Sasha Calle Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘On Swift Horses,’ starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elodri, Will Poulter, Diego Calva and Sasha Calle

April 23, 2025

by Carla Hay

Will Poulter, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi in “On Swift Horses” (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

Directed by Daniel Minahan

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1956 to 1957, in California and in Nevada, the dramatic film “On Swift Horses” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A bored and unhappy wife pines over her bisexual/queer brother-in-law, while she starts a secret affair with a female neighbor.

Culture Audience: “On Swift Horses” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the book on which the movie is based, and are interested in dramas about queer relationships in the 1950s.

Jacob Elordi and Diego Calva in “On Swift Horses” (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

Even with a talented cast, “On Swift Horses” is a superficial drama about five people who have sexual entanglements based mostly on infatuation. The movie is adapted from a novel but seems more inspired by pretty postcards with vapid thoughts. “On Swift Horses” tries but fails to convince that any of the main characters are experiencing true love. The lover who is the most “sought-after” in the story is actually selfish and unreliable and is considered attractive mostly because of his physical appearance.

Directed by Daniel Minahan and written by Bryce Kass, “On Swift Horses” is based on Shannon Pufahl’s debut 2019 novel of the same name. The movie had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. “On Swift Horses” takes place from 1956 to 1957, in California and in Nevada, with filming taking place in California. The nearly two-hour run time of “On Swift Horses” suggests that it could have been a sweeping and engaging epic romantic film. Instead, it’s mostly plodding and dull, with contrived-looking sex scenes that fizzle more than sizzle.

“On Swift Horses” begins with one of these sex scenes by showing military man Lee Walker (played by Will Poulter) having sex with his girlfriend Muriel (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones) at the Kansas house that Muriel inherited from her deceased mother. It’s obvious that Muriel isn’t really enjoying the sex. She seems to be going through the motions out of obligation. Lee is on leave from military service in the Korean War and has to go back in three days. He asks Muriel to marry him. She says no.

Muriel certainly perks up when she meets Lee’s younger brother Julius (played by Jacob Elordi), a handsome rebel who’s got “heartbreaker” written all over him. As soon as Julius comes to visit, and he meets Muriel for the first time, it’s obvious that Muriel is much more interested in Julius than she is in Lee. (The “meet cute” moment between Julius and Muriel happens he asks her to toss him a cigarette.) Julius and Muriel slow dance in front of Lee, who seems oblivious or in denial about the mutual attraction between Muriel and Julius.

That’s all you need to know about what type of person that Muriel is: She has no qualms about possibly causing a rift between two brothers for her own self-centered reasons. Julius is even more selfish than Muriel. “On Swift Horses” has an annoying way of treating these two toxic people as star-crossed “unlucky in love” lovers whom viewers are supposed to root for, when anyone with enough life experience can see how much emotional damage that Muriel and Julius cause and how Muriel and Julius don’t deserve admiration.

During Julius’ visit with Lee and Muriel, it’s mentioned that Julius also served in the military during the Korean War, but he has been discharged. Julius is queer or bisexual. Lee has known for years that Julius is not heterosexual, but Lee and no one else in the movie say the words “queer,” “gay” or “bisexual” out loud. People who are not heterosexual in the movie are just politely called “different.” It’s a very unrealistic portrayal of how queerness was described in 1950s America, when hateful homophobia was not only openly expressed but it was also legal.

Julius’ sexual attraction to men is probably why Lee doesn’t see Julius as a threat to Lee’s relationship with Muriel. In his ignorance, Lee probably thinks Julius is gay, not bisexual. Lee (who is socially rigid but an overall good guy) is the only person of the movie’s five main characters who shows unconditional love to his partner, even though that love is wasted on someone who doesn’t love him and doesn’t hesitate to cheat on him.

The insipid dialogue starts to pollute the movie within the first 10 minutes. In a scene during Julius’ visit of Lee and Muriel, the three of them play poker. Julius says, “The thing about cards is poker isn’t just poker.” Before he serves the deck of cards, Julius babbles some more nonsense by saying that a card is a symbol of time.

