Four new films to see this week: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Gazer, Dying/Sterben and The Bad Guys 2
Directed by Matt Shakman. Starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson. 12A cert, gen release, 114 min
Marvel makes yet another effort to bring one its oldest hits to the big screen. Set on an alternative Earth, First Steps revels in a retro-futuristic version of the 1960s. True to the original, the Four super-powered chums are charged with stopping giant bore Galactus from annihilating the planet. We are free of any tangled links to previous films or TV series from the MCU. It can be enjoyed or loathed on its own uncomplicated terms. If the film does have a message it is that the greatest superpower of all is a mother's love.
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Gazer ★★★★☆
Directed by Ryan J Sloan. Starring Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Tommy Kang. 15A cert, limited release, 134 min
Frankie (Mastroianni) suffers from dyschronometria, a rare condition that distorts her perception of time. To cope, she records second-by-second audio prompts reminding her what she's doing and where she is. These serve as both narrative scaffolding and existential red flags, tethering us to her unravelling mind and blackouts. It's impossible not to think of Christopher Nolan's early work and the classic paranoia of DePalma's Blow Out and Coppola's The Conversation. But Gazer swerves from pastiche into Cronenbergian body horror as the already unreliable narrator becomes increasingly unmoored. Lo-fi and disarmingly intense.
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Dying/Sterben ★★★★☆
Directed by Matthias Glasner. Starring Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg, Ronald Zehrfeld, Robert Gwisdek, Anna Bederke, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Saskia Rosendahl. 16 cert, limited release, 182 min
Saga concerning an elderly German couple and their unhelpful children. Dying is a film composed like its central musical motif: sprawling, discordant, haunted by mortality. Spanning three hours and five loosely tethered chapters, this dark family yarn plays like a collage of recent festival favourites; early, unvarnished scenes of elder care nod towards Vortex and Amour; a hectic middle section concerning a conductor recalls Todd Field's similarly themed Tár; a late narrative swerve into assisted suicide intersects with Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door. Somehow, the disparate pieces and maximalist clutter find a rhythm.
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The Bad Guys 2 ★★★☆☆
Directed by Pierre Perifel. Voices of Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne. G cert, gen release, 104 min
Sequel to the so-so animation about a cadre of slick animal criminals. One remains puzzled as to what these films want to be. Not nearly enough is done with the atavistic natures of the heroes. Mr Wolf, voiced by Rockwell, may have big teeth (Grandma), but, the odd growl aside, he does little that George Clooney didn't do in the Oceans films. In contrast, far too much is done with the increasingly unwieldy plot. If you keep yakking about the McGuffin the audience will worry if they should genuinely care about it. That isn't happening here.
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Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
Late Shift star Leonie Benesch: ‘The biggest shock was realising how broken health systems are globally'
Leonie Benesch is accustomed to moving between countries, languages, and worlds – both fictional and actual. Almost two decades into her career, she finds herself among the same rarefied multilingual elite as Christoph Waltz, Nina Hoss and Diane Kruger: German -speaking actors who shift effortlessly between Hollywood and Europe . She is also the most famous German redhead since Boris Becker. Fellow freckled actor Jessica Chastain has often spoken about her pigmentation landing her 'old-fashioned' or period roles. Benesch knows just how that feels. 'I don't know if it's my face or my hair, but people love to put me in period stuff,' Benesch says. 'People always say: 'Oh, your face looks like it could be from anywhere.' I've been very happy over the last two years. I'm actually getting roles that are set in modern times.' Having toured the awards circuit with the Oscar-nominated September 5 – a fine drama about the Black September attacks on the 1972 Olympics – earlier this year, she has returned to her home continent for the taut medical thriller, Late Shift. READ MORE In Petra Volpe's film, Benesch, also so good in the recent The Teachers' Lounge , plays Floria, a devoted surgical nurse in Switzerland, powering through a demanding night shift in an understaffed ward. Her 26 patients range from an elderly man fearfully awaiting a diagnosis to a well-heeled private patient demanding herbal tea. Closing credits warn viewers about the worsening global staffing crisis in the profession. 