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Black Widow

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Watch Black Widow with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Black Widow 's deeper themes are drowned out in all the action, but it remains a solidly entertaining standalone adventure that's rounded out by a stellar supporting cast.

Black Widow serves up another savory helping of the blockbuster Marvel formula, with a fun family dynamic adding extra character development in the midst of all the action.

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Cate Shortland

Scarlett Johansson

Natasha Romanoff

Florence Pugh

Yelena Belova

David Harbour

Alexei Shostakov

Rachel Weisz

Melina Vostokoff

Ray Winstone

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Black Widow review: Scarlett Johansson's superspy leads a smart thriller with a family twist

Iron Man was once an Iron Boy, presumably. Thor had to earn his hammer somehow. And Bruce Banner didn't Hulk-smash his way out of the womb. But for most big-screen superheroes, origin stories often serve as little more than preamble to the myth: expository parsley sprinkled on the red-meat business of saving the world, one billion-dollar installment at a time.

The most notable exceptions to that rule — Wonder Woman , Spider-Man — also tend to be the better films in their various franchises, at least to viewers who hunger for more than intermittent dollops of banter and backstory squeezed in between explosions. Scarlett Johansson 's Black Widow has waited patiently — eight Avengers chapters over 10 years, plus another 14 months tacked on due to pandemic delays — for her turn. And her self-titled stand-alone (out July 9 simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access) actually feels like a human-scale narrative, albeit still one where many, many things go boom. (Coincidentally or not, it's also the first Marvel film to be helmed solely by a woman, an Australian named Cate Shortland — though 2019's Captain Marvel had Anna Boden as co-director, and recent Nomadland Oscar winner Chloé Zhao will unleash her Eternals this fall.)

Whatever's been hinted in the past about the early days of international assassin Natasha Romanoff, her childhood in Black Widow 's opening scenes seems positively Spielberg-ian: skinned knees, fireflies in the garden, family dinner at dusk. It's 1995 in Ohio, and everybody's all-American — until suddenly they aren't. In a moment, her mother (Rachel Weisz) and father ( Stranger Things ' David Harbour) drop their Midwestern accents like anvils, and young Natasha (Ever Anderson) and her baby sister appear to know more about emergency air evacuations than any kids their age should. That's because they're not a family at all; they're a Russian sleeper cell.

Flash-forward two decades and Natasha has become a lone-wolf exile, presumably escaping the fallout from the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War . (Further explanations are not forthcoming for casual fans.) Until a mystery package, and a pursuer who looks like the murderous union of Daft Punk and RoboCop, send her on a collision course with her now-grown "sister" ( Florence Pugh ) in Budapest. Yelena is a Widow too — part of a kind of expendable female suicide squad — and she knows how they got that way. But tracking down the man responsible (a malevolent, bullnecked Ray Winstone) will mean reuniting with the only parents the two girls have ever known.

That's where the movie essentially becomes a domestic dramedy, transposed onto the big-bang set pieces and elaborate lore of a Marvel tentpole. Harbour is a brutish, beefy goofball still longing for his glory days as the Red Guardian; Weisz is the brains, a coolly analytical scientist with her hair tucked into Heidi braids. But the real love story belongs to their ersatz offspring: If anything, Johansson plays the straight woman, stern and a little bit melancholy; she lets British actress Pugh ( Little Women , Midsommar ) bloom as Yelena, whose Slavic wit and wounded honesty register as almost surreally normal in a setting like this.

The fight choreography is impressively acrobatic, if mildly numbing, and the brisk globe-trotting (Norway, Morocco, a snowy Russian penal colony) can't be faulted. Shortland's directing doesn't spark absurdist joy in the way that, say, Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok did; she's too methodical for that. But Waititi's brand of antic fizziness wouldn't really be right for what is in many ways a tragedy. (It's certainly the only film in the MCU to include a salient plot point about forced hysterectomies.) If Widow , with its winky one-liners and spandexed catsuits, is purely pop feminism, the movie's female gaze still reads like more than a cynical marketing ploy; it's one step closer to real, messy life, Marvel-size and amplified. Grade: B+

Black Widow review – Scarlett Johansson’s Marvel assassin on deadly form

Florence Pugh and David Harbour add welcome comic touches to this much-delayed outing for the female Avenger

P icking up where 2016’s Captain America: Civil War left off, Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), is in exile in Norway when her annoying, estranged little sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) gets in touch. A fellow graduate of the sinister Red Room – General Dreykov’s Russian academy for training, and brainwashing, female assassins – Yelena has been deprogrammed and plans to free the other girls with her sister’s help.

Their mission to take down Dreykov (Ray Winstone) involves an alpine action sequence and an army of angels of death. It feels ripped from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service , though unlike a Bond film there’s no flirting, and certainly no sex. There is, however, the underlying threat of misogyny. “I recycle the trash,” purrs Dreykov, remarking that girls are “the only natural resource the world has too much of”. His “widows” are lobotomised and given forced hysterectomies. Yet the film spends scant time exploring the implications of these darker themes, and doesn’t attempt to understand the root of Dreykov’s god complex.

Instead, it’s more comfortable in comedy mode, and most interested in the family dynamic between Natasha, Yelena and their adopted parents, scientist Melina (Rachel Weisz) and former special agent Alexei (David Harbour, having a blast as a bumbling, past-it superhero whose costume no longer fits). Yelena is a perfect comic foil for the opaque, steely Natasha, a sparkling pinwheel of energy whose warmth and sardonic humour should cement her place as a new fan favourite in the Marvel cinematic universe.

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‘Black Widow’ Review: A Superhero Movie That’s Grittier, More Layered With Feeling, Than You Expect

In her first stand-alone saga, Scarlett Johansson invests the famous fighter with an interior power.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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It’s always been telling that Batman, one of the only superheroes not graced with superpowers, may be the most popular superhero. Masses of comic-book fans identify with his humanity, imagining that they could be him (though he does, of course, have all those toys to make up for his lack of steel muscles, etc.). Natasha Romanoff, better known as Black Widow , draws from the same basic well of appeal. She was trained as a Russian spy and fights like a whirling dervish, though without special powers — so she too, in theory, could be you. “I doubt the god from space has to take an Ibuprofen after a fight,” snarks a character in “Black Widow,” the new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That Natasha does makes her relatable. But audiences going into “Black Widow” may still wonder what, exactly, they’re going to get to see the title character do . In Scarlett Johansson ’s appearances in the MCU thus far, going back to “Iron Man 2,” she’s been a kick-ass fighter in sleek leather with a few signature jackknife moves. I wondered, or maybe feared, that “Black Widow” would be two hours of that.

It’s not; it’s much more interesting and absorbing. In the highly suspenseful prologue, set in Ohio in 1995, we meet Natasha (Ever Anderson) when she’s around 13, along with her younger sister (Violet McGraw). Natasha has her hair dyed fiberglass blue, which no teenager in the Midwest did in the ’90s, but we’ll let that pass. At home, the girls’ mother ( Rachel Weisz ) has just sat them down to dinner when their father ( David Harbour ) arrives with a worried look and says that they have an hour to ditch the place. They drive out to the countryside, where a prop plane awaits them in a dusty hanger, and with the authorities shooting right into the plane they take off and land in Cuba, where the two girls are given a knockout drug and hauled away.

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Their parents, it turns out, are deep-cover Russian spies, and the entire “family” was concocted and assembled, living together for three years. The girls are delivered to General Dreykov (Ray Winstone), a dark mastermind who will raise them to be part of his elite brainwashed army of lethal feminine Widows. His training sanctum is the ominous Red Room.

The next time we see Natasha, it’s 21 years later, and she’s trying to put together the pieces of her broken life. “Black Widow” isn’t technically an origin story. It’s set in the period after “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), when the Avengers have broken up and Natasha, who defected to the West at the behest of S.H.I.E.L.D., has joined the faction led by Steve Rogers. So she’s already been out in the world, flexing those smash-mouth limbs. Yet “Black Widow” is very much about the origin of Natasha — her skills and her identity. The movie features just enough kinetic combat to give a mainstream audience that getting-your-money’s-worth feeling, but from the opening credits (built around Think Up Anger’s dreamy slow-mo cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”), most of it has a gritty, deliberate, zap-free tone that is strikingly — and intentionally — earthbound for a superhero fantasy. The director, Australia’s Cate Shortland (“Somersault”), works in unvarnished closeup and establishes a mood of lurching, desultory anxiety that’s closer to Russian neorealism than the Russo brothers.