Muriel looks at Julius as if he’s a poker philosopher extraordinaire. But her fantasy about him sweeping her off of her feet comes crashing back down to reality when it becomes obvious that Julius is a drifter who has no intention of settling down in a committed relationship. Sometime after the poker game, Lee proposes marriage again to Muriel while Julius is in the same room. This time, Muriel says yes.

If Julius is jealous, he doesn’t show it. Lee wants to settle down with Muriel and buy a house in Arroyo Canyon in California. In order to get the money to buy a house, Lee asks Muriel to sell her childhood house in Kansas. Muriel is reluctant to sell the house because the house is the last connection she has to her family.

“On Swift Horses'” then abruptly switches to showing Lee and Muriel as a married couple living in California. Muriel has been writing letters to Julius and asking him to come back to California. Not long after Lee finishes his military service, he and Muriel decide to move to San Diego. Lee becomes a factory worker. Muriel works as a waitress at a diner.

The newlyweds are financially struggling and get tired of living in cramped living quarters. And so, Muriel changes her mind about selling her childhood Kansas home. Lee and Muriel use the money from the sale to buy the middle-class home that they want. Muriel secretly keeps some of the leftover money from the sale in a hiding place in the home. She later hides some other cash that she gets from betting on horse races without Lee’s knowledge.

Muriel acts bi-curious when she spends some time at Del Mar Racing (a horse racetrack), after she has overheard some horse-betting tips from customers at the diner. Muriel ends up winning money from horse-race bets and notices that a woman named Gail (played by Kat Cunning) is flirting with her at the racetrack. Muriel is somewhat surprised by this attention but she doesn’t reject it. Gail (a socialite who’s married to a much-older, wealthy man) is a frequent customer at a local lesbian bar, which is where Muriel goes out of curiosity and to see how far things might go between her and Gail.

Julius tells Muriel in letter correspondence that he’s moving to the California city of Stockton, which is about 460 miles northeast of San Diego. Even with this long distance, that’s all Muriel needs to hear to get excited that Julius could be in her life. Julius asks her for money for this relocation. She sends the money to Julius, but he uses the money to move to Las Vegas instead. Muriel is hurt when she finds out that Julius told Lee that it was good that Lee married Muriel because “that sad girl needs somebody to tell her what to do.”

“On Swift Horses” then meanders along as it shows what Julius did when he was in Las Vegas. He ends up meeting Henry (played by Diego Calva), another drifter/hustler type, on Julius’ first day of his job as a security worker at a casino. Julius and Henry are co-workers whose job is to hide in a secret room overlooking the casino floor and look out for any gamblers who are cheating during card games. Julius and Henry then have to report any cheaters to the casino’s security bouncers, who rough up and throw out the cheaters.

Henry flirts with Julius and immediately figures out that Julius is attracted to him. Henry makes the first move when he and Julius become lovers. It’s hard to believe that Henry and Julius (who are both self-absorbed and opportunistic) are really in love because their relationship is based mostly on lust and convenience. Henry and Julius eventually decide to become con artists together by going to other casinos and cheating at card games in the same ways that they’ve seen other cheaters have done it.

Meanwhile, Muriel (who’s still pining over Julius but she doesn’t want to admit it) meets androgynous Sandra (played by Sasha Calle) when Muriel and Lee decide to move to the San Fernando Valley and look for houses there. Sandra has a mini-farm on her property and sells things like olives and eggs. Sandra’s house, which has been in her family for 60 years, is near the house that Lee and Muriel end up buying.

The first time that Muriel and Sandra meet, there’s sexual tension between them and very unsubtle homoerotic subtexts. Sandra tells Muriel to taste some of her olives. When Muriel does and spits out one of the olive pits, Sandra holds out her hand and expects Muriel to spit the olive pit onto Sandra’s hand. You know where all of this is going to lead, of course.

The relationship with Muriel and Sandra is described as “love” in the marketing materials for “On Swift Horses,” but it sure doesn’t look like mutual love. Sandra is the one who seems to be falling in love with Muriel, but Muriel acts like Sandra is a just a fling and tells Sandra that their affair is just about having sexual fun. If this sounds like spoiler information, it’s only to let viewers know that there really is no great love affair in this disappointing and torpid movie, which pulls an irritating bait and switch in many ways.

