Beyond Indy: Six movies to enjoy in air-conditioned respite from the heat of summer
EL PAÍS takes a look at some of the alternatives to the multiplex blockbuster selection on offer in theaters
Beyond Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny there is plenty of cinema around this summer. Indy fully deserves his return to the big screen, but there are some less anticipated gems to look out for at theaters.
Flash. Andy Muschietti’s film is an example of an unfair box office skid. It might not be the long-awaited, great film that eschews the clichés that weigh down superhero movies. Flash is not a major character and it is not even one of the best works produced by DC Studios, specialists in destroying IP. But it works across its first two thirds of runtime, and hardly deserves the public stoning it has received. At least let us respect the work of Ezra Miller as the titular character and Maribel Verdú as his mother.
The Eight Mountains. Recently, there have been several films that find their public and engage with their audience, such as The Eight Mountains, which also saved the marriage of Belgian co-directors Felix van Groeningen (The Broken Circle Breakdown, Beautiful Boy) and Charlotte Vandermeersch. The slow-paced drama, like the passing of the years, tells the story of the friendship between two young boys in a village in the Alps, although the action also moves to the Himalayas before they finally find their place in the world.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The second part of a 2018 animation blockbuster, a film that opened a more imaginative and almost abstract door in a format that is now enjoying a period of creative euphoria. The new installment is not as surprising as the first in content, although it does maintain the visual level of its predecessor.
Upon Entry. A brilliantly made, pared-down thriller. To what extent do you really know both sides of a couple? And what if those doubts turn into tensions at the U.S. border? With Bruna Cusí and Alberto Ammann as that couple cracking in front of the camera, Upon Entry is a throwback to the best elements of 1990s American indie cinema.
Asteroid City. This could have been Wes Anderson’s big flop, but despite lukewarm reviews at Cannes, Asteroid City has triumphed at the box office. With its game of artifice within artifice, its plethora of stars (from minimal characters like Margot Robbie’s to invisible ones like Jeff Goldblum’s), and shot in Chinchón, outside Madrid, Anderson has raised an ode to his signature style, mannerist and symmetrical, and to the American innocence lost in some corner of history.
Master Gardener. Paul Schrader is out of fashion, fortunately, and in his latest works he has handed some characters to extremely talented actors. In Master Gardener, the gift is given to Sigourney Weaver; her upper-class Southern lady destroyed by modern times, surrounded by a depressive atmosphere of a forgotten past, who gives a job to a former skinhead (Joel Edgerton, the film’s real protagonist), lifting the plot and opening it to wider reflections.
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