In Budapest, Natasha reunites with her sister, Yelena (now played by Florence Pugh ), who’s a cool killer herself, and an even more jaded one. “Black Widow” has action, but at heart it isn’t an action film. It’s a tale of people trying to carve out emotions from a place where they can barely feel any. Natasha and Yelena greet each other with a Mexican standoff followed by a knockdown duel in the kitchen; that’s how they were trained. But it’s not long before they come together over the fact that Dreykov is the monster who stole their lives. Natasha actually tried to blow him up, and thought she’d succeeded, killing his young daughter in the process. But she didn’t know what she was dealing with. When “Black Widow” sets Natasha up in combat against a metallic terminator with a mouth like a skull’s, the fight itself is fairly standard, but when we learn who (or what) is underneath that armor, the movie gives you a creepy tingle.

To go after Dreykov, the two sisters (or sister figures, since they’re not technically sisters) attempt to reassemble their “family,” starting with an entertaining sequence in which they break Alexei, their former father, out of what looks like a Siberian prison. He is now a bearded Russian strongman who speaks in a thick accent — or, in fact, he always ways, since he’s actually the Red Guardian, the Russian version of Captain America. He’s a superhero with borscht in his veins. Harbour gives a surprisingly convincing performance as this blustery Slavic blowhard, while Rachel Weisz, as the circumspect Melina, is more ambiguous: part den mother, part Stepford mother. Florence Pugh invests Yelena with a brittle danger that’s like Mata Hari meets Jason Bourne.

But it’s Scarlett Johansson who holds the film together and gives it its touch of soul. Natasha’s desire for vengeance is pulsating, but so are her inner wounds, and Johansson, unusual for the comic-book genre, makes the most vulnerable emotions part of the humanity of her strength. She’s a flame-haired dynamo who needs to slay her former mentor to defeat her own damage. When she finally faces off against Dreykov, played by Ray Winstone as a bureaucrat hooligan, seething under his horn-rims, it’s a duel of wits and will. It also leads to a spectacular finale that evokes the free-falling, apocalypse-in-the-sky climax of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” “Black Widow,” which kicks off Phase Four of the MCU, doesn’t feel like the first stand-alone “Black Widow” film. It feels more like the second, lost-in-the-wilderness “Black Widow” film. But I’m here to say that’s a good thing. Most of us have seen enough superpowers to last a lifetime. “Black Widow” spins on the powers that come from within.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, June 28, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 133 MIN.

Production: A Walt Disney Studios release of a Marvel Studios production. Producer: Kevin Feige. Executive producers: Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito, Nigel Gostelow, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Winderbaum.
Crew: Director: Cate Shortland. Screenplay: Eric Pearson. Camera: Gabriel Beristain. Editor: Leigh Folsom Boyd. Music: Lorne Balfe.
With: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, Ray Winstone, O-T Fagbenie, Ever Anderson, Violet McGraw, William Hurt.

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‘Black Widow’ Review: Spies, Lies and Family Ties

Scarlett Johansson plays the latest Avenger to get her own movie, but she’s overshadowed by Florence Pugh in this Cate Shortland-directed entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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By Maya Phillips

If I were Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow , a.k.a. the first original female Avenger and yet years overdue for her own film, I’d be hella miffed.

After wearing myself out doing flips and kicks and spy work, I finally get my own movie, but the result, Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow,” opening Friday, uncomfortably mashes up a heartwarming family reunion flick with a spy thriller — and then lets its star, Scarlett Johansson, get overshadowed.

“Black Widow” begins in Ohio in the ’90s: Natasha is a brave but serious young girl who already has a hardened look in her eyes. She looks after her younger sister, Yelena, and suspiciously follows the lead of her parents, Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour), who are actually spies posing as a married couple. Natasha, who has already started training at the Red Room, a secret Soviet boot camp turning young women into deadly agents, is split from Yelena, and the girls are taught to kill.

The main action of the film skips ahead to the time immediately following “ Captain America: Civil War ” (2016), when Natasha (now played by Johansson) is a fugitive separated from the rest of the Avengers. If jumping back a few films in the franchise sounds confusing, “Black Widow,” along with the current Disney+ series “ Loki ,” serves as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most recent attempt at retroactively building character narratives and back stories by doubling back on its own colossal, ever-expanding timeline. And so Natasha finds out that not only is the Red Room still in business and its leader, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), still alive, the other “widow” operatives are chemically manipulated so they become mindless assassins without free will. To bring down Dreykov and his Red Room, Natasha reluctantly joins forces with her fake family, including an older Yelena ( Florence Pugh ), who has found an antidote to the mind control.

Despite the intriguing opening sequence, which involves shootings, a jet and a family escape, “Black Widow,” directed by Cate Shortland, lags, unsure of how to proceed with the story. There’s Natasha puttering around while in hiding, some muddled exposition and the introduction of a helmeted assassin who looks like a Mandalorian cosplayer .

For a story about a woman named after a deadly spider, “Black Widow” is surprisingly precious with its hero. An Avenger who has been afflicted with something of a savior complex, Natasha hopes to redeem the red in her ledger with good deeds but ends up sounding like the dull Dudley Do-Right of the superhero film.

In a lot of ways “Black Widow” feels different from the usual M.C.U. film. The coercion and manipulation of young women, the kidnapping and murder missions with civilian casualties — the film seems more like a Bond or Bourne movie, with a tacked-on moral about the importance of family, and it sits awkwardly with heavier themes. (In one scene, an exchange about the forced sterilization of the widows is played for comedy but just sounds absurdly dark.)

Though Johansson gets some great action shots, she is outshined by the other strong actors (strong despite their inconsistent, and often odd, Russian accents). Harbour’s Alexei is an obnoxious though endearing Russian teddy bear of a retired super soldier. Weisz’s Melina is the tough but cowardly scientist who is used to being complicit in a system of which she’s also a victim. But most often Pugh steals the show. Her Yelena is steely and sarcastic yet still reeling from what she’s done while under mind control. Pugh brings cleverness and vulnerability to the character, and she and Johansson have the chemistry to pull off the comic taunting and teasing that comes with a sibling relationship.

Why does Natasha always pose in the middle of fights, landing close to the ground, flipping her hair up and back? Yelena asks mockingly. And she challenges Natasha’s self-righteous idea of heroism: “I’m not the killer that little girls call their hero,” Yelena tells her. There’s a whole movie in that exchange alone.

The script, by Eric Pearson, grants Yelena more personality, emotional depth and intrigue. It not only mines the more immediate trauma she has faced but also, through her, critiques the wishful optimism that Natasha holds for the Avengers, whom she considers her real family.

The film also struggles to figure out its deeper politics. Natasha and Yelena’s rough beginnings as immigrant children who are pushed into the extraordinary world of superheroes and villains recall the early years of the Maximoffs, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. There’s some statement here about young immigrants who are left behind, but the movie never figures it out. And the villain with a love for controlling little girls? Well, I’m sure I don’t need to go into the sinister implications of that.

Women assassins, women mad scientists: There seems to be a thematic undercurrent of girl power and the strength of women, which is often systematically subdued or controlled by men, but it feels superficial. We aren’t introduced to the other widows, and, for a film about expert fighters, the fight choreography and cinematography don’t do our female warriors justice; the rapidly shifting camera angles obscure rather than reveal the martial arts.

By the end of the story, which leads into “ Avengers: Infinity War ” (and a post-credits scene jumps forward to the future, in case the hops around the M.C.U. timeline haven’t been confusing enough), it seems as though “Black Widow” is self-satisfied with its protagonist. She’s got the freshly dyed-blond ’do, and her journey with her spy family inspires her to get back to her other family, the Avengers. But “Black Widow” never feels more than just a footnote in the story, a detour that holds no weight in the larger M.C.U. narrative, except to set up Yelena for a larger role in the future.

With many of these new Marvel productions, however, it seems that’s the best we could hope for: stories that finally feature the underrepresented heroes we want to see, but that often still serve as placeholders, slotting in another piece of the puzzle of the larger M.C.U. as it continues to grow.

I’d hoped “Black Widow” could be deadly and fierce, but it ultimately slides just under the radar.

Black Widow Rated PG-13 for spy vs. spy stabbings, fisticuffs and some naughty Russian words. Running time: 2 hours 13 minutes. In theaters and on Disney+ .

Maya Phillips is a New York Times critic at large. She is the author of the poetry collection “Erou” (Four Way Books, 2019) and "NERD: On Navigating Heroes, Magic, and Fandom in the 21st Century,” forthcoming in summer 2022 from Atria Books. More about Maya Phillips

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THE MOVIE CULTURE

Black Widow Movie Review & Film Summary(2021)

Black Widow is a 2021 American superhero movie based on Marvel Comics character Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. Directed by Cate Shortland, story by Jac Schaeffer & Ned Benson, screenplay by Eric Pearson, produced Marvel Studios & distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Black Widow is first movie in phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

It majorly depicts events between Captain America: Civil War & Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Widow Movie Cast

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Florance Pugh as Yelena Belova
David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian
Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff
Ray Winstone as Dreykov
Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster
William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross: The United States Secretary of State and a former U.S. Army general
O.T. Fagbenle as Rick Mason

Black Widow Movie Plot

The movie starts with the Year 1995 where Russian Undercover Agents super soldier Alexei Shostakov & Black Widow Melina Vostokoff are pretending to be a family in Ohio along with Natasha & Yelena as their daughters for a mission to steal an Intel from S.H.I.E.L.D.

