SUPERGIRL : Tuesday 30th June 2026.

I saw the M Rated 'SUPERGIRL' earlier this week, and this American superhero film is based on the titular character from DC Comics. The film is Directed by Craig Gillespie and is the second film in the DC Universe (DCU), following 2025's 'Superman' which was Written and Directed by James Gunn - the joint CEO of DC Studios with Peter Safran, and starred David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. Craig Gillespie's prior feature film making credits take in his 2007 debut with 'Mr. Woodcock', and which he would follow up with the likes of 'Lars and the Real Girl' also in 2007, 'Fright Night' in 2011, 'I, Tonya' in 2017, 'Cruella' in 2021 and 'Dumb Money' in 2023. This film forms part of the DCU's 'Chapter One : Gods and Monsters', and as recently as last month Peter Safran commented that Supergirl would have a major role in the future of the DCU beyond her return in the Superman follow-up film 'Man of Tomorrow' scheduled for release on 9th July 2027. This film had its World Premiere screening in Brooklyn, New York on 22nd June, and was released worldwide from the 25th June onward. It has so far grossed US$79M from a production budget somewhere in the region of US$180M, and has generated mixed or average reviews.

The film opens in the present day with Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl (Milly Alcock) celebrating her 23rd birthday, with her dog Krypto by travelling to several planets across the galaxy and drinking excessively, getting drunk and waking up the next morning with the mother of all hang overs - a routine she repeats frequently it seems. Her elder cousin Clark Kent aka Superman (David Corenswet) calls her often, out of concern that she is spending way too much time off-world and seemingly unable to settle on planet Earth.

During one such off planet stops, Supergirl encounters Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), the last survivor of her family who were murdered by the Brigand leader Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), who heads up a group of space pirates and human traffickers. Ruthye requests Supergirl's assistance in her quest for vengeance, but is denied. Krem hijacks Supergirl's ship together with several other Brigands, and shoots Krypto with a poisonous dart when he tries to stop them. Upon learning that Krypto has only three days left to live, Supergirl decides to pursue Krem to retrieve an antidote that he keeps on person, while also reluctantly taking on Ruthye as her companion.

After a brief run-in with the Sklarian Raiders, a group of all female space pirates, aboard an interstellar bus, Supergirl interrogates them and learns of Krem's location on the planet Bilquis. There, Supergirl and Ruthye learn from a local couple, Bomar (Kadiff Kirwan) and Mareck (Thalissa Teixeira), that the Brigands have been kidnapping young women to force them to be their brides. Mareck attempts to drug Supergirl to trade her and Ruthye to the Brigands in exchange for their daughter Sarna (Asha Soetan), but Supergirl resists and fights the Brigands, and is assisted by the bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa), who is targeting the Brigands' lieutenant Drom Baxton (Diarmaid Murtagh). 

During the battle, Supergirl stops Ruthye from killing Krem, allowing him to escape after killing Bomar and his family. A guilt-ridden Supergirl decides to go after Krem alone, and is escorted by several local aliens to the Brigands' location on the planet, Barenton. However, Supergirl is weakened by the planet's green sun, and is tended to by Ruthye, who secretly followed her and who pulls her into a cave and out of the way of the harmful green suns rays, but not out of danger.

In a moment between Supergirl and Ruthye we learn of Kara's backstory. During the destruction of the planet Krypton, scientist Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and his wife Alura (Emily Beecham) evacuate along with many Kryptonians to Argo City, where Zor-El activates a force field system that separates a chunk containing the city from the planet, preventing it from being destroyed when its core explodes. However, before doing so the infant Kal-El is shipped off to Earth in a pod. Eight years later, Alura gives birth to her and Zor-El's daughter, Kara. Eventually, it is discovered that the separation of Argo City exposed a mineral known as 'Kryptonite', which is slowly killing the citizens through radiation. After Alura dies from Kryptonite poisoning, Zor-El decides to send the ten year old or so Kara and her puppy Krypto off in a pod bound for Earth, where she will join her older cousin. Upon landing, and unable to speak the Earth language, they are greeted by Kal-El, who is living a double life as Clark Kent and Superman. Although she is unable to understand, Superman tells Kara that her powers will very soon start to kick-in. Kara later tries to adjust to her new life on Earth, and in Metropolis, while also adopting the alias 'Supergirl'.