Worst of all, “On Swift Horses” awkwardly fumbles the movie’s last 15 minutes, turning the film into an unrealistic mushfest where two people desperately look for Julius at the same time—as if disrespectful fraudster Julius is the answer to their problems and unhappiness. Edgar-Jones and Calle do their best to try to give their respective characters some depth in “On Swift Horses,” but they can’t overcome the maudlin screenplay that reduces potential romances to scenes of insecure people using each other for sexual companionship. The other principal cast members are even more stymied by portraying characters with cardboard personalities. And ironically, this movie with the word “swift” in the title has slow and drab pacing. By the time “On Swift Horses” lumbers along to its corny and vague ending, you probably won’t care about seeing these characters ever again.

Sony Pictures Classics will release “On Swift Horses” in U.S. cinemas on April 25, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on April 14, 2025.

Review: ‘In the Summers,’ starring René Pérez Joglar, Sasha Calle, Lío Mehiel, Allison Salinas, Kimaya Thais Limòn, Luciana Quiñonez and Dreya Renae Castillo

August 2, 2024

by Carla Hay

“In the Summers”

Directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio

Culture Representation: Taking place over an approximately 15-year period in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the dramatic film “In the Summers” features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with a few African Americans and white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two daughters have a volatile relationship with their father, who has a bad temper and who spent time in prison.

Culture Audience: “In the Summers” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching well-acted dramas about emotionally difficult family relationships.

Lío Mehiel, Sasha Calle and René Pérez Joglar in “In the Summers” (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)

“In the Summers” is a well-acted portrait of two daughters and their troubled father, in a story that spans several years. More character development was needed for the daughters’ adult years, but the movie has impactful authenticity. Do not expect “In the Summers” to answer all of the questions that viewers might have about these characters. The narrative for the movie is a journey where certain time-period gaps in the characters’ lives are not shown or explained.

Written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, “In the Summers” is Samudio’s first feature film. “In the Summers” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two awards: Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic (the festival’s highest accolade) and Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic and Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic. “In the Summers” had its New York premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival.

The two daughters in the movie are named Violeta and Eva. Their ages are only about 12 to 18 months apart from each other. Violeta is the introverted and moody older daughter, while Eva is the extroverted and fun-loving younger daughter. “In the Summers,” which takes place over a span of about 15 years, is told in chronological order in three chapter-like sections, with each section focusing on Violeta and Eva at certain points in their lives.

When Violeta and Eva are underage, they visit their father Vicente (played by René Pérez Joglar, also known as rapper Residente) during the summer seasons at his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as part of a custody arrangement that he has with the mother of Violeta and Eva, who live with their mother in California. This mother (who is unnamed in the movie) and Vicente were never married. She is also not seen in the movie, but she is mentioned multiple times in ways that make it obvious that she and Vicente had a bitter breakup. Her absence from the movie indicates that the mother of Violeta and Eva wants as little to do with Vicente as possible.

The first third of “In the Summers” shows Violeta (played by Dreya Renae Castillo) at about 9 or 10 years old and Eva (played by Luciana Quiñonez) at about 7 or 8 years old. The middle of the movie shows Violeta (played by Kimaya Thais Limòn) at about 13 years old and Eva (played by Allison Salinas) at about 12 years old. The last third of the movie shows Violeta (played by Lío Mehiel) at about 25 or 24 years old and Eva (played by Sasha Calle) at about 24 or 23 years old.

“In the Summers” begins by showing Vicente picking up tween Violeta and Eva to take them to his house, where the two girls hang out by the swimming pool. Vicente mentions that even though he was born in Puerto Rico, all of his friends are in the United States. “This is my home now,” he says of his place in New Mexico.

Vicente takes Violeta and Eva to a bar where he frequently hangs out and introduces them to bartender Carmen (played by Emma Ramos), whom Vicente has known since childhood. Vicente teaches Violeta and Eva how to play pool at this bar. Carmen treats Violeta and Eva with kindness and respect.