After completion of their mission they all escape to Cuba & part their ways. Natasha & Yelena is taken for Red Room training. Then there’s a time leap.

Black Widow Movie Plot In 2016 (Post Civil War Events)

Natasha was being chased by Secretary of State Thadeus Ross (played by William Hurt), as she was on the run from government for helping Steve Rogers & violating Sokovia Accords. She flees at a safehouse in Norway provided by Rick Mason.

Then her sister Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh) sent her messages & antidote vials with a hope that Natasha along with other Avengers can free the other widows, but while driving with vials unknowingly she was attacked by Taskmaster, Romanoff somehow manged to escape from Taskmaster.

Then she realizes that the vials are sent from Budapest, Natasha meets Yelena in Budapest & Yelena tells her that Dreykov is still alive & the Red Room still exist & a lot of young women still go through intense training in order to turn them into Black Widow (even if it’s against their will).

Natasha couldn’t believe it as she thought she destroyed Red Room along with Dreykov (played by Ray Winstone) with the help of Clint Barton before joining S.H.I.E.L.D., although while doing so she also took his daughter’s Antonia Dreykov’s life as collateral damage this made her feel guilty & haunted her for the rest of her life.

Now that she discovered about resurgence of Red Room, she decided to destroy it completely, also free all the widows. But this time she doesn’t know the exact location of Red Room, so for that she reunites with Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) & Melina Vostokoff (played by Rachel Weisz) as they use to work closely with Dreykov previously, who were also her prenteded parents. Now Natasha along with Yelena, Alexei & Melina reunite & work together to completely destroy Red Room & Dreykov.

Black Widow Movie Review

The movie just gave a general idea of the main leads connection. It just gave a short explanation on how they were a pretending to be family for a mission, but they also developed a sort of connection like a real family, it was specially visible at the end when they together fought against Dreykov & destroyed Red Room.

It felt like there was a rush in the storyline to cover major events of Natasha’s life, despite the rush still there were certain things that were left undiscovered & I was really curious to know about them like I wanted to see her complete journey of red room & how exactly did she escape it, her encounter with Hawkeye & her recruitment in S.H.I.E.L.D., and some action scene instead of narration & glimpse of Budapest incident.

The storyline was a bit messy but the actors were still able to pull off their roles pretty well. As a Black Widow fan myself I feel Black Widow was a good send off movie for her, but she was one of the original six avengers & her character that was loved so much deserved much more than this.

Black Widow Movie Characters & Their Arcs

Natasha romanoff.

We finally got see her side of story, her childhood, her dark past which she was running away from but now she was ready to face it. She again met rivals from her past life along with her family with whom she wasn’t related to by blood but still always considered them as her real family, she always looked out for her younger sister Yelena in the past & also always remembered what Melina taught them as mother ‘Pain only makes you stronger’.

Though the movie still couldn’t really justify in telling Natasha’s side of story still Scarlett Johansson as always nailed it with her performance. You can also check our Character Sketch of Natasha Romanoff .

Melina Vostokoff

Melina Vostokoff is a spy who was also trained in the Red Room as a Black Widow. She was also one of the lead scientists of Red Room, who does research into mind control methods for Dreykov. Her character had a dead pan personality just like a agent would have & Rachel Weisz was able to show that really well.

She was like a mother figure to Natasha & Yelena. She raised them like her own daughter.

Alexei Shostakov

Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, is a Russian super soldier. He was like a father figure to Natasha & Yelena. Initially it was just a mission for him but with time even he considered them as real family, he started considering Natasha & Yelena as his real Daughters.

David Harbour’s Alexei was a comedic relief in the movie. He was strong & self centered personality who wouldn’t leave an opportunity to brag about himself. Though his character specifically didn’t had much to do in the story still he had his own moments to shine where he can be seen in action like when they were escaping Ohio & also when he had to battle against Taskmaster.

Yelena Belova

Yelena is also a trained Black Widow just like Natasha. She was really young during the Ohio mission where Alexei, Melina & Natasha all along with her had to pretend to be family so she always believed them to be her real family. She spent her life doing missions as black widow until during a mission while killing Oksana(a former widow) she was freed from the mind control with a synthetic gas that neutralizes the Red Room’s chemical mind-control agent.

Then she tried to contact Romanoff & informed her about the existence of Red Room in order to get help to free the other Widows. She also was the one who killed Dreykov by damaging his aircraft when he was trying to escape. Though this movie was like a send off movie for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff still Florance Pugh with her performance as Yelena Belova steals the show. Yelena is strong, confident, blunt, brave & her dry humor is quite entertaining.

Dreykov revealed that Taskmaster was none other than his own daughter Antonia Dreykov. She has photographic reflexes that allows her to mimic opponent’s fighting style. Dreykov used her as a tool & made her do whatever he wanted to.

Originally in the comics Taskmaster is Tony Masters who is a mercenary but writers thought it won’t fit the story & so they thought about Antonia being revealed as Taskmaster as it would also show a connection with Natasha’s past.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

Overall despite the story the movie is a must watch for the one’s who are Natasha’s fan as this would be her last appearance & also due to amazing performance by all the actors.

With End Credits scene it’s clear that Natasha’s story as Black Widow came to an end & now the baton is passed on to Yelena as the end credit scene indicated her next appearance would be in Hawkeye it would be interesting to see what’s stored for her role further in the MCU.

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Black widow, common sense media reviewers.

Strong women in ScarJo superhero film; violence, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes of women's independence from those (especia

Women are strong, clever, intelligent, powerful --

Heavy live-action comic book violence, including p

Moment of innuendo between a married couple. Natas

Strong language includes "ass," "bitch," "dammit,"

Drinking vodka and beer in moderation for gatherin

Positive Messages

Themes of women's independence from those (especially men) who would control them, sisterhood, and finding your family. Teamwork and creative thinking help characters succeed. Examines concept of complicity when it comes to helping those who would do others harm: If you're not directly involved, are you still culpable?

Positive Role Models

Women are strong, clever, intelligent, powerful -- even more so when they work together. Natasha has courage and integrity; she and other female colleagues put themselves in danger to save thousands of women. Alexei has many flaws but also genuinely cares about Natasha and Yelena. Dreykov is a manipulative, selfish villain. All main characters are White; diverse representation within supporting cast.

Violence & Scariness

Heavy live-action comic book violence, including physical combat with knives, punches, hitting with a blunt instrument, kicks. Explosions, destruction, a massive avalanche put people in peril. Child threatens soldiers with a gun. Shoot-outs. Frequent life-endangering peril, including vehicle crashes and severe falls. Children are shown to be in deep distress while being separated from their parents. A montage of the Red Room's training process reveals it to be ruthless; many young girls don't survive. Upsetting scenes where surgery/medical procedures are implied or getting underway.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Moment of innuendo between a married couple. Natasha's back is shown without a shirt, but with a bra on. A man is shown shirtless as he changes clothing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "ass," "bitch," "dammit," and "s--t."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking vodka and beer in moderation for gatherings or to talk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Black Widow is an action-packed Marvel superhero adventure that takes place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War . Scarlett Johansson stars as Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff, who worked for the KGB as a spy from birth until the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., eventually becoming an Avenger. Here, she reconnects with her estranged sister-figure ( Florence Pugh ) and grapples with her past while being pursued by a deadly new enemy. While a certain amount of suspense is removed by the fact that the film takes place before existing MCU movies (i.e., we know Natasha will survive), violence is frequent and often intense: Expect tons of physical fighting (often with knives), explosions, extreme moments of peril, shoot-outs, and stabbings. Language includes "bitch" and "s--t," and characters drink alcohol in moderation.The movie's feminist story is ultimately about promoting women's independence from men who believe that women exist to be used by them. Characters exhibit courage and teamwork, and there are themes of family that may resonate with viewers who've experienced adoption, foster care, or feelings of abandonment. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

Parents say (43)
Kids say (157)

Based on 43 parent reviews

Great Flick, Not a 12+ Pick

Great but common sense forgot a couple of things this is for a mature 12 yr old, what's the story.

After a schism breaks up the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. targets BLACK WIDOW for arrest. As Natasha Romanoff ( Scarlett Johansson ) goes underground to hide, she's contacted by Yelena ( Florence Pugh ), an important person from her past. Learning she has unfinished business, Natasha reunites with former colleagues to take down a nefarious enemy.

