'Fantastic Four: First Steps' (★★★✩✩), The Stolen Painting, and other new releases this week
These are the new releases hitting the big screen this Thursday, July 24:
Ratings★★★★★ masterpiece ★★★★ very good ★★★ good ★★ average ★ bad
Fantastic Four: First Steps ★★★✩✩Directed by: Matt ShakmanCast by: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph QuinnProduction: USA, 2025 (130 minutes) Adventure The family and one moreBy Salvador Llopart
Start over: that's the motto. Return to the starting line. Superman has done it; he's a new super. Wasn't Marvel going to do the same? Of course. This revamped Fantastic Four, the holy family of superheroes, so poorly represented until now on the big screen, has also begun its refoundation. With a family twist, since it's the Fantastic Four, which was long overdue. Surrounded by tremendous threats that endanger the planet; a super-bad guy (Galactus), devourer of worlds, and other charismatic characters, like the new (now female) Silver Surfer. A comic from the old school, then. Charming and high-class.
But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we're dealing with a family story. Remember The Jetsons? The Flintstones? Even the Addams Family? Those and other television families from the sixties and seventies? They all modeled suburban life—American suburban life, of course. With their values and hopes, with their innocent self-reflection. Brimming with optimism and faith in progress. I have to say that, as a Marvel reader, I never liked Fantastic Four: too perfect; too syrupy. The happy family was hard for me. If I had to choose a family, I preferred the noisy Flintstones and the Jetsons' madness.
Still from 'Fantastic Four: First Steps'
Marvel StudiosAlthough its swoony perfection is surpassed here by events. The story it tells is simple. The Fantastic Four—well-played by the cast, especially the clan's mother, Vanessa Kirby, and the rising Pedro Pascal—are no longer four: they become five with the arrival of a child. That child, the fifth Four, is going to change everything. Oh, and there's also a pet, of course. It's a robot; his name is Herbie, and he's both pleasant and funny—did you ever doubt it?
The film's visual tone is dazzling. With a retro-progressive, pre-digital feel. Very 1960s. It harks back to the aforementioned Jetsons and simultaneously makes one suspect we're in an alternate universe: what we call the metaverse (an unpleasant word and concept). Once again, everything is simple, obvious, and heroic in the world of superheroes. With Fantastic Four, whether four or five, full of love and hope. The family united. Starting over, then. Let's see where these take us.
The Stolen Painting ★★★★✩Directed by: Pascal BonitzerCast by: Alex Lutz, Léa Drucker, Nora Hamzawi, Louise ChevillotteProduction: France, 2024 (91 minutes) Comedy drama A Schiele in the living roomBy Philipp Engel
An old-school cahierist, a faithful screenwriter for Jacques Rivette, among others – from Anne Fontaine to Raoul Ruiz – and a virtually unknown filmmaker in these parts (of his nine feature films, only Cherchez Hortense (2012) was released, which was seen by just over 300 spectators), the father of the no less admired Agathe Bonitzer is characterized by the penetrating intelligence of his gaze, his fondness for complex and unpredictable characters, and a discreetly dark humor. He writes stories with several levels of depth, without sacrificing entertainment, hence his adaptation of Agatha Christie and his preparations to serve us a Maigret with Denis Podalydès.
A scene from Pascal Bonitzer's 'The Stolen Painting'
SBS ProductionsIn this case, it is inspired by the true story of the unexpected discovery of an Egon Schiele stolen by the Nazis (who did not hesitate to traffic in "degenerate art") to carry out an accurate x-ray of the world of art auction houses at the highest level, which has been validated and applauded by experts in the field.
To the sometimes demanding rigor with which he immerses us in the intricacies of this world where sums of euros are dealt with daily, the mere mention of which makes you dizzy, is added an impeccable quartet of protagonists, headed by Alex Lutz, who, despite being a true auctioneer, still has a human dimension; a Léa Drucker, who once again shines in a film worthy of her "grande classe" (as in Last Summer ); the always hilarious Nora Hamzawi; and a Louise Chevillotte (revealed in Garrel's Lover for a Day ), who manages to unsettle us with each of her entrances.
A high-class entertainment with an exquisite cast that cannot even be criticized for its ostensibly classist perspective, since the point of view is certainly not that of the worker who will not stop working in the factory after selling the painting that hung in a room of his house, but that of those who burst into his kitchen.
The Irresponsible ★★✩✩✩Directed by: Laura MañáCast by: Laia Marull, Betsy Túrnez, Ágata RocaProduction: Spain, 2025 (93 minutes) Comedy Precarious balanceBy S. Llopart
A theatrical artifact brought to the screen. Two friends (Laia Marull and Betsy Túrnez) and the sister of one of them (Ágata Roca, in a less caricature-like role than the other two) move into a technologically advanced house to unburden themselves of their troubles for a weekend. Of course, nothing is what it seems and nothing goes as planned. Nor does the film itself, which explodes due to the precarious balance between comedy and drama: dangerous nitroglycerin for theatrical adaptations.
An image from the film 'The Irresponsible'
DRAFTINGBy Jordi Batlle Caminal
The director of the disturbing The Guilty offers us another oppressive work of interiors (the camera only goes outside for a few brief minutes toward the end), specifically the corridors and cells of a prison, where the tense relationship between a prison guard and a young man convicted of a murder that directly affects her develops. His discourse on revenge, forgiveness, and reintegration is ambiguous and unconvincing, but the film is rigorous in its staging, harsh and harsh.
Spermageddon ★★✩✩✩Directed by: Tommy Wirkola, Rasmus A. SilvertsenProduction: Norway, 2024 (80 minutes) Animation White stormBy Jordi Batlle
Nothing more and nothing less than the memorable sperm sketch from Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask , rendered in animation and seasoned with the story of the teenage couple who will enjoy the white storm. Not much material for a feature film, even one of a reasonable length. But the party, as in other titles by the irreverent Wirkola, is not without funny moments, clever gags, and a healthy anarchy.
A still from the movie 'Spermageddon'
ACNBy J. Batlle
After the acceptable Let the Party Go On, Guédiguian is once again off-key in this bittersweet ensemble melodrama with a dozen competing characters and the payment of a piano as a fitting interweaving of their stories. Good people as usual, but with their minor vices (theft, gambling, etc.), portrayed by the filmmaker and his usual cast with endearing elementality. The love story fostered by the cursed piano is frighteningly cheesy but no less endearing.
Reading 'Lolita' in Tehran ★★★✩✩Director: Eran Riklis Starring: Golshifteh Farahani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mina Kavani, Reza DiakoProduction: Italy, 2024 (108 minutes) Drama Reading Club in IranBy P. Engel
An image from 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'
DRAFTINGSustained by the moral authority of exiles Golshifteh Farahani and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, as well as by Hélène Louvart's exquisite photography, this reconstruction of the book club recounted by Azar Nafisi in her eponymous memoir is moving as a hymn to sisterhood and resistance through books, while also reminding us of the suffocating conditions of Iranian patriarchy. But the Israeli director's academic and slightly saccharine staging limits its ability to transcend salon melodrama.
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