It all seems like enjoyable family time, but Vicente’s flaws start to show when he takes Violeta and Eva to an amusement park, where he and the girls go on a Tilt-A-Whirl ride. After the ride is over, Eva get sick and vomits in a garbage can. A concerned passerby woman (played by Erin Wendorf) asks if they need any help. Vicente gets very angry at the woman, curses at her, and tells her to mind her own business. It won’t be the last time that Vicente loses his temper in a very hostile way.

Through conversations, it’s revealed that Vicente spent time in prison and has a hard time finding or keeping a job. He also appears to have alcoholism—or, at the very least, he gets drunk in ways that are excessive, embarrassing, and potentially dangerous to himself and people around him. Vicente is also fond of smoking marijuana. It’s unclear where Vicente is getting money to pay his bills and party habits when he’s unemployed.

“In the Summers” is told from the perspectives of Violeta and Eva, who aren’t old enough at this point in their lives to get professional help for Vicente. And if even if they were old enough, it wouldn’t matter because insecure and arrogant Vicente gives the impression that he wouldn’t want the help. He has a macho personality that is quick to deny that he has any weaknesses or vulnerabilities.

The sisters are tight-knit and rely on each other for emotional support. As an example of their different personalities, there’s a scene where Vicente is driving Violeta and Eva at a high speed in his car on a street, just because he feels like being a daredevil. Violeta is fearful during this reckless driving, while Eva loves it.

Near the end of the movie’s segment that shows tween Violeta and Eva, there’s a scene where Violeta asks Eva to cut her hair short. Violeta will keep her hair short for the remainder of the years shown in the movie. She also stops wearing traditionally “feminine” clothes and wears outfits that are more unisex or “masculine.”

During the period of time depicting the adolescence of Violeta and Eva, it becomes much clearer to Violeta that she is a lesbian or queer. She becomes romantically attracted to a girl who’s about the same age named Camila (played by Gabriella Surodjawan), who shows up at one of the many house parties that Vicente likes to host. Vicente is very homophobic, so Violeta is afraid to tell him about her true sexuality.

Violeta becomes increasingly alienated from Vicente, who senses that Violeta is not heterosexual, but he doesn’t want to talk about it with her. Because he is such an irresponsible parent, Vicente thinks that one way he can bond with teenage Violeta is to teach her how to smoke marijuana. But he still has a raging temper that comes out in very ugly and harmful ways. Later, Carmen (who is an out lesbian) becomes an important role model and confidante to Violeta.

“In the Summers” has a somewhat awkward and abrupt transition to the last third of the movie that shows Violeta and Eva in their early-to-mid-20s. By this time, they no longer have to visit Vicente or spend any time living with him. Vicente has a much-younger live-in girlfriend named Yenny (played by Leslie Grace), and they have an infant daughter named Natalia (played by Indigo Montez), who are accepted by Violeta and Eva.

By the time the movie shows Violeta and Eva in their early-to-mid-20s, there are many unexplained and unspoken things that happened in between their early teens and their early-to-mid-20s. “In the Summers” doesn’t adequately show or tell what Violeta’s and Eva’s interests or hobbies are, as indications of their hopes and dreams. Instead, “In the Summers” defines Violeta and Eva in terms of how they cope with their father’s messy parenting.

Viewers learn that by the time adult Violeta and adult Eva see Vicente again after a period of estrangement, Violeta is in grad school. What type graduate program? The movie never says. However, it’s easy to predict what will happen when adult Violeta and single mother Camila (played by Sharlene Cruz) encounter each other after not seeing each other since they were in high school. As for adult Eva, at this point in her life, she’s unattached and having meaningless flings with men.

Mehiel and Calle give perfectly fine performances as adult Violeta and adult Eva, but there are too many unanswered questions about Violeta and Eva as adults. How did their upbringing affect their relationships with other people? What type of relationships do they have with their mother? What are the most important things in life to Violeta and Eva? The movie’s story really didn’t need the parts where Violeta and Eva are under the age of 10 and should have spent more time developing the characters of Violeta and Eva as adults because those questions are never answered in the movie.

