You remember how the main draw of the Safdie Brothers’ UNCUT GEMS was seeing a terrible human being make the worst possible decision time and time again and dig himself an ever-deeper hole? Josh Safdie’s MARTY SUPREME is that again but in an against-the-odds sports movie. In the early 1950s, Wunderkind table tennis player Marty Mauser (Timotheé Chalamet) battles to be the best in his sport while simultaneously fighting his self-destructive personality and burning every one of his bridges along the way. This is an adrenaline-pumping, anxiety-inducing thrill ride that sees its abrasive protagonist shoot for the stars and fall short time after time. The period production design is immersive and the table tennis matches are exhilarating, but even better are the bridging sequences where everything that could possibly go wrong for Marty does so. Chalamet excels as a love-to-hate almost-winner while the supporting cast, particularly Odessa A’zion and Gwyneth Patrow, almost steal the show. SSP
Review in Brief: Marty Supreme (2025)
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) Review
Review in Brief: The Running Man (2025)
The least Edgar Wright-y Edgar Wright film so far takes some time to build up momentum, but THE RUNNING MAN is pretty entertaining when it’s tactile action builds to terminal velocity. In a dystopian, corporate-owned future, poverty-stricken blue collar worker Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is forced to enter The Running Man to provide financial security for his family, evading both armed mercenaries and civilians for up to 30 days. Most of the criticisms of this film can be chalked up to what it’s not rather than what it is. Wright has dialled back his showy editing and cinematography and picked a dark, bleak and brutal story with only the most jaded and cynical sense of humour. The real-world echoes in the latest version of this 40 year old story that should feel cartoonishly exaggerated disturbingly don’t, and so entertainment value in the moment here too often gives way to a feeling of unease that somewhat derails its genre thrills. SSP
Project Hail Mary (2026) Review
Review in Brief: Predator: Badlands (2025)
How can you make a Predator, an alien big game hunter who always has technological superiority on his side a compelling protagonist? You make him the shame of his family with a serious chip on his shoulder, strip him of his toys and pair him with a chatty android. It’s so simple! Yautja hunter-in-training Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) lands on a planet with death by flora or fauna around every corner and reluctantly teams up with a legless Weylend-Yutani research Android (Elle Fanning) for survival. On balance, BADLANDS probably isn’t quite as refreshing and perfectly-conceived as Dan Trachtenberg’s previous Predator movies, PREY, and KILLER OF KILLERS but it’s still propulsive, the alien designs are cool and the action hugely creative. The mismatched dynamic between Dek and Thia is also a joy, their back-and-forth punctuating a splattery alien quest movie and providing some much-needed heart. Bring on the next one. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 