Movies of the weekend: “Matria”, “65” and “Shazam! Wrath of the Gods”

“Matria”: a lucid view of a woman in battle

Sabela caught

Ramona, the main character homeland homelandShe is a slave to her job (difficult, poorly paid), to her partner (macho and alcoholic), to her daughter (who seems to follow her pattern), to the environment that surrounds her… A life that reflects a part of Galician women, or those from many of other places, because Ramona’s trajectory can be extrapolated even though we feel it is so much our own, that is, from here (the language, her accent, her friends in the cannery, the Salnés area through which she moves…). Ramona rushes through life, runs without stopping, but gets nowhere. Or at least none he likes to be in. It is driven by an energy that seems to have no end, but behind which there is a huge dissatisfaction with life and frustration at — at least initially — the inability to change things.

Debut in a feature film by director from Vigo, Álvaro Gago, based on his short film of the same name (homeland homeland2017, awarded at the Sundance Festival), this film can be included in that stream of European social cinema (which is depicted in its maximum expression by Ken Loach or the Dardenne brothers) which shows the working world and its job insecurity with a camera that hits the character, and here it is hardly gives the viewer a break.

With a cast of Galician actors led by the brilliant María Vázquez (she is Ramona, that sharp woman, with charisma, with her virtues and flaws, the role with which she very deservedly won the Biznaga de Plata for the best female performance at the Malaga Festival), with the support of an experienced cast and other non-professionals, Gago offers us a mirror in which thousands of workers can be reflected as it breaks the false myth of the Galician matriarchy, but at the same time offers a window of hope with this story of a personal revolution, of the awakening — late but no less worth it — of a grown woman who decides to rebuild her life.

“MATRIA”

Spain, 2023.

Director: Alvaro Gago.

Performers: María Vázquez, Santi Prego, Soraya Luaces, Tatán, Susana Sampedro, Francisca Iglesias Bouzón, Sergio Baleirón.

Drama. 99 minutes.

“65”: a bizarre space bet

Eduardo Galan Blanco

In the stormy world of space science fiction, a good meteor storm always goes a long way. IN 65, the joker in question forces a ship piloted by the protagonist — played by Adam Driver — to land on a strange planet that is itself Earth from 65 million years ago. Wow, you dream so much about traveling to other planets and returning to it in a kind of transtemporal excursion.

Don’t worry, we don’t spoilers real weight, because the cake is revealed after ten minutes in this unscrupulous crossover Monkey planet with Jurassic Park and After Earthwritten by the screenwriting couple who designed the silent world Peaceful place. The film moves throughout in the key of the B series — type month zero two or any similar film from our childhood—, resulting in a clumsy thing that at some point promises unprejudiced joy but ultimately reveals ill health.

What does the talented Adam Driver do in this tough space adventure? Because the category of the film is not up to the great actor paterson (2016), by Jim Jarmusch. As heartless as it is rude, 65 is a bizarre list of resources pulp: dinosaurs, geysers, quicksand, fist-sized flying insects and device survival.

Of course, sodomy it has its grace. Although it may not seem like it, the bestiary becomes fun, created with the sole predatory intent of eating the only two survivors clash room. Those little light monsters with chelicerae that enter the mouth of a little girl — Puerto Rican child star Ariana Greenblatt — and make her pour liters of creamy drool are original. And the velociraptor variants are much more abysmal and repulsive than them Nice dinosaurs popularized by Spielberg. Although the journey does not give more.

«65 MILLION YEARS AGO»

United States, 2022.

Directors: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, Nika King.

Science Fiction. 95 minutes.

Shazam! Wrath of the Gods”: as a family, none

Miguel Anxo Fernandez

It feels like another superhero movie because it’s sponsored by DC Comics and belongs to what’s now called the DC Extended Universe, but it’s not overwhelmed by the fanfare and multiverse transcendence and several others that have taken over this fantasy variant for some time. It really feels like a movie for all audiences that’s also about a slightly nerdy family where the oldest teenage son and his brothers are a gang with superpowers who shout “Shazam!” against the villain on duty. All this and much more is well known to his fans who received the first version in 2019 — better than expected at the box office and without enthusiasm. WITH Shazam! Wrath of the Gods they return to the same thing, but with a better visual ending, a bigger budget and an almost 80s tone in the dialogues and situations, without stopping to insist on marking the distance with a more sinister and dark world that its competitor Marvel does. In any case, considering the divided critics and the irregular reception in cinemas, it could be said that they did not hit the mark.

Criticism because it begins to condemn a certain superhero fatigue that is basically more of the same, although they try to hide it by resorting to mantras about the multiverse, and we’ll see how long that lasts. Audiences loyal to the superhero spirit aren’t into subtleties or restraints (an appearance of an eroticized Wonder Woman twirling around or double-meaning dialogue) and what they’re looking for is more reed, so that the show can flood the screen and drown out the noise. For that reason, this second chance for the high school student who here faces the god Atlas, who wants revenge and is incarnated in one of his daughters, will end up being respected over the years, perhaps because he gives the necessary performance without going too far (he is not the wrong order opening of a bridge that will collapse). It is true that the script should be refined, and the rhythm does not adapt to the tachycardia of the popcorn. Given the result, the character may not return to screens. It is, as it is.

SHAZAM! WRATH OF THE GODS»

USA, Canada. in 2023

Director: David F. Sandberg.

Cast: Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler, Jack Dylan Grazer.

Fantastic. 130 minutes.