The meaningful and best-acted part of “In the Summers” is in the middle section, when the tensions between teenage Violeta and Vicente flare up and boil over into angry conflicts. As an underage teen, Violeta is too young to be able to get out of this custody visitation with her father, but she’s too old to no longer be fully controlled by Vicente, in terms of what she does in her free time and what types of clothes she wants to wear. Violeta wants to assert her independence, but as an underage teen, she still has be somewhat under the control of a parent (Vicente) whose life is very much out of control.

Joglar gives a naturalistic performance as Vicente, who has a lot of flaws, but there are many people in real life who are like Vicente or who have parent similar to Vicente. The movie doesn’t sugarcoat or make excuses for Vicente’s bad decisions and awful temper, but instead presents these characteristics as harsh realities. “In the Summers” is more of a “slice of life” film than a fully complete story about this dysfunctional family that’s trying to heal from emotional wounds. The movie isn’t groundbreaking, but it offers several poignant moments that are credibly acted.

Music Box Films will release “In the Summers” in select U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 5, 2024.

Review: ‘The Flash’ (2023), starring Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú and Kiersey Clemons

June 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

Ezra Miller, Ezra Miller and Sasha Calle in “The Flash” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Comics)

“The Flash” (2023)

Directed by Andy Muschietti

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional Central City (in the United States), in Russia, and in a fictional multiverse, the superhero action film “The Flash” (based on DC Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latinos and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Barry Allen, also known as the superhero The Flash, goes back in time to try to prevent the death of his mother, while the evil General Zod hunts for members of the exiled Krypton family that includes Superman and Supergirl.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of comic book movie fans, “The Flash” will appeal primarily to people who like watching imaginative multiverse movies that don’t get too confusing.

Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton and Ezra Miller in “The Flash” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Comics)

Bold, creative, and with some appealing quirks, “The Flash” lives up to expectations and offers some jaw-dropping surprises. Viewers who are new to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) won’t get too confused, while ardent fans will be constantly thrilled. Some movies with multiverses can get too convoluted with messy plots, or overstuffed with too many characters. However, “The Flash” (which is based on DC Comics characters) wisely sticks to less than six principal characters that get the most screen time. The movie’s plot (which has some fantastic twists) is easy to follow, although people who’ve seen previous DCEU movies will have a better understanding of everything. Viewers with extensive knowledge of pop culture will also appreciate some of the jokes in the movie.

Directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Christina Hodson, “The Flash” takes place mostly in the fictional Central City, a sprawling U.S. metropolis that is currently under attack by General Zod (played by Michael Shannon), a supervillain whose chief nemesis is Superman, the superhero who has the powers to stop Zod. Superman, who has an alter ego as journalist Clark Kent, has gone missing. Faora-Ul (played by Antje Traue) is a fearless warrior who is General Zod’s second-in-command.

As superhero fans already know, Superman (whose birth name is Kal-El) is a refugee of the planet Krypton, which was destroyed by Zod. Superman’s parents died in this massacre but sent him to Earth as a baby while the attack on Krypton was happening. Did other members of the family survive? All of this background information is useful for what happens later in “The Flash.”

The title character of “The Flash” is man in his 20s named Barry Allen (played by Ezra Miller), whose superhero alter ego is The Flash, who has phenomenal speed. The movie’s opening sequences shows The Flash saving babies from a hospital maternity ward when the building’s hospital was destroyed by Zod and his army. The movie foreshadows what type of comedy it will have by showing that during this crisis, The Flash took the time to eat and drink from a falling vending machine to boost his energy.

In other early sequence, a criminal with a briefcase is apprehended on a bridge by The Flash, Batman (played by Ben Affleck), also known as billionaire Bruce Wayne, and another member of the Justice League (whose identity won’t be revealed in this review) help The Flash. The briefcase contains a weapon that can “wipe out half of Gotham by lunchtime,” warns Bruce’s trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (played by Jeremy Irons), who has a quick cameo appearance in “The Flash.”

