Category Archives: Review in Brief
Review in Brief: Perfect Days (2023)
Beginning life as a tourist documentary proposal and developing into a narrative feature, Wim Wenders’ PERFECT DAYS is a modest, meticulous and beautiful 2 hours. Tokyo toilet cleaner Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) is content with his daily routine and takes immense … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Dune: Part Two (2024)
That’s how it’s done. After joining the nomadic Fremen and taking his place as their reluctant messiah to tap into new powers drawn from the planet Arrakis itself, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) takes the fight to the murderous Harkonnens and … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Orion and the Dark (2024)
Charlie Kaufman’s latest exploration of existential dread is, unexpectedly, a kids’ animation from Dreamworks and director Sean Charmatz. Highly neurotic eleven-year-old Orion (Jacob Tremblay) is swept off on an adventure by the anthropomorphic personifications of night, lead by Dark (Paul … Continue reading
Review in Brief: All of Us Strangers (2023)
Andrew Haigh’s ALL OF US STRANGERS opens with one of the most beautiful shots I have ever seen and doesn’t let up from there. Lonely writer Adam (Andrew Scott) living in a near-deserted tower block in London simultaneously begins a … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Beau is Afraid (2023)
Thanks to Ari for letting us sit in on his bewildering self-therapy. BEAU IS AFRAID is best described as an epic anxiety horror. It could certainly be considered funny, but funny-peculiar. Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is a man-child still under the … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Oppenheimer (2023)
Of all Nolan’s films, OPPENHEIMER is the sexy one?! A 3 hour, talky, philosophical character drama isn’t most people’s idea of a must-see crowd-pleaser, but it’s making waves. The time taken and the deliberate pacing, paired with stylistic signifiers of … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
As impressive as the bike jump off a cliff is, that’s only the appetiser in a particularly audacious action finale. In the particularly relevant, perhaps penultimate Mission: Impossible, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team battle an AI that … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Return to Seoul (2022/23)
This year has seen two very different films exploring different sides of the South Korean adoption industry, first Kore-ada’s BROKER and now RETURN TO SEOUL. Davy Chou’s film throws up questions of mismatched culture and heritage as the Korean-born, French-raised … Continue reading
Review in Brief: One Fine Morning (2022/23)
Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest deals with hardships we will all face to one extent or another, and particularly the elderly care crisis in contemporary France with nuance, pragmatism and maturity. Paris native Sandra (Léa Seydoux) has a lot on her plate, … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 