarian government of the U.S. is threatened by an even more violent social-media-organized group in The Forever Purge.

Don’t worry if you haven’t seen or have forgotten previous Purge entries (this is No. 5 in the series). This movie sort of catches you up/reorients you in the Purge universe: The Purge is the annual 12-hour period when people can commit any crimes they want and apparently what they want is to wear menacing animal masks and go on spree killings. It went away for a while but is back now, thanks to the recent elections favoring the Purge-supporting New Founding Fathers. They were reelected because of increased crime and anti-immigration sentiment and something something The Purge will fix it.

This movie, though, isn’t really about the Purge. While we see two main sets of characters prepare for and weather the Purge, most of the story takes place in the hours after it’s over.

The wealthy cattle ranching family in rural Texas the Tuckers gathers at their large, secure home for the Purge: there’s the paterfamilias Caleb (Will Patton), his adult daughter Harper (Leven Rambin), his sullen adult son Dylan (Josh Lucas) and Dylan’s pregnant wife, Emma Kate (Cassidy Freeman). None of them seem to be on Team Purge or Team Current Administration, though Dylan has some general resentment because his father and everybody else at the ranch knows that he’s not such a great cowboy. Certainly, he’s not a great cowboy compared to Juan (Tenoch Huerta), one of the ranch workers, and this makes Dylan all jealous, which he expresses via racism.

Juan and his wife Adela (Ana de la Reguera) are recent immigrants from Mexico and are aware of the weird annual festival of violence of their new home but they are determined to make it work, especially Adela. They spend Purge night hunkered down with other families in a fortified and guarded warehouse. And yet she remains optimistic about America and their future as the Purge ends and she heads back to her life. Optimistic right up to the moment when she is trapped and nearly killed by some mask-wearing loons telling her that it’s “purge ever after.” The Forever Purgers have decided one day of violence is not enough and want to continue the killing until everyone who doesn’t agree with their brand of white supremacist fascism is dead.

She and Juan and their friend (Alejandro Edda) and the Tuckers trying to find their way to safety — which is eventually identified as refuge in Mexico — makes up the bulk of this movie’s action, making it not really about some “organized chaos” day but about actual anarchy and the collapse of society.

I’ll try to separate what has always annoyed me about the Purge movies and the overall “watching a reenactment of your root canal” feel of this movie with what worked about it — and there are small elements that work.

I have always found the Purge as a concept maddening, both as public policy (how does it reduce crime and stimulate the economy? Even in a bread-and-circus sense it seems stupid) and as a story-telling device. The movies use the Purge as a sort of dippy murder fest — either thrill killing or petty revenge — without going much beyond that. There is a general “saying something about wealth inequality” sheen on these movies but they don’t really say that much; “rich people are jerks” is maybe as far as it goes.

So what works here? The movie gets its pacing right. It takes us from Juan and Adela’s backstory to Purge night to post-Purge pretty quickly. And it keeps up the energy without lingering too much on grisly violence for grisly violence’s sake.

Ana de la Reguera is a fun action heroine. We are probably with her more frequently than with any other one character and she definitely has that believable, can-do butt-kicking energy.

The movie also has some visual cleverness about juxtaposing Mexico and the chaotic U.S.; one of the final shots in particular made me think “huh, neat” for the way it referenced so many other movies.

Overall, though, The Forever Purge was a bummer, but I guess if Purge movies are your thing, this is maybe one of the better ones. C

Rated R for strong/bloody violence and language throughout, according to the MPA on filmlistings.com. Directed by Everado Gout with a screenplay by James DeMonaco, The Forever Purge is an hour and 43 minutes long and is distributed by Universal Studios, in theaters.

Featured photo: The Tomorrow War