Thunderbolts* tries to tackle mental illness. It almost works.

May 3 2025 by Mashable

 

Thunderbolts* comes by its unexpected tenderness honestly. In the latest installment of Marvel's never-ending superhero saga, the disaffected but charming Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) feels adrift, unfulfilled, and bored.

As her adoptive father Alexei "Red Guardian" Shostakov (David Harbour) observes, the light inside her has gone dim. What started as ennui now looks more like stifling depression.

Remarkably, Yelena's numbness gives way to an openness, a kind of calm curiosity, that becomes...

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