'I've always been slightly hesitant about that sort of campaigning behind a film,' admits Benesch, 'I'm always a little suspicious when someone has a message they wanted to get across. Having said that, I also really appreciate it when it's done well. Petra Volpe wanted to shine a light on what it means to be a nurse in an underfunded health system. She's been very open about it. I'm actually quite grateful because she opened my eyes to making those sorts of films now.' Volpe's gripping drama required a considerable amount of homework for Benesch, an actor who is frequently praised for her technical precision. Before production began, she shadowed nurses in Zurich throughout their demanding shifts. 'We filmed in January, after a long period of work in Belgium and Vienna,' she says. 'When I arrived in Zurich, I was quite tired, which actually made sense because that's often the mental and physical state of healthcare workers. I focused a lot on the physical aspects – learning the choreography of preparing medications, putting in IVs, moving the blood pressure wagon, the computer systems, all the small details. 'But I underestimated how emotionally exhausting it would be. I found myself having quite a few big cries after filming because, even though it's fiction, the experience was very real. I usually don't take work home emotionally, but this time I did.' To prepare, she shadowed Swiss nurses for a week, observing every gesture, every measured step. 'I did five shifts. Obviously, I was not allowed to do anything other than make tea, but that was absolutely invaluable. It was quite a stark contrast, going from doing press in LA and the Oscars and that whole game to then being in a hospital shadowing nurses. It was brilliant for me. I was especially interested in their movements and the way they switch codes – how they speak distantly, yet warmly, to patients, maintaining that professional facade. It was fascinating.' What she learned there was not only useful, but political: the fragility of healthcare systems, even in wealthy European nations. 'The biggest shock was realising how broken health systems are globally. I shadowed nurses in Switzerland – one of the richest countries – and it was still tough,' Benesch says. 'I lived in the UK for eight years, so I know about the NHS struggles, but it's the same everywhere. It's incredible cognitive dissonance when people applaud nurses, but political systems won't fight for better wages or working conditions.' The gendered dimension of the labour was equally thought-provoking. 'Nursing is to this day a woman's job,' says the actor. 'Eighty per cent of people in this profession are women. Of course, they are overlooked, underpaid and underappreciated. But it's just so stupid. I feel like it blows my mind because we all rely on this. The first, and usually the last, person to talk to us, to touch our body on this earth, is usually a nurse.' [ Falling nursing applications may make it 'impossible' to fill places in Ireland, OECD warns Opens in new window ] Benesch grew up mostly in Tübingen, a German city southwest of Stuttgart. An early fascination with Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean led her to pursue acting with determination. 'When I wanted to become an actor around 11 or 12, I had moved a lot and felt like an outsider – maybe because of my red hair and being different,' she recalls. 'You pick up quite quickly as a kid, if you move around a lot, the horror of having to leave a place that is familiar. But at the same time, there is the excitement of being able to really invent yourself a little bit in a new place. 'I had a strong desire to be seen and admired. Acting felt like a way to be noticed. Over time, my motivation shifted. Now, after 17 years in the profession, I value storytelling for its power to contribute to societal discussions. Of course, there's still a lot of fun and entertainment in it, but that's the core of why I do this.' She performed in a children's circus before moving on to the prestigious Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, and later, three years at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She had yet to graduate when she landed the role of Greta Overbeck on Tom Tykwer's popular Weimar-era crime drama, Babylon Berlin – replete with a hefty arc about radicalisation and class struggle. 'There were little protests on set when they killed me off at the end of season three,' she laughs. 'People held up signs. 'Let her live!' I was very happy about that.' As her cut-glass English pronunciation indicates, she remained in the UK for a time, appearing in The Crown as Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, sister to Prince Philip, and – alongside David Tennant's Phileas Fogg – as the intrepid Abigail in the BBC miniseries Around the World in 80 Days. She credits BBC Radio 4 for helping her to perfect her received pronunciation. 'I left Guildhall a few months early for Babylon Berlin,' she says. 'I stayed in London for about five more years because I loved it and wanted to be around for potential auditions. But after Around the World in 80 Days and Covid hit, I spent six months in Berlin and realised how much I loved it here: it's cheaper, and many friends are here. The combination of Brexit and Covid made me decide to settle in Berlin for now. But who knows what the future holds?' Leonie Benesch: 'Eighty per cent of people in [nursing] are women. Of course, they are overlooked, underpaid and underappreciated' Benesch was 17 years old when Michael Haneke cast her in the Palme d'Or-winning The White Ribbon . Critics immediately took note and credited her performance as bringing something 'gentler and more endearing than anything Haneke has ever shown before'. 