Film

ART LEELANAU

July 23 – 28

Join us for a celebration of the arts in our community!

29th Annual Art Leelanau Exhibit and Benefit

This event takes place on the OAB lawn and showcases original artwork from more than 60 artists with a connection to Leelanau County.

Opening night: Friday, July 23, 5 – 8 pm

5 pm: OAB member early access 6 pm: All ticket holders

Further details: oldartbuilding.com 111 South Main Street, Leland, Michigan

BLACK WIDOW

Now I normally would not endorse any film that uses Don McLean’s “American Pie” as a plot point but, seeing as this film is essentially about the liberation of women, I will let it slide. It also doesn’t hurt that the film is about the liberation of Black Widow, specifically, who after a decade of being a standout utility player across so many Avengers and male-heroheadlining Marvel Cinematic Universe films, finally gets her own movie (many of her male counterparts can count three standalone movies apiece).

Black Widow is a lovely tribute and swan song to a character — Natasha Romanoff, played by Scarlett Johansson — who perhaps never got the credit she deserved. As an origin story of sorts, it really explains who Natasha is as a person, and it’s a side of her I wish I had seen sooner.

More than two years have passed since we’ve last enjoyed a Marvel film in theaters. And while the delayed Black Widow is also available for streaming as a Disney+ Premium offering, its release feels like a significant milestone return to the theatrical environment.

Yet, in that time away from theaters, we have been able to enjoy the continuation of the MCU through shows on Disney+. These acclaimed limited series, like Loki and Wandavision (Emmy nominated!), have demonstrated Marvel’s ability to give us the incredibly satisfying character development these longer-form series allow for, and they remind us we don’t just want wham, smash, and boom from our superpeople.

And it is in this vein that Black Widow, the first film in phase 4 of the MCU, gives us a very human story, in a tighter, feature film timeframe. After all, Natasha, as incredible as she is, does not possess any superpowers. And the film, which takes us on an emotionally potent journey of family, is slightly more grounded in reality. (She has bruises! She needs to take ibuprofen!)

In the extended opening, we meet Natasha as a teen growing up with her younger sister, mom, and dad in Ohio in the 1990s. It’s an idyllic Midwestern childhood, shot in a dreamy, sun-dappled manner that’s Steven Spielberg meets Terrence Mallick. Things take a The Americans-style turn, however, when her “family” is forced to flee on a moment’s notice, revealing that they are sleeper-cell Russian agents who have returned to the motherland.

We then arrive 20 some years later to find Natasha an Avenger on the run (the bulk of the film takes place somewhere between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War). And as she moves between globetrotting locations like Norway, Budapest, and Siberia, the film takes on an espionage thriller persona more in debt to something like the Bourne or Mission Impossible movies.

Amidst Natasha’s travels, she comes face-to-face with her former “sister,” Yelena, played by Florence Pugh. Turns out the grown Yelena was also trained as a black widow super-assassin, and she escaped after being exposed to a chemical formula that released her from the grip of mind control. She reveals to Natasha that the “Red Room” KGB training program they were both subjected to is not as destroyed as she thought, and the man at the program’s helm, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), is also not as dead as she thought. And so the sisters band together and vow to kill him and bring the abusive program to its end.

This is where our action film becomes a family dramedy, as the two women reunite with their former “parents.” Now don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of action set pieces — a prison break, hand-to-hand combat, and car chases — but we also get to explore some domestic issues that are far more interesting than the last film from that stalwart of family-action cinema – F9.

Dad Alexei is played by David Harbour, a loveable goof dreaming of his days as the Red Guardian, a Captain America knockoff, while trying to literally squeeze back into his super suit. Then there’s mom Melina, a brilliant scientist, living on a farm, running experiments on pigs. They all banter, bicker, and bond, and you feel their chemistry as a unit.

But it’s not just witty banter and familial dynamics that make Black Widow so rewarding. This is the first Marvel film directed solely by a woman. And it is a far stronger film than Marvel’s first femaleled film, Captain Marvel (even without the cat!). Director Cate Shortland allows her female characters to be bitter and angry. The film confronts trauma, and after the sisters’ father makes a dumb crack about a woman’s period, Yelena explains she received an involuntary hysterectomy. It is probably the most uncomfortable moment I have ever witnessed in a Marvel movie, and I applaud them for bringing issues of female bodily autonomy to the forefront.

Yet, this is still a Marvel movie, and that’s why we get a bloated third act that is incredibly formulaic and filled with confusing action as they enter a standard evil-villain lair and try to take it down. This is the weakest part of the film.

In a break from tradition, however, you should not expect cameos from all your Avenger favorites. This divergence allows Black Widow and her history to really stand alone, giving us a feminist story of sisterhood that is a moving salute to a character, while also hopefully passing the torch to a true talent I hope to see much more from, both within and outside the Marvel-verse.