Is It Any Good?

While it took far too long for Black Widow to get her own solo film, she puts her moment to good use, blowing up the patriarchy in epic style. What makes Black Widow (the character) unique among the Avengers is that she doesn't have superpowers or super tech: Her brain and her body combine to make her a lethal weapon. But as Natasha returns to her roots, we learn that she's actually not entirely unique: There's a whole widow program, with thousands of "graduates." Natasha has always been a mysterious figure, wracked with guilt from her unwitting work as an assassin for the Russian government. In Black Widow , the Iron Curtain is pulled back to reveal the people she grew up with and the trauma she endured. More than the tragedy of being programmed as a killer, the film's heart beats with the emotional weight of losing parents, more than once -- and wanting your family to be better. While many films deal with issues related to adoption, foster care, guardians, and abandonment, few of them do it with full sensitivity. This one does.

While the male Avengers are always giving one another a hard time and poking fun, no-nonsense Black Widow is usually left alone. Going home again means that Natasha finally gets some long overdue razzing -- and it's pure delight. It's also fair to say that the movie's costumes, hair, and makeup are more aligned with female sensibilities than fanboys': They're functionally stylish (Yelena's praise of pockets is on point), and you get the sense that they're dressing to impress themselves. Nothing low cut, no ridiculous lashes, and absolutely no high heels (note to Marvel merchandising: Those combat boots are everything). No question, this is Marvel's most feminist film to date, and it's a winner -- executed in a way that will leave men cheering just as women have been cheering the male Avengers and others for decades. The action sequences are mesmerizing, perhaps even more fascinating than a typical superhero film because Natasha and Yelena are purely physical fighters, not "powered." That may help make this a particularly meaningful film: Unlike other female superhero projects ( Wonder Woman , Captain Marvel , WandaVision ) , Black Widow is about women who've become wonders and marvels thanks to their own cunning and strength.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about women's roles in comics and superhero films. What makes Natasha Romanoff a role model ? How is her intelligence apparent throughout the movie? What about the other women?

How does Black Widow compare to other female superheroes' solo films? How has the depiction of Black Widow changed over the years? Do you think having a female director and writer working on this film affected the way she was portrayed?

What do you think about the way superhero movies depict violence ? Is there a difference in the way you react to realistic vs. stylized violence? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Black Widow has been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2010 , before Captain Marvel was introduced in the MCU and before Wonder Woman was brought into the DC Extended Universe -- and they got their own solo films first. Why do you think it took so long for Natasha to get her own movie?

How do the characters in Black Widow demonstrate courage and teamwork ? What about Natasha's sense of compassion and empathy ? Why are those all important character strengths ?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 9, 2021
On DVD or streaming : July 9, 2021
Cast : Scarlett Johansson , Florence Pugh , David Harbour , Rachel Weisz
Director : Cate Shortland
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Superheroes
Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
Run time : 133 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : intense sequences of violence/action, some language and thematic material
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : February 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'Black Widow' is more concerned with setting up the future of the MCU than giving Scarlett Johansson's character the origin story she's deserved since 2010

Warning: There are minor spoilers ahead for " Black Widow ."
Though it's a good watch, it's likely not one you'll revisit due to its darker subject matter.
Florence Pugh and David Harbour manage to outshine Black Widow in her own movie.

" Black Widow " is a decent standalone action movie, but it would have landed better if Disney and Marvel had the guts to release it a decade ago — or even five years ago.

Scarlett Johansson and her Natasha Romanoff character have been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2010's " Iron Man 2 ." Yet, it wasn't until 2017 that work on a solo movie finally began.

The new film, which serves as both an origin story exploring Romanoff's dark past and an explanation of what she was up to between " Captain America: Civil War " and " Avengers: Infinity War ," was originally supposed to lead May 2020 as the first big summer release. Of course, even if it had debuted on schedule, Black Widow frustratingly still wouldn't have been the first female Marvel hero to get her own movie. (That was 2019's "Captain Marvel." ) But because of the pandemic, not only does " Widow " need to follow the heels of Universal's successful "Fast 9," it's also relegated to a film you can unlock on Disney+ for an additional $29.99 — a release strategy Marvel never would've gone with for an Iron Man movie, or quite frankly any of its male-leading vehicles.

Herein lies part of the problem with debuting a "Black Widow" movie in 2021, 11 years after debuting the character into the MCU.

Though I enjoyed what I was watching, and I believe other Marvel fans will as well, I found myself wondering so many times why I should care about this film more than two years after Marvel killed Johansson's Black Widow character in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame."

What's the point? Will people care for a movie about a dead Marvel character, or will they see it as a disingenuous cash grab?

Perhaps Disney has considered the same question and that's why, in part, it's heading to Disney+ in addition to its theatrical release. Even if that's not an issue for most fans, I predict the casual Marvel viewer is going to be confused trying to figure out when in the Marvel timeline this film takes place .

'Black Widow' should have come out 4 or 5 years ago

As Johansson confirmed in 2019 , " Black Widow " takes place between the events of 2016's " Captain America: Civil War " and 2018's " Avengers: Infinity War ." But that's not made clear to casual Marvel fans in the film.

While the MCU has never been beholden to chronological releases, this movie really should have come out in 2016 or 2017 because it plays as a direct sequel to " Civil War " with Nat on the run from General Ross (William Hurt) after turning her back on Tony Stark to help Captain America flee on the Quinjet.

With nowhere else to run, Nat finds herself coming face-to-face with her younger adopted "sister," Yelena (an excellent Florence Pugh).

Together, they decide to take down the Red Room, the place that transformed them into Widows, once and for all after Nat learns it's still operational. They just need to find it first.

The other obstacle is a soldier named Taskmaster, a new antagonist who can mimic the fighting techniques of any person they come across.

The trailers have made this mystery character out to be the main villain. Taskmaster is the villain, to an extent, but there's another big bad I won't reveal here, who is a rather silly, self-important character and feels like they belong in an early Marvel movie.

The moment viewers finally learn who's behind the Taskmaster mask, meant to be a shocking and emotional revelation, falls a bit flat. Most fans will probably go, "Oh. That's it?" I doubt you'll even guess it because the reveal is just not as interesting as the movie believes it to be.

Johansson isn't even the main highlight in her own movie

The wildest thing about " Black Widow " may be that the title character isn't even the main hero in her own story most of the time.

Ultimately, 'Black Widow' is a wannabe 'The Americans' knock-off that plays it too safe

As others have said in overzealous early reaction tweets, " Black Widow " feels like a "Bourne" movie meets "The Americans."

While true, it's a hollow version of the FX series at that.

Despite having one of Marvel's strongest and most haunting openings ever, "Black Widow" tiptoes around the KGB to give us the Disneyfied version of Russian spies infiltrating America in the '80s in a brief montage by simply explaining that random major events in history have all been orchestrated by the Black Widow program.

We've heard so much about this Red Room and its psychological and physical torture across 20+ Marvel movies. But after a 134-minute movie, some of it still feels like a mystery. The basics are there, and any smart viewer can fill in the gaps, but you still never feel like you completely understand Natasha and Yelena's trauma.

Every other Marvel movie actually did a better job of making you feel empathy for Natasha's character.

Disney had the opportunity to go all-in on this movie, but they kept the dial turned way down in order to make it more kid-friendly — and they don't even quite succeed at that.

I'd caution parents with little ones to consider sitting them out for at least portions of "Black Widow." This is one of Marvel's darker, grittier movies. Some scarier images of girls being rounded up at the film's start and discussion of weak ones being killed off may stay with young children after the film's over. You never see child deaths on screen, but the images may be a bit haunting, nonetheless.

Later in the film, Yelena makes the Widow sterilization process into what I imagine will be an uncomfortably long joke for men and for parents who will have to explain fallopian tubes and how the reproductive system in women works to any young viewers.

Overall, "Black Widow" is a decent action vehicle and spy thriller, even if it feels a bit paint-by-numbers and years late to the screen.

At the very least, fans will be satisfied that after 24 movies, Marvel finally explains what happened in Budapest .

And always, be sure to stay until the film's very end for an extra scene after the credits.

"Black Widow" is in theaters and streaming on Disney+ for an additional $29.99 on July 9. It will be free to all Disney+ users on October 6.

Watch: How Scarlett Johansson gets into shape for her role as Black Widow in Marvel films

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, black widow.

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"Black Widow" is an interesting movie struggling to escape from a fatal overload of commercial considerations. When the film is over and the lights go up, there's the strange feeling that an opportunity was lost here. First I'll describe the movie that was made, then I'll speculate on the better movie trapped inside.