When he’s not being The Flash, shy and insecure Barry is a forensics lab employee at the Central City Research Center, which does a lot of work for the Central City Police Department. Barry is preoccupied with proving the innocence of his father Henry Allen (played by Ron Livingston), who is in prison for the murder of his wife/Barry’s mother Nora Allen (played by Maribel Verdú), who was stabbed to death in their kitchen at home. (Livingston replaces Billy Crudup, who previously played the role of Henry Allen, but Crudup was unavailable to be in “The Flash” because of work commitments on Crudup’s Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.”) Henry was wrongfully convicted of Nora’s murder and is appealing the conviction. In “The Flash,” Henry is awaiting a court hearing for this appeal.

A flashback shows that Barry at 11 years old (played by Ian Loh) was home and upstairs when the murder happened. Henry had been at a grocery store getting a can of tomatoes at Nora’s request, because she had forgotten to buy the tomatoes earlier. Henry came home to find his wife murdered. However, he doesn’t have a solid alibi. The grocery store’s video surveillance has images of Henry, but he’s wearing a baseball cap, and his face can’t fully be seen in the surveillance video. Henry was the one who discovered Nora’s body, and with no solid alibi, he became the chief suspect in the murder.

Through a series of events, Barry finds himself going back in time and interacting with his 18-year-old self (also played by Miller) in a multiverse that includes the Bruce Wayne/Batman (played by Michael Keaton) of the 1989’s “Batman” and 1992’s “Batman Returns.” When the two Barrys first meet this version of Bruce, he is a bearded and disheveled recluse who denies he was ever Batman, but then he admits it. This Batman grumpily and reluctantly comes out of retirement to help Barry.

The movie makes it easy for viewers to distinguish between the two Barrys: The younger Barry has longer hair, is goofy, and has blue light rays surrounding him when he becomes The Flash. The older Barry has short hair, is more serious, and has red light rays surrounding him when he becomes The Flash. The younger Barry has a homemade Flash superhero suit, while the older Barry’s Flash suit is the “official” Flash superhero suit.

Along the way, these three superheroes encounter Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl (played by Sasha Calle), who has been imprisoned somewhere in Russia. Because it’s already revealed in the movie’s trailers, Supergirl joins both iterations of The Flash and Keaton’s Batman to team up to fight Zod. Central City journalist Iris West (played by Kiersey Clemons) returns in a supporting role as Barry’s love interest. Iris just happens to be covering Henry’s court case.

Although “The Flash” has a lot of dazzling images throughout the film, the movie’s visual effects fall a little short in scenes where Barry goes to stop time and pick a multiverse to enter. These scenes show flashbacks to other versions of the DC Comics-based movies and TV shows, with the visual presentation looking a little too much like the computer-generated imagery that it is. It’s a little distracting, but it doesn’t ruin the movie.

Miller excels in their performance as the dual Barry Allen/The Flash. (Miller identifies as non-binary in real life and uses the pronouns they/them.) Calle’s performance is a little stiff, but her Supergirl comes out of coma in the movie, so her personality is aloof and more than a little shell-shocked. Keaton steps back into his Batman role perfectly. It’s a performance that will delight fans of the first two “Batman” movies.

“The Flash” has some clever comedy about alternative castings for movies, including a running joke about Eric Stoltz being the star of 1985’s “Back to the Future” in an alternate universe. In real life, Stoltz was fired from “Back to the Future” and replaced by Michael J. Fox. Only people who know this pop culture trivia will really get the jokes. There’s also some surprise and sometimes hilarious references to other actors who were cast or could have been cast as superhero characters in other DC Comics-based entertainment.

“The Flash” is a rollicking adventure that earns its total running time of 144 minutes. The movie has an end-credits scene that is there for pure comedy and has no deep meaning to any sequels. If “The Flash” is the first DC Comics-based movie that a viewer will see, it’s best to know what happened in 2013’s “Man of Steel” and 2021’s “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” DC Comics-based movies have been hit and miss, in terms of quality, but “The Flash” leaves no question that it’s a “hit” on a storytelling level.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “The Flash” in U.S. cinemas on June 16, 2023.