Author Archives: Sam S-P
Review in Brief: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Aaron Sorkin’s greatest strengths as a writer and a filmmaker are also his greatest weaknesses, but he’s probably the kind of idealistic voice the world needs right now. This is never truer than in watching THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO … Continue reading
Mank (2020) Review
Peninsula (2020) Review
Review in Brief: Possessor (2020)
We’re all just meat puppets really, that’s the message here. POSSESSOR is as stylish and extreme and disturbing as expected from Brandon Cronenberg, son of David, but it’s very much its own thing as well. Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Scare Me (2020)
SCARE ME is an absolute joy, full of mischief and creativity and completely different to every other horror anthology film out there. A simple enough premise – an aspiring horror writer waits out a power cut in an isolated cabin … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Eternal Beauty (2019/20)
I always love films that look unflinchingly at mental illness but are also brave enough not to perpetuate the fallacy that someone with a mental health problems automatically becomes a saint. In Craig Roberts’ second complex directorial feature, Jane (a … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Monsoon (2019/20)
Hong Khaou’s follow-up to LILTING, another tale of love, identity and displacement, is quietly mesmerising. The cinematography of MONSOON is particularly striking, from the opening aerial shot of scuttling columns of Saigon traffic to how the camera frequently seems to … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Relic (2020)
RELIC is an oppressively creepy, deeply moving horror from already-distinct Australian filmmaking voice Natalie Erika James. Kay (Emily Mortimer) along with her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) goes looking for her missing dementia-suffering mother (Robyn Nevin) but when she reappears apparently … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Impetigore (2019/20)
Even in a year chock-full of examples of distinctively-voiced horror, the Indonesian offering IMPETIGORE stands out. It’s self-aware without being glib (someone asks “who kills students?” the answer every horror fan knows, is any antagonist in a horror film), it’s … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
The world loves telling teenage girls what to do with their own bodies – don’t wear this, don’t take that, if you end up with another life inside you then you absolutely must have it. If you were being glib … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 