The film stars Debra Winger as a plucky federal investigator, although the opening scenes are so fuzzy that at first I thought she was a newspaper reporter. Using her computer, she stumbles over a series of apparently unrelated deaths in which millionaires are victims of a rare syndrome causing them to die in their sleep. Winger, who is either psychic or has read the script, intuits that the deaths are related and develops a theory that the same woman has killed all of the men to inherit their fortunes.

She is absolutely right. We know she is right because the movie makes no effort to keep us in suspense; the opening scene shows the "black widow" ( Theresa Russell ) learning of the death of her latest victim. After Winger announces her suspicions to her boss, much time is wasted on unnecessary scenes in which she plays poker, flirts with a colleague and has conversations about her lonely life.

Then she figures out who Russell will kill next: a wealthy Seattle art collector ( Nicol Williamson ). She flies to Seattle, acts too late to prevent the death and then tracks Russell to her next victim, a hotel tycoon who lives in Hawaii. The two women become friends, Russell offers to share her boyfriend with Winger, Winger falls in love with the tycoon, Russell tries to kill him and there's a surprise ending.

Well, at least it's supposed to be a surprise ending. It didn't come as a surprise to me, however, because I am sentient, of adequate intelligence and have seen more than three movies. Therefore, like any reasonably capable member of the audience, I knew approximately what was going to happen, and I was right.

Is there some kind of law governing Hollywood movies that says audiences don't like surprises? I don't mean predictable, would-be surprises, but real surprises - as, for example, when a story ends on a nihilistic note. "Black Widow" has an ending that is so false to the emotional truth of the movie that it looks tacked on by the censors of the 1930s.

Here's why: From the moment Winger and Russell meet, there's a strong undercurrent of eroticism between the two women. We feel it, they feel it and the movie allows it one brief expression - when Russell roughly reaches out and kisses Winger. But Ron Base , who wrote the screenplay, and Bob Rafelson , who directed, don't follow that magnetism. They create the unconvincing love affair between Winger and the tycoon to set up a happy ending that left me feeling cheated.

What would have been more intriguing? Why not follow a more cynical, truly diabolical course - something inspired by the soul of film noir? Why not have Winger fall completely under the spell of the black widow and stand by while the tycoon is murdered so the two women can live happily ever after? And then end on an eerie note as Winger begins to wonder if Russell can trust her with the secret? That kind of psychological double-reverse would give the actresses something to work with. The story of "Black Widow," as told, is the kind of shallow, one-dimensional plotting we expect on television, where there are no unpleasant surprises to upset the audience. There are just enough subtle hints in "Black Widow" to suggest that certain more sinister possibilities occurred to Rafelson and Base. But I guess they manfully resisted them and did the safe thing.

Too bad. The acting in this movie is good throughout, especially in the chemistry between Winger and Russell. I also liked Williamson as the lonely, isolated art collector and James Hong as the jittery Hawaiian private eye. Sami Frey is such an odd and unmagnetic actor, however, that he's miscast as the hotel tycoon. As a general rule, in order to believe that two woman can fall in love with the same man, we have to be able to believe that one woman could fall in love with him.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Black Widow's diverse roles in Marvel showcase her as a top fighter with a big heart, evolving into a hero aligned with renowned characters.
Natasha Romanoff's enhanced abilities from the Super Soldier Serum make her a formidable non-powered fighter, excelling in combat and endurance.
Black Widow's unique healing factor, pain tolerance, and slowed aging due to the serum further solidify her as a resilient and enduring Marvel icon.

Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow , has held several roles in the Marvel Universe. From her time as an assassin, a spy, a villain, and an Avenger, Romanoff has shown that she's not only one of Marvel's most skilled fighters but also has a big heart. This has allowed her to move beyond her somewhat murky origins and become one of Marvel's greatest heroes, allying herself with Captain America, Daredevil, and several others throughout the years.

Outside of her moral compass, wit and fighting ability, Natasha might seem like an average human being. However, her enhanced abilities prove she is far more than that. This makes her one of the best fighters in the Marvel Universe , with the super spy adept at hand-to-hand combat. The result is that Natasha Romanoff is a living weapon, even if she lacks powers in the traditional sense.

Updated by Timothy Blake Donohoo on May 9, 2024: Black Widow has become incredibly powerful in the past decade due to her founding Avenger in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She's incredibly gifted with fighting skills and martial arts, with some wondering if Black Widow is a Super Soldier. Though Black Widow lacks the "classic" Super Soldier Serum, she's one of the best Marvel fighters and spies. This makes her a veritable Swiss army knife on the battlefield and prepared for almost any situation.

Natasha Romanoff Is in Peak Human Condition

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Whether in comics, film, video games or animation, Black Widow has always been depicted as one of Marvel's best hand-to-hand fighters. Trained in the Red Room since she was a child, Natasha Romanoff is an incredible acrobat, marksman, ballerina, assassin and martial artist. Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Captain America #27 confirm that she trained beside the Winter Soldier, another one of Marvel's deadliest characters, so it's no wonder she fights so well in the field.

Alongside her rigorous training, Natasha Romanoff also has a unique version of the Super Soldier Serum pumping through her veins. The Black Widow Super Soldier serum does not grant her the same strength as the valiant Captain America . Still, it does allow Natasha to perform at peak human condition regarding her stamina and strength. In Kelly Thompson and Annapaola Martello's Captain Marvel #7, Natasha proves her strength by single-handedly taking out an alligator. Thus, while they might not be impressive next to the mighty Captain Marvel herself, Black Widow's powers make her more than just human.

Black Widow's Healing Factor

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Along with granting her incredible strength, speed, and flexibility, the Super Soldier Serum also makes Natasha physically more durable and gives her a stronger immune system. Injuries that would most likely kill someone or put them out of commission are not critical for Natasha. Though not nearly on the same level as the healing factors of Wolverine, Hulk , Deadpool or Sabretooth, the healing powers that the Super Soldier Serum grants to Black Widow are more than potent.

Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's Black Widow run illustrated that Natasha can quickly get back into action after being stabbed, only requiring a small amount of rest and minor medical treatment before heading back into the fray. While Natasha can be injured, her resilience makes it extremely difficult to inflict an injury capable of taking her out of the fight for long. She recovers from most non-critical wounds in record time thanks to her healing factor.

Natasha Romanoff Has a High Pain Tolerance

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Natasha Romanoff is no stranger to jumping through glass windows and suffering physical blows from villains twice her size. She has continued fighting after being caught in explosions and sustaining knife and bullet wounds. While this would be fairly debilitating for most people, they're an everyday occurrence for Natasha. After all, part of Black Widow's powers is that she can take even more than she can dish out.

Thanks to the Super Soldier Serum, Natasha's pain tolerance is well beyond that of a normal human. Additionally, due to decades of intense training, she's built superhuman endurance that allows her to power through her pain. One of the best examples of this involved Natasha bravely dragging herself out of the hospital after having surgery while fully conscious. More recently, she's become the host to an alien symbiote , which grants her an even higher pain tolerance and heightened physical faculties.

The Black Widow's Super Soldier Serum Slows Aging

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Black Widow was first introduced in 1964's Tales of Suspense #52 (by Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck), and Uncanny X-Men #268 (by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee) confirmed that Natasha was a little girl in World War II before entering the Red Room . Although she should at least be in her '80s, Natasha still appears to be in the physical prime of her life. This drastically slowed aging is just one of Black Widow's overlooked powers, granted to her by the Super Soldier Serum. Ironically, the serum and the World War II connection make her even more like WWII icon Captain America .

While Marvel has plenty of ways to explain away the age discrepancies of characters who've been adults for decades, Black Widow's aging was slowed by the same serum that granted her other abilities. This has allowed Natasha to age slower and maintain her youthful appearance for decades. The Super Soldier Serum and its slowed aging has remained the go-to origin story for Black Widow in the comics, despite the sliding timescale not affecting her love interests (Hawkeye and Daredevil) in the same way. On the other hand, the Marvel Cinematic Universe lacks this backstory, and she also doesn't have a variant of the Super Soldier Serum flowing in her veins.

Black Widow Has Been Cloned

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Before the events of Matthew Rosenberg and Travel Foreman's Tales of Suspense: Hawkeye & the Winter Soldier , Black Widow was believed to be dead. However, the titular Avengers discover that Natasha has been revived through cloning while investigating a string of murders that appear to be tied to her. Her body is a perfect replica of the original Black Widow, but this one is newer. This makes Black Widow one of several Marvel characters who've been cloned, as Spider-Man, Wolverine and Jean Grey have both gone through the same fate at various points.

Her memories and her personality are also the same, but they were implanted by the Red Room, who conveniently withheld the information that makes Natasha an independent hero. However, she quickly realized what was happening and reprogrammed her brain to be her true, heroic self again, free of the Red Room's influence. The clone body seems to retain all of the previous Black Widow's powers, suggesting that the cloned version also has some variant of the Super Soldier Serum.

Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.

Director Cate Shortland

Release Date July 9, 2021

Cast Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh

Writers Eric Pearson, Jac Schaeffer, Ned Benson

Rating PG-13

Runtime 134 minutes

Main Genre Action

Genres Action, Science Fiction, Adventure

The 5 Weirdest Things About Black Widow's Body

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Florence Pugh's career includes a wide range of films, from heartwarming family movies to dark and intense dramas.
Pugh's performances in her movies, such as A Good Person and Don't Worry Darling, are often praised and elevate the overall story.
Pugh's work in films like Lady Macbeth and Little Women showcases her ability to excel in period settings and bring depth to her characters.

From the heartwarming Fighting with My Family to the deeply disturbing Midsommar , Florence Pugh movies have seen the actor cast in a wide range of films. Florence Pugh made her acting debut opposite Maisie Williams in the 2014 movie The Falling and quickly became one of her generation's most prolific and revered actors. Her turn in the limited series The Little Drummer Girl earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. She first rose to prominence with the lead role in Lady Macbeth , which earned her a British Independent Film Award, and has since appeared in a variety of films of wildly different genres and styles.

In her relatively short career, Pugh has been heavily decorated, having received the Trophée Chopard at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Little Women . From martial arts expert Yelena Belova in Marvel’s action-packed caper Black Widow to aspiring artist Amy March in Little Women , Pugh has played all kinds of characters on the big screen. Florence Pugh movies run the gambit from fun for the whole family, like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish , to dark, intense, and heartbreaking movies like A Good Person .

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9 Don’t Worry Darling (2022)

Don't Worry Darling is available for streaming on Max

Don’t Worry Darling ’s controversies overshadowed Olivia Wilde’s movie before its premiere and likely contributed to its lukewarm critical reception. This Florence Pugh movie follows couple Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) as they move to a closed-off community for Jack’s work where everything seems perfectly manicured to meet their needs. However, it becomes clear that the community has a sinister side. The movie’s comments on society and toxic masculinity range from subtle to heavy-handed, but Pugh’s performance is easily the best part of the movie, followed closely by the cinematography. Alice’s suspicion and brewing discomfort ratchet up the tension of the film, making for an unforgettable cinematic experience.

8 The Wonder (2022)

The Wonder is available for streaming on Netflix

The Wonder is an engaging, atmospheric psychological Netflix drama directed by Sebastián Lelio. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by co-screenwriter Emma Donoghue, The Wonder 's cast is led by Florence Pugh as Elizabeth "Lib" Wright, an English nurse sent to a rural Irish village in 1862 to investigate a young woman who can miraculously survive without eating. Like many Florence Pugh movies, the film has stunning production design that immerses viewers in its Victorian-era setting, allowing them to get swept up in the mysterious storyline. Pugh’s incredible lead performance salvages a slightly underdeveloped script.

7 Black Widow (2021)

Black Widow is available for streaming on Disney+

One of the best Florence Pugh movies sees her making her MCU debut in Black Widow . In Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) long-awaited solo movie, Black Widow the torch to Pugh’s Yelena Belova, her surrogate sister. Black Widow sets itself apart from other Marvel movies with its gritty, grounded, Bourne -style spy action. It also deals with much darker themes than the average MCU adventure. Black Widow is anchored by a cast of world-class actors – Pugh, Johansson, and a de-aged David Harbour and Rachel Weisz – playing a dysfunctional surrogate family of former Soviet spies who'd been planted in the American suburbs during the Cold War.

6 Lady Macbeth (2016)

Lady Macbeth is available for streaming on Vudu and Tubi

Pugh’s widely praised performance in Lady Macbeth put her on the map and launched her career. Adapted from the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov, the movie offers a poignant character study of a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man. With an impressive 88% Rotten Tomatoes score and an admirable IMDb rating of 6.8, Lady Macbeth deviates from the ending of its source material but provides equally compelling insights into its central character’s psychology. Florence Pugh movies often take place in period settings and Lady Macbeth was the first signal she would be comfortable in the genre.

5 Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is available for streaming on Netflix

A decade-late sequel to a spinoff from a dormant animated franchise has no right to be as good as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is. Boasting a very high score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, this gorgeously animated sequel has the aesthetic of fairy tale illustrations and the themes of a spaghetti Western. Florence Pugh movies often have venerated ensembles, and along with Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, and Olivia Colman, Pugh is one of many acclaimed A-listers to lend their voice to the Puss in Boots sequel. Pugh plays Goldilocks, the formidable head of the Three Bears Crime Family, with the sympathetic motivation to bring her family back.

RELATED: Why Puss In Boots 2 Is The Best Shrek Film In Almost 20 Years

4 Fighting With My Family (2019)

Fighting with My Family is available to rent on Apple TV and Prime Video

Based on the real life story of professional wrestler Paige , Fighting with My Family chronicles her journey to the WWE. Pugh stars as Paige alongside Lena Headey and Nick Frost as her parents and Jack Lowden as her brother. Fighting with My Family marked the feature-length directorial debut of The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant, and it strikes the same balance of laugh-and-loud humor and touching emotional beats. The dramatic crux of this Florence Pugh movie is that Paige’s brother is more committed to wrestling than her, but she gets the opportunity to go to the WWE while he stays home, driving a wedge between them

Fighting with My Family is a quintessential underdog sports movie. It tells a universally relatable story about family dynamics that appeals to both wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike. Much like in the cases of Rocky and A League of Their Own , viewers don’t have to enjoy the featured sport in Fighting with My Family to get swept up in the characters and their stories. Everybody, wrestlers or otherwise, can identify with Paige’s impostor syndrome, her struggle to fit in, and her attempts to connect with her brother. It’s one of the few Florence Pugh movies where she gets to play a comic and athletic role all in one.

RELATED: The True Story Of WWE's Paige (And What Fighting With My Family Changed)

3 Oppenheimer (2023)

Watch Oppenheimer in theaters worldwide

Christopher Nolan’s twelfth feature film, Oppenheimer , is the epic film about the creation of the atomic bomb by J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). Oppenheimer features an ensemble cast of actors playing real historical characters, including Pugh as Jean Tatlock, a psychiatrist who famously had a long affair with Oppenheimer. Florence Pugh movies generally have the actor on-screen for most of the runtime but with such a large cast and a decade-spanning story to tell, Pugh had a smaller supporting role. Tatlock’s story is heartbreaking and critical to Oppenheimer’s arc and Pugh is fabulous and mesmerizing in her crackly scenes.

2 Midsommar (2019)

Midsommar is available for streaming on Paramount Plus.

Florence Pugh movies are not often horror, but she earned a place in the “scream queen” canon with her turn as Dani Ardor in Ari Aster’s unsettling folk horror tale, Midsommar . In the vein of The Wicker Man , Midsommar follows a group of students who spend their summer break at a remote Swedish commune that turns out to be run by a sadistic, murderous cult. Despite its horror tropes, Midsommar is a breakup movie in spirit . The uncompromising brutality of Aster’s vision alienated some critics, but its 83% Rotten Tomatoes score suggests that the atmosphere and the performances were strong enough to win over most audiences.

Midsommar has the same blend of unsettling imagery and Oscar-caliber acting that made Aster’s previous movie Hereditary so great. Like all Florence Pugh movies, she puts in a mesmerizing performance, this time as Dani in a harrowing portrait of grief. At the beginning of the movie, she loses her entire family to a violent tragedy, and she spends the rest of the runtime reeling from that unspeakable devastation, drawing viewers into her traumatized mindset. Midsommar is full of creepy details to pick up on repeat viewings and gradually builds to an iconic ending that is profound, horrifying, and surprisingly gratifying all at once.

RELATED: The Meaning Behind Florence Pugh's Midsommar Flower Crown

1 Little Women (2019)

Little Women is available for streaming on Starz.

Greta Gerwig followed up her deeply personal feature directorial debut, Lady Bird , by putting her own idiosyncratic stamp on another writer’s work. Little Women had been turned into a movie six times before Gerwig's version, but hers is by far the most accessible adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic. Gerwig’s naturalistic approach to dialogue and scene direction manages to avoid the usual dryness of period dramas, and Little Women ’s near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 95% indicates universal critical acclaim and warm audience response.

Little Women follows the coming-of-age experiences of Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) and her sisters, a group of fiercely independent young women who are determined to chart their own path. Florence Pugh movies always have a strong supporting cast and Gerwig’s adaptation is led by a star-studded ensemble who bring the March sisters to life, including an Oscar-nominated Pugh as Amy. The character was previously played by Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, and Kirsten Dunst, but Florence Pugh put a fresh spin on the role. Her lively yet nuanced take on the character steals the show and makes the previously maligned Amy as much the heroine of the story as Jo.

