![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/40722.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n(182 mins, 18) Directed by Matthias Glasner; starring Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg\ufeff<\/p>\n
A \ufeffthree-hour German film\ufeff about death, explored through the ice-frosted lens of a family of emotionally unavailable narcissists: Matthias Glasner\u2019s Dying might sound like an ordeal, but this rich, novelistic and mordantly funny \ufeffBerlin film festival prize\ufeff winner \ufeffwears its themes and running time\u00a0lightly.<\/p>\n
A chapter structure portions the story between the members of the \ufeffLunies family\ufeff. Adult son \ufeffTom (a remarkable Lars Eidinger, \ufeffdelivering one of the performances of the year) has attempted to heal the scars of his unhappy childhood by immersing himself in his work: he\u2019s a conductor of some note. His younger sister, dental nurse \ufeffEllen (Lilith Stangenberg)\ufeff, numbs the pain with alcohol, excess and anonymous sex. Their father, \ufeffGerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer),\ufeff has drifted into the end stages of dementia, far out of reach to his children. And their mother, \ufeffLissy (a gloriously toxic Corinna Harfouch), \ufeffwho was never emotionally present in their lives, wears her terminal cancer diagnosis like razor wire\ufeff \u2013 the better to repel any unwanted intimacies from the rest of the family.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a film about the drawn-out process of dying rather than death itself, but it\u2019s also a picture about hope, virtually synonymous with life. For Tom, \ufeffthe purest expression of hope is in the creation of art \u2013 shaping a new composition by his troubled friend and collaborator \ufeffBernard (Robert Gwisde\ufeffk)\ufeff. \ufeffLorenz Dangel\u2019s\ufeff gorgeous compositions for the film\u2019s score are showcased to exultant, skin-tingling effect.<\/p>\n
A few over\ufeffwritten scenes notwithstanding, it\u2019s an impressive achievement: a compulsively involving piece of storytelling.<\/p>\n
\ufeffThe Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/p>\n
(116 mins, 12A) Directed by Matt Shakman; starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
It seems that Marvel has finally realised \ufeffthere is little value in making the same identikit movie over and over again. Or, for that matter, in situating each new release in an intricately interconnected world requiring hours of laborious homework to understand. The Fantastic Four: \ufeffFirst Steps relaunches characters who have traditionally stumbled \ufeffon the journey to the big screen. \ufeffPedro Pascal is an earnest, fretful Reed Richards,\ufeff who, along with his wife,\ufeff Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby),\ufeff is about to become a parent for the first time. \ufeffJoseph Quinn plays human fireball Johnny Storm \ufeffand \ufeffEbon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) rounds out the quartet as Ben Grimm, \ufeffAKA the Thing\ufeff.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Thing (\ufeffEbon Moss-Bachrach), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn)<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s approach borrows a trick from director \ufeffMatt Shakman\u2019s previous Marvel outing, the vintage-sitcom-inspired Wanda\ufeffVision\ufeff. First Steps is a stand\ufeffalone picture with no links \u2013 as yet \u2013 to the wider Marvel landscape, and it works relatively well, not least because of the peppy, 60s-style, retro-futurist design choices. The picture looks great \u2013 all \ufeffatomic\ufeff age bubble screens and saturated super\ufeff 16 colours\ufeff \u2013 although as soon as the team heads into space, it falls prey to the generic CGI that is grindingly familiar from numerous other Marvel outings. The quality cast lifts the material, \ufeffbut it\u2019s a pity that some of the strongest actors are buried beneath layers of effects (Moss-Bachrach\ufeff, \ufeffJulia Garner\u2019s Shalla-Bal\ufeff), or in the case of Kirby, behind an immense and distractingly mascara-clagged pair of false eyelashes.<\/p>\n
(104 mins, PG) Directed by Pierre Perifel, JP Sans; voices Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n
The animated animal criminals return, and the formula has changed very little\ufeff; for better (the giddily inventive action set pieces) and for worse (there are so many flatulence gags, it\u2019s a wonder that the cinema doesn\u2019t lift off like a hot air balloon).<\/p>\n
![\"Mr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/40724.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Mr Snake (Marc Maron), Mr Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr Piranha (Anthony Ramos), Mr Shark (Craig Robinson), Ms Tarantula (Awkwafina) and Doom (Natasha Lyonne) in The Bad Guys 2<\/p>\n
Think a child-friendly Ocean\u2019s Eleven\ufeff with the hyperactive pacing of a Looney Tunes cartoon and a generous serving of extreme silliness. In this instalment, Mr Wolf (Sam Rockwell) and his buddies are reformed characters, ready to enter the workforce. The workforce, however, has other ideas. Frenetic but fun.<\/p>\n
Photographs by\u00a0Picturehouse Entertainment\/Disney\/DreamWorks Animation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(182 mins, 18) Directed by Matthias Glasner; starring Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg\ufeff A \ufeffthree-hour German film\ufeff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-26605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}