Category Archives: Review in Brief
Review in Brief: Life in a Day 2020 (2021)
Despite a worldwide pandemic, in 2020 life went on. Ten years on from crowd-sourced documentary LIFE IN A DAY Kevin Macdonald and his team did it again, this time picking 25 July 2020 as the date of record. This world-spanning … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Exhausted as so many of us might be by all the needlessly aggressive online discourse attached to this, it’s finally here, what is apparently the closest we are ever going to get to seeing Zack Snyder’s original vision for JUSTICE … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Space Sweepers (2021)
SPACE SWEEPERS is an ambitious, vibrant, zongo Korean space opera that runs a bit long and perhaps suffers from being overstuffed with too many ideas, but you go with it because you grow to love this dysfunctional crew/family of misfits … Continue reading
MANIFF Review in Brief: The Catch (2020)
This film was watched at a Manchester International Film Festival Virtual Screening. Gritty family drama THE CATCH is firmly rooted in a distinct sense of place. The plot steadily drifts but the raw emotionality frequently spills over in this tale … Continue reading
Review in Brief: News of the World (2020)
NEWS OF THE WORLD might feel slighter than Paul Greengrass’ very best work but it’s handsome and heartfelt and manages to sneak in some very relevant social commentary to the here-and-now. Tom Hanks plays a retired Army captain traveling the … Continue reading
Review in Brief: First Cow (2019/20)
FIRST COW is one of those films that drops you into another time and every small detail adds to its palpable authenticity. Nobody films slow and beautiful stories like Kelly Reichardt. Cookie (John Magaro) is a man trying to get … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Dig (2021)
If it wasn’t on Netflix, THE DIG would be destined for Sunday afternoon TV circulation in perpetuity. That’s not to disparage the craft and passion that went into it, from Simon Stone’s steady direction to Mike Eley’s pristine cinematography and … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Synchronic (2019/20)
Weird sci-fi wunderkinds Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead don’t quite drop the ball with their third feature but it’s certainly a less assured effort than something like THE ENDLESS. Still by no means lacking ideas or visual creativity, but more … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Archive (2020/21)
Indie sci-fi ARCHIVE wears its genre influences on its sleeve – MOON, EX MACHINA, SILENT RUNNING an iconic sequence lifted wholesale from GHOST IN THE SHELL. An engineer (Theo James) develops a series of increasingly sophisticated robot bodies to house … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Pieces of a Woman (2020)
While some of its speeches might be a little too mannered and stagey (if still gamely performed by the cast) PIECES OF A WOMAN still comes out on the captivating side. How grief corrupts and deforms people is not sugarcoated … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 