Review: There’s no curiosity about Amy Winehouse at all in the reductive, shallow portrait ‘Back to Black’

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It would be a challenging undertaking for any filmmaker or actor to represent in biopic form the outsize talent, unique style and utterly devastating downfall of soul singer Amy Winehouse. To quote one of Winehouse’s most poignant ballads, the endeavor is “a losing game” before it even starts.

Hers is such a tragic story that Asif Kapadia limited his Oscar-winning 2015 documentary “Amy” to audio recordings set to archival footage to examine Winehouse’s life, never showing the faces of the interview subjects. It’s as if it was too painful to confront head-on: her timeless gift, her destructive love story, her unapologetic persona — glittering and gutter-drunk. Any facsimile could never come close to the real thing, in all of its beauty and horror.

LOS ANGELES -- APRIL 30, 2024: Marisa Abela who stars as Amy Winehouse in "Back to Black" in West Hollywood on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 (Ben Bentley / For The Times)

She didn’t know there was an Amy Winehouse inside of her. Then the voice came out

To play the British soul singer, a relative unknown was cast, Marisa Abela, who committed herself to capturing the full complexity of a talented, tragic life.

May 15, 2024

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson and writer Matt Greenhalgh, who previously collaborated on the 2009 John Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy,” have nevertheless persisted with the Winehouse biopic “Back to Black.” “Industry” star Marisa Abela dons the signature black beehive hairdo and winged eyeliner to channel the doomed singer, who released the iconic album of new standards “Back to Black” in 2006 and became a tabloid fixture in the mid-aughts. Paparazzi scrupulously documented her physical and mental deterioration from drug and alcohol abuse before she died from alcohol poisoning in 2011, joining the notorious “27 Club” of musicians who have all died at age 27.

Abela, who does her own singing and miraculously captures the vintage jazz style and timbre of Winehouse’s undeniable vocal talent, delivers a fully committed performance. But the film itself is a shallow portrait that recounts gossipy facts and lore about Winehouse and her troubled relationship with husband Blake Fielder-Civil (an admittedly fantastic Jack O’Connell).

Greenhalgh’s script doesn’t seem at all interested in understanding Winehouse psychologically, instead ascribing all her woes to her toxic co-dependent relationship with Fielder-Civil. Many of the other men in her life, including her father, Mitch (Eddie Marsan), get off fairly easy.

A woman with a big beehive hairdo leans in to kiss a man wearing a hat.

The script is content to blame Amy for her own self-destructive spiral without examining the industrial context that contributed to it — the pressure to tour and perform even when she was struggling, the lack of protection and support, the vicious media commentary about her body and appearance. Packs of paparazzi are a presence in the film, but “Back to Black” doesn’t dive into who is driving the desire for these seedy photos: both media titans and their audiences, hungry for sensation.

There’s no curiosity about Amy at all in “Back to Black,” just a condescending presentation of a girl with a great voice and a bad boyfriend. The script even goes so far as to suggest that, in addition to the loss of her grandmother Cynthia (Lesley Manville), the core of Amy’s heartbreak is her unfulfilled desire to have children. She stares longingly at toddlers and has inappropriate conversations with kids, telling a young fan, “I wish I was your mum.” It’s insultingly reductive.

Though “Back to Black” is a somewhat unnecessary reminder of the incredible album that came out of Winehouse’s tumultuous relationship with Fielder-Civil, and Abela delivers sound-alike (if over-pronounced) vocal performances of the tunes, Taylor-Johnson fumbles how these songs are utilized. She lets the first verse play, then has the rest of the song soundtrack a montage that speeds through the story and conveniently conflates certain events. Winehouse’s scorcher of a scorned woman song, the album and film’s titular number, “Back to Black,” is completely misused over a montage, bizarrely linking the tune to her grandmother’s death and draining it of its emotional power.

Singer Amy Winehouse before she performs at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan, NY, on March 13, 2007.

Review: ‘Amy’ tracks singer Winehouse’s soaring talent, tragic demise

Before she won six Grammys (including a trio for her massive breakout hit “Rehab”), before she descended into a morass of addiction and public humiliation, before she died of alcohol poisoning at age 27, bravura British songwriter and vocalist Amy Winehouse was simply a young woman with an extraordinary gift for song.

July 2, 2015

This is not the first time that Taylor-Johnson has cinematically flattened a hyper-controversial story that was originally caked in gore and forced media consumers to question our own relationship to a kind of dark voyeurism. She adapted the James Frey rehab “memoir” “A Million Little Pieces” to similarly sanitized ends in 2019, sanding off the rough edges and failing to ask any of the hard questions. Why tackle these complex stories if you’re just going to reduce them to easily digestible pablum?

With a visual style that is straightforward and serviceable at best and a frustratingly limited emotional range, “Back to Black” never captures the beauty of Winehouse’s talent, the heartbreak of her performances or the horror of her tragedy.

Witnessing Winehouse’s downfall in real time was incredibly disturbing — it was shocking to see photographs of her with Fielder-Civil, strung out, streaked in mascara and blood. We watched her deteriorate under the harsh glare of a camera’s flash, a star burning too bright for this world. It’s a shame the filmmakers shy away, preferring to remain on the surface of her story. It only proves Winehouse’s presence was always too big to be contained.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Back to Black'

Rating: R for drug use, language throughout, sexual content and nudity Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes Playing: In wide release Friday, May 17

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‘back to black’: amy winehouse biopic gets roasted by rotten tomatoes critics.

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Marisa Abela in "Back to Black."

The Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black is not the toast of Rotten Tomatoes movie critics.

The biographical music drama—which opens in theaters nationwide Friday—recounts the rise and tragic fall of the late singer, who died of alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011, at age 27.

Directed by 50 Shades of Grey filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Marisa Abela as Winehouse, the official logline from Back to Black studio Focus Features reads:

“The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.”

As of Thursday, Back to Black had an aggregated “rotten” rating of 36% from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 104 reviews.

The critic consensus on the site reads, “ Back to Black 's sympathetic approach to its subject's story is an overdue antidote to the tabloid treatment she often received in life, even if the end results are disappointingly pedestrian.”

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Winehouse’s life was previously chronicled in the 2015 documentary Amy , which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

What Did Specific Critics Say About ‘Back To Black’?

Among the reviews from major outlets on Rotten Tomatoes , Alissa Wilkinson of the New York Times New York Times wrote, “ Back to Black is far from the first biopic that smooths the edges off real people for the Hollywood treatment. But because the movie’s stated aim is to re-center Amy in her own story, it feels gross.”

The headline for the New York Times even takes a line from Winehouse’s hit single Rebab , but not exactly in a complimentary way. The headline simply states, “ Back to Black Review: No, No, No.”

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson also criticized the biopic, questioning in his analysis why it was the right move to let Abela do her own singing in Back to Black —but only to a point.

“Lip-synching might have been ghoulish, a strange half-resurrection of the dead. Abela can certainly carry a tune, and she convinces us of Winehouse’s singular vocal muscle,” Lawson wrote in Vanity Fair .

“But then when one relistens to the real thing, it becomes glumly obvious what is missing in the film: the true pain and passion behind what Winehouse was doing, the feeling that she described as pouring out of her, as necessary as breath” Lawson continued. “ Back to Black is a pleasant enough homage to what Winehouse sounded like, but it is only that.”

Back to Black was received favorably, however, by Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman, who wrote, The film’s snaky on-and-off power begins with the British actor Marisa Abela, whose lead performance nails Amy Winehouse in every look, mood, utterance, and musical expression.”

Back to Black opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.

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Movie Review: Amy Winehouse story flattened in frustrating biopic ‘Back to Black’

This image released by Focus Features shows Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, left, and Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse, in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, left, and Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, left, and Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse , reflected at left, and Lesley Manville as Cynthia Winehouse, in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

This image released by Focus Features shows Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

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“ Back to Black ” as a movie is a tame and mediocre affair. A conventionally told biopic about a talented artist who became famous, struggled with drugs, depression and bulimia, and died early. There are nice performances from gifted actors like Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville, and a soundtrack of hits that helps fill the space.

But as a portrait of Amy Winehouse ? It is simply dreadful.

The main problem with any movie about Winehouse is that a defining film already exists — Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning documentary “Amy,” released four years after her death from alcohol poisoning at age 27. Told through archival material, home videos and observations from those around her, it felt as intimate and unfiltered as a diary.

“Amy” was a sobering portrait of addiction, fame and complicity that also let you get to know and love the person behind the songs, the eyeliner, the beehive, the bloodied ballet slippers and the invasive paparazzi photos. It was no one’s idea of sensationalistic and she’s doing most of the talking.