Ruthye is later kidnapped by the Brigands after she exits the cave to fetch a drink of water for Supergirl, and is taken to their ship, where Lobo is also imprisoned. Ruthye manages to escape her cell and free Lobo, but is caught by Krem as she makes it topside. She is then saved by Supergirl, who has managed to recover after the planet rotates to a yellow sun. 

With Lobo's aid, Supergirl defeats the Brigands and frees the captive women on board. She pleads with Ruthye to not kill Krem, convincing her that it would not ease her pain, and if she did then that is something she would have to live with for the rest of her life.

As Ruthye walks away, Supergirl picks up her sword and uses it to kill Krem herself. She recovers the antidote and returns to Krypto, saving him in time. Later, as Supergirl bids a tearful farewell to Ruthye, she relents and invites her to join her aboard her retrieved ship in celebrating the rest of her 23rd birthday week. Sometime later, Supergirl reunites with Superman on Earth, where she states her wish to stay indefinitely, reaffirming that the planet is now her home.

This DCU second instalment represents solid enough entertainment, but it is fairly predictable, derivative and offers up nothing that we haven't really seen before. Milly Alcock as the titular Supergirl plays the sassy blond with attitude and a penchant for hard liquor and kicking ass, with conviction and determination, and it will be interesting to see what she does next with the character, and under a different Director. As for the other principle cast, Jason Momoa is well cast as Lobo and you can tell he was relishing the role, but Eve Ridley as Ruthye lapsed more than once into her native English language that she sounded more royal than the Princess of Wales, and was sidelined with seemingly nothing to do but twiddle her thumbs while the action played out around her. Matthias Schoenaerts character of Krem is a one dimensional villain leading a group of other one dimensional villains who serve as nothing more than the keeper of an antidote with which to revive the obviously CGI created Krypto, and they all naturally buy the farm in the end. It's a serviceable enough introduction to Supergirl, but the plot is paper thin, the CGI FX at times questionable, and the film is shot to a large extent in dark muted tones that makes it hard to discern what is happening on screen. 

'Supergirl' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SPRINGSTEEN : DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE : Tuesday 28th October 2025

I saw the M Rated 'SPRINGSTEEN : DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE' this week, and this American biographical musical drama film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Cooper who made his Directorial debut with the critically acclaimed 'Crazy Heart' in 2009 and would go on to Direct 'Out of the Furnace' in 2013, 'Black Mass' in 2015, 'Hostiles' in 2017, 'Antlers' in 2021 and 'The Pale Blue Eye' in 2022. This film is based on the 2023 book 'Deliver Me from Nowhere' by Warren Zanes. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Telluride Film Festival at the end of August with its US and Australian release last week. It has received mixed reviews from critics, and has so far grossed US$18M from a production budget of US$55M.

The film opens in 1957 with a young Bruce Springsteen (Matthew Anthony Pellicano) driving in his family car with his mother Adele (Gaby Hoffman) to a local bar, where Bruce is told to go inside and get his father Douglas (Stephen Graham) to come home. He gingerly taps his father, sitting at the bar, on his back and tells him its time to come home. Douglas turns around and tells him to go and wait outside. Fast forward to 1981 and Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) reaches the end of his latest sold-out concert tour. Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), his manager and record producer, rents a house for Bruce to lay low from his growing fame, near Freehold, New Jersey where he grew up. 

Bruce's friend and mechanic Matt Delia (Harrison Gilbertson) drives him to the house in Colts Neck, New Jersey and Bruce buys his first new car - a Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Playing with local bands at the Stone Pony (a live music venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey), he meets Faye Romano (Odessa Young), an old classmate's younger sister. On the heels of his first top-ten song, 'Hungry Heart', his record label has high expectations of another hit album, and Bruce suggests trimming studio costs, which he had hitherto funded largely himself, by preparing a demo himself. 