'Starting with something so high-profile is a blessing and a challenge,' she says. 'I remember [costar] Susanne Lothar – may she rest in peace – saying: 'Don't get used to this; most sets aren't like this.' I thought that was the norm at first: working with Michael Haneke, going to set, having all the time in the world to prepare. I thought: 'Why are we not at the Oscars with every project?' So it was quite a brutal wake-up. It set the bar high, which keeps me motivated. But I think I'm doing okay.' The international success of The Teachers' Lounge, İlker Çatak's nervy thriller about a dedicated teacher whose attempt to resolve a theft at her school spirals into a tense moral crisis, was a pleasant and game-changing surprise. The film failed to find a distributor for almost a year after it was completed, but it went on to get a nomination for best international feature at the 2024 Oscars. [ The Teachers' Lounge review: Leonie Benesch is sensational in this unlikely white-knuckle thriller Opens in new window ] 'I think it was at Berlinale, I realised that this film was big,' she says, remembering its buzzy debut at the Berlin Film Festival. 'That was the first time there was an opportunity for word of mouth and people going to screenings together. We were suddenly sold out. I remember my agent saying: Brazil loves your film. And we did not expect any of that.' Night Shift is in cinemas from August 1st
Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Irish Times
Maureen Dowd: CBS and other media outlets caving to Trump is sickening. At least South Park will still hold people accountable
We haven't heard this much talk about the presidential anatomy since the other guy in the Jeffrey Epstein files was in the Oval. President Donald Trump , a master at minimising others, is now being literally minimised on South Park by the crass and fearless creators of the cartoon. I could have told Trump that it's best not to provoke brilliant satirists. I learned that lesson the hard way 20 years ago. When I wrote Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk, about the tangled father and son saga that led to the invasion of Iraq , I wanted Pat Oliphant, a lacerating political cartoonist, to do the book's cover. READ MORE I wheedled until that acerbic Aussie finally agreed. When the drawing came back, it was dazzling: a tiny, jangly-eyed George W Bush under a big cowboy hat, his hands braced at the guns on his holster. He was walking down the driveway of an overgrown haunted version of the White House with a gargoyle hanging from the trees. Oliphant had given the president the body of a bug. Even though the book was harshly critical of W Bush and his scheming advisers, I was worried that the sketch might be a bit too disrespectful to the president. The cartoonist was a firm believer in 'stirring up the beast', as he called it, taking a torch to the lies and hypocrisy of the powerful. So, naturally, he was contemptuous when I suggested that we make W Bush less buglike. But, faced with more wheedling, he reluctantly agreed to take another crack at it. I waited nervously. When the new illustration came in, W Bush no longer looked like a bug. Oliphant had made the president look more like a monkey. And he was even smaller. It was a valuable lesson. Don't mess with satirists. They'll always have the last say, and it will be blistering. Even though jesters had more leeway in ancient courts to speak truth to monarchs, rulers could order up an axe or a noose if the truth cut too close to the bone. [ 'I will not be intimidated': But has Rupert Murdoch met his nemesis in Donald Trump? Opens in new window ] As the Fool says to Lear: 'I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: They'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace.' Drew Lichtenberg, the dramaturge at Washington's Shakespeare Theater Company, told me: 'Queen Elizabeth I passed a series of 'Vagabond Acts' making it illegal to be a travelling player, unless you had an aristocratic patron. Freelance actors were regarded as homeless people unless they wore the livery of a lord. It was the 16th-century version of yanking Stephen Colbert off the air , censoring the broadcast of views that the ruler didn't want performed without their say-so.' Recently, Colbert scorched Paramount , CBS' parent company, for caving to Trump with a $16 million (€13.6 million) settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit, hoping to get the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to favour its merger with Skydance. 'I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles,' the comedian said. 'It's big, fat bribe.' A few days later, news broke that CBS, which has cratered from the Tiffany network to the Trump-fealty network, had cancelled the top-rated broadcast show for financial reasons. But who can believe that's the whole story? If it were just about money, there were a lot of better ways to handle Colbert, a big talent and valuable brand. CBS could have cut costs, or it could have transitioned him over the next five years into some combination of streaming or podcasting within the Paramount family. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a staple of late-night US television, will end in 2026, the CBS network said, days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount's $16 million settlement with Donald Trump as 'a big fat bribe'. Photograph:Announcing that he was being dumped right after he criticised CBS reeked of censorship. Certainly, King Trump celebrated, crowing on Truth Social: 'I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired.' He even added: 'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.' The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, said that The View – airing on ABC, which also caved to Trump, paying a whopping $15 million for George Stephanopoulos' misspeaking – might be in the administration's crosshairs. 'Once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there's a lot of consequences,' Carr said, ominously. CBS is, as Colbert said, 'morally bankrupt'. It's sickening to see media outlets, universities, law firms and tech companies bending the knee. (Hang tough, Rupert!) Satirists are left to hold people accountable, and they are more than ready. Colbert's fellow humorists jumped in to back him up, most brazenly the South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, fresh off a Paramount deal worth more than $1.25 billion. (South Park, popular with conservatives, does not defend liberals; it loves jeering at both sides and woke overreach.) Its 27th season premiere – 'Sermon on the 'Mount,' as in Paramount – featured Trump with a 'teeny-tiny' you-know-what. It depicted the president cuddling with Satan and romancing a sheep. It ripped the Paramount deal, the CBS settlement, the Colbert firing, Trump's 'power to sue and take bribes' and the president's manic attempt to divert attention from ties to Epstein, as the paedophile's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell , no doubt angles for a pardon by spilling some information. It also showed a deepfake of Trump, rotund and naked, walking in the desert, Christ-like, 'for America'. As Puck's Matthew Belloni said: 'The AI deepfake Trump was particularly brilliant, given that the same day the episode aired, the president announced White House AI policy positions favouring lacklustre protections against exactly this kind of dangerous technology.' The White House sniffed that 'no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak'. At Comic-Con on Thursday, the South Park creators were deadpan about their rebellious reaction to Trump's attempt to stifle critics and wreak revenge. 'We're terribly sorry,' Parker said, making it clear they were anything but. The tiger picnics last. – the New York Times
Extra.ie
a day ago
- Extra.ie
Fionnuala Jay nails it with '10/10' compliment from Pedro Pascal
Man of the moment Pedro Pascal is not only a stellar actor, but a very 'charismatic' man — who loves a good manicure. The Last of Us Star was in the hot seat with his The Fantastic Four: First Steps co-star Vanessa Kirby for a chat all things his new movie on The Six O'Clock Show during the week, and was quick to compliment reporter Fionnuala Jay on her pretty nails. Pedro and Vanessa's appearance on the Virgin Media Show came in tandem with the release date for the new movie, which hit cinema on Friday (July 25). Man of the moment Pedro Pascal is not only a stellar actor, but a very 'charismatic' man — who loves a good manicure. Pic: The Six O'Clock Show/ Instagram A sweet moment from the interview saw Pedro quick to compliment Fionnuala's blue nails, with the star saying: 'I shook your hand — beautiful nails, by the way. Understandably delighted with the compliment, Fionnuala thanked Pedro before showing her nails off to the camera. 'Can we get these for the interview? Yes. They were for you guys,' she said. 'Wow,' commented Vanessa, 'And I don't underestimate how long that takes.' 'They took awhile,' Fionnuala conceded, 'But you noticed them, so I've won!' 'They are 10/10,' Pedro added. Understandably delighted with the compliment, Fionnuala thanked Pedro before showing her nails off to the camera. Pic: The Six O'Clock Show/ Instagram The clip was shared to The Six O'Clock Show's social media, captioned: 'If Pedro gives you the stamp of approval, we'd sit through ANY nail appointment.' Social media users took to the comments in delight with many expressing their jealousy of Fionnuala following the sweet interaction. One said: 'Pedro loves a good manicure.' The clip was shared to the Six O'Clock Show's social media, captioned: 'If Pedro gives you the stamp of approval, we'd sit through ANY nail appointment.' Pic: The Six O'Clock Show/ Instagram Another added: 'Life goals completed. Where to from here?' A third commented: 'I am so jealous!!' Fantastic Four is the latest installment to the Marvel universe with Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby playing Reed Richards and Sue Storm respectively. Reed, also known as Mister Fantastic, is an intelligent scientist who leads the group — also comprised of Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn). Following their return from a space mission, the group become widely regarded as celebrities and the world's protectors and four years later are tasked to put their name to good use when the planet Earth is marked for destruction by a planet-devouring cosmic.