“Amy” was also a movie that didn’t sit well with her grieving family. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, said it was misleading and contained “basic untruths.” After it won the Oscar, he doubled down saying that it had no bearing on her life and was manipulative. Kapadia, he said, was more exploitative of his daughter than anyone.

Director Francis Ford Coppola poses for portrait photographs for the film 'Megalopolis', at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Following her death, Mitch started a foundation in her name to help young people and wrote a book about her and being the father of an addict. Her mother Janis narrated a documentary, “Reclaiming Amy,” released in 2011. And after years of declining to participate in a narrative biopic, the estate decided to allow one with full use the songs. Like many musical biopics made alongside an estate, it’s hard not to look at “Back to Black” skeptically, wondering whose interests the film is serving.

Sam Taylor-Johnson, who directed, has said that she wanted to take the idea of “blame” out of the equation, that the family had zero input on her cut and would not benefit financially. And yet it also seems like a direct response to Kapadia’s film, depicting more than a few key moments wildly differently. They’re not just shown in a different light — some are telling a completely different story.

The screenplay by Matthew Greenhalgh is empathetic to the ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil (O’Connell) and her father Mitch (Marsan), both of whom have been villainized over the years. In the film, most are just caught up in a whirl of inevitability and the retrospective blur of grief.

This image released by Focus Features shows Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, left, and Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse, in a scene from "Back to Black." (Focus Features via AP)

There seems to be an excessive amount of rationalizing in the way everyone involved talks about “Back to Black,” over justifying its existence and its choices. But just because everyone keeps telling us that it’s a celebration doesn’t mean that we have to get on board. I’m not sure what is celebratory about dramatizing this tragedy, or helpful, or artful, or particularly revelatory about it either. The media, for example, is reduced mainly to the paparazzi camped outside her place as though that’s where the problem stopped.

Taylor-Johnson has said she didn’t want to glamorize depression, addiction or bulimia either, but the latter, which she struggled with before she was famous, is barely even acknowledged. Depiction of eating disorders is inherently fraught, but there had to have been a way to address such a large part of her life and self-image more directly.

Though linear, the story is also oddly confusing, assuming that the audience knows many details of her life (like, say, the bulimia) and the people in it. The film rushes through major career moments in montage, seeming to slow down only for a few things: A performance, Amy’s face in various forms of drunken distress and agony or scenes with her and Blake. Was it attempting a freewheeling jazz form, or is it just messy?

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in a scene from “Back to Black.” (Focus Features via AP)

In some ways, this portrait of Amy Winehouse makes her immense talent the sideshow and her obsession/romance/heartache over Blake the defining story of her adult life. This is at least somewhat redeemed by the chemistry between Abela and O’Connell, who look far too glowing and healthy to be believable as heroin addicts.

But the greatest failing is how shockingly cliche the ending is. For all of “Back to Black’s” tiptoeing around delicate subjects, its romantically photographed sendoff to Amy is perhaps the most dangerously glamorized shot in the film. It doesn’t even fade to black after a title card announces her death. Before anyone can feel anything, they’ve cut to Amy telling the audience that all she wants is for her songs to make people forget about their troubles for a bit.

By this point, it reads more like a closing statement for a film that never wanted to challenge, offend or move anyone. Mission accomplished.

“Back to Black,” a Focus Features release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “drug use, language throughout, sexual content and nudity.” Running time: 122 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

Back to Black re-creates the tragedy of what happened to Amy Winehouse without trying to understand it.

Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in “Back to Black”

Watching Back to Black , the new Amy Winehouse biopic, made me want to look up footage of the late British singer to be reminded of her originality and her liveliness, which no work of fiction could hope to ever fully capture. But in the search process, I ended up staring, for an inordinate amount of time, at Funko Pop dolls . Winehouse has been sold in three versions of the ubiquitous collectible figurines. Each affixes her trademark Cleopatra makeup to the same blank, black eyes that grace the Funkos of superheroes, sports mascots, and various other figures who did not sing songs about oblivion and then die of alcohol poisoning at age 27.

To say that Back to Black gives Winehouse the Funko treatment on the big screen would not quite be fair; the movie renders her life with some intelligence, mercy, and painterly craft. But it certainly partakes in the tradition of turning a complex human being into a generic image, defined by superficial traits and tics, for other people to project their feelings upon. No great entertainer ever escapes this fate, but Back to Black should be an occasion to ask why cultural canonization requires such a relentless sanitizing process, and who is served by this sugarcoating.

Back to Black begins with the adolescent Winehouse (played by Marisa Abela) at home with her boisterous, working-class Jewish family, singing jazz standards together. The spicy and sad songs she writes in her bedroom soon earn her international stardom—though she’s far less interested in the fame game than in her romance with Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), whom the film portrays as a pub-dwelling bad boy who snorts cocaine before breakfast. Her cabbie father, Mitch (Eddie Marsan); her flinty grandmother, Cynthia (Lesley Manville); and her manager Nick (Sam Buchanan) try to steer her toward stability, while paparazzi, industry pressures, and drugs tip her toward destruction. Winehouse’s real-life trajectory was chaotic, but Sam Taylor-Johnson’s filmmaking relays the emotional beats in appealingly direct ways. During Winehouse’s exciting come-up, London’s graffiti pops colorfully in the background; later, as she sinks into drugs and isolation, the city feels dead and desaturated.

Abela is a remarkable actor best known for her role on the HBO and BBC banking drama Industry . That show subverts her pageant-worthy poise and winsomeness; she plays a devil disguised as an ingenue. But in Back to Black , she’s playing an ingenue disguised as one of the most caustic and willful pop stars ever. Abela nails many of Winehouse’s mannerisms, though the mouth movements she makes while singing scat vocals do look like something Kristen Wiig would do on Saturday Night Live . The bigger problem is that her version of Winehouse is unshakably sweet and hapless, a puppy dog in smeared eyeliner. Each defiant or self-destructive choice she makes therefore feels oddly under-motivated, even arbitrary.

Read: Is old music killing new music?

This is more the fault of the script than the acting. The film does not really attempt a coherent argument about what forces created such a sui generis artist, or about the ones that drove her to doom. It touches lightly upon various themes of her story—such as the U.K. tabloid industry’s savagery—without saying much about them. The one point of emphasis is Winehouse’s pivotal and intense relationship with Fielder-Civil. Their temporary breakup inspired the lyrics of her breakthrough album, Back to Black , and the best sequence of the film depicts her recording that masterpiece while stunned numb from heartbreak. But the film fails to conjure an on-screen version of Fielder-Civil with any charm, much less a perspective. The viewer is left feeling, as many onlookers at the time were, baffled by the romance.

Back to Black ’s cast and crew have talked proudly about not portraying anyone as a “villain,” cutting against media narratives blaming Fielder-Civil, Mitch, or anyone else for Winehouse’s struggles. The film wants to be a counterweight to the 2015 documentary Amy , which collaged material from throughout Winehouse’s life to disturbing effect. Some viewers condemned that film for using lurid paparazzi footage of Winehouse at her lowest, and Mitch has said he was portrayed unfairly. But whatever the validity of such critiques, Amy did attempt to place Winehouse’s life within a complex web of cause and effect, personal and cultural. After all, if we are going to re-create a tragedy, should we not try to understand it?

Back to Black , by contrast, just makes entertainment out of a saga that was, and should be, excruciating to witness. Winehouse is reduced to a list of traits—beehive hair, jazz inflections, inexorable addiction—that can be easily reproduced in merchandise and licensing for many more years to come. What’s especially jarring is that the film romanticizes Winehouse’s distaste for stardom, careerism, and money itself (“I ain’t no Spice Girl,” she says early on). The image of the iconoclastic, pure artist remains broadly marketable; the ideals behind that image, less so.

National News | Review: Winehouse deserves better than mediocre…

National News

National news | review: winehouse deserves better than mediocre ‘back to black’, this portrait of the late singer makes her immense talent the sideshow.

Jack O'Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, left, and Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, in a scene from "Back to Black."

” Back to Black ” as a movie is a tame and mediocre affair. A conventionally told biopic about a talented artist who became famous, struggled with drugs, depression and bulimia, and died early. There are nice performances from gifted actors like Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville, and a soundtrack of hits that helps fill the space.

But as a portrait of Amy Winehouse? It is simply dreadful.

By this point, it reads more like a closing statement for a film that never wanted to challenge, offend or move anyone. Mission accomplished.

“Back to Black”

1 1/2 stars out of 4

Rating: R (for drug use, language throughout, sexual content and nudity)

Running time: 122 minutes

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'Black Widow' is more concerned with setting up the future of the MCU than giving Scarlett Johansson's character the origin story she's deserved since 2010

'Black Widow' should have come out 4 or 5 years ago

Johansson isn't even the main highlight in her own movie