Deborah Ross

Lame and formulaic: Black Widow reviewed

Watch instead The Truffle Hunters, a quiet, delicate film that has a lot to say about life, and which stars several good dogs

Bish-bosh, smash-crash: Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow 
issue 17 July 2021

Black Widow is the latest Marvel film and although I’d sworn off these films a while ago, due to sheer boredom, I was tempted back by the fact that this one stars a lady (Scarlett Johansson) and another lady (Florence Pugh) and even a third lady (Rachel Weisz) and is directed by a lady (Cate Shortland). Could be wonderful, I thought, except it isn’t. More women is its only decent idea. Otherwise, it’s business as usual. Otherwise, it’s all formulaic bish-bosh, smash-crash action scenes broken up by lame jokes and lame philosophising along the lines of: ‘Your pain only makes you stronger.’ Not if you’re dying in hospital and they’ve run out of morphine, I was minded to shout at the screen. This is, in short, a dumb film with an even dumber film trying to climb out.

Black Widow is a dumb film with an even dumber film trying to climb out

Now we have dealt with that, on to The Truffle Hunters.

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