Locked away in his retreat at Colts Neck he reads the works of Flannery O'Connor (an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist), Bruce catches the 1973 Terrence Malick Directed film 'Badlands' on TV with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and is drawn to research the crime spree of Charles Starkweather who killed eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming between late 1957 and early 1958. Inspired, he writes a song in the killer's own voice, and later takes Faye on a first date to Asbury Park.

At the house, Bruce enlists the support of his guitar technician Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) to turn the bedroom into a makeshift studio, with a four-track recorder to arrange the demo themselves. As Bruce's relationship with Faye grows, he writes a collection of stark, somber songs with a blue-collar viewpoint, influenced by his childhood memories, especially of his father with whom he had a complicated and less that ideal relationship. Jon informs Bruce of other opportunities piling up, including a possible movie role written by Paul Schrader and set to star Robert De Niro called 'Born in the U.S.A.' but Bruce is committed to his new music. Recording his new tracks unaccompanied, he makes the risky choice to embrace an imperfect, unvarnished sound quality.

Later, Mike personally delivers to Jon the only copy of the completed demo, a single cassette tape, and Jon confides in his wife about the unexpectedly darker and very personal sounding songs. Now living in California, Adele calls Bruce for help with an increasingly erratic Douglas, who has been fired from his job and is off his medications. After visiting his father, Bruce arrives in New York City to record the new album, reuniting with the E Street Band. They lay down several successful tracks, including 'Born in the U.S.A.' which he wrote for the soundtrack to his abandoned movie offer, but Bruce is unhappy with the overall full-band studio sound of the record.

Following another two weeks of recording and Bruce is still not satisfied with his acoustic vision for the album. Abandoning Faye, he insists on shelving the potential hits ('Born in the U.S.A.', 'Glory Days' and 'I'm On Fire') until he is satisfied. Jon agrees to use Bruce's raw demo, unchanged, as the new record, suspecting Bruce fears losing himself in the face of success. Using older equipment to recreate the demo tape as a vinyl master recording, Bruce's original sound is successfully preserved for the new album, 'Nebraska'.

Columbia Record Executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz) is dismayed by this new stylistic approach, and the absence of any prospective hit singles, but Jon defends Bruce's artistic vision and decision to let the album speak for itself, with no singles, tours, or press appearances, not even his face on the cover to promote the album. Bruce tells Faye that he is moving to California alone, and that he has purchased a house in Los Angeles. She tearfully accuses him of refusing to face his fears. He suffers a mental breakdown as Matt drives him across the country, but they reach his new home in LA. Thinking about suicide, Bruce reaches out to Jon, who urges him to seek professional help, and Bruce visits a therapist and breaks down emotionally.

Ten months later, Bruce is back on tour with Jon's support, and is visited by his proud parents. Douglas asks the 32-year-old Bruce to sit on his lap for the first time, reconnecting with his son and acknowledging that he had not always been a good father but that he is very proud of his son. The pair embrace. An epilogue reveals that 'Nebraska' reached number three on the Billboard charts, while the hits included on Bruce's following album 'Born in the U.S.A.' launched him to global superstardom, as he continued to suffer bouts of depression, but now always with help and hope. 

Make no mistake, this is Jeremy Allen White's film in the way he embodies Bruce Springsteen's mannerisms, his emotions, his working class roots and his raw energy when he's belting out those songs on stage, or in the quieter moments when he's writing his songs and laying them down himself on his four-track recorder in his bedroom. Whilst this film is sure to please the Springsteen fans among us, for me concentrating purely on the recording of one of his least commercially successful albums (despite going to #3 on the album chart), was perhaps a misstep, and I would have preferred to see a little more of his later years, and his rise to legendary status. That said, 'Springsteen : Deliver Me From Nowhere' is worthy of your attention, although you can wait to catch it on your favoured streaming service in due course, but be warned, this is no 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Rocket Man' or 'Elvis'.

'Springsteen : Deliver Me From Nowhere' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-