Peter Weir Films Ranked
‘Blade’ at 25 – Review
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 Freddie (Park Ji-min in an astonishing debut) returns on a whim to the country where her parents gave her away 25 years earlier and attempts to track them down with the help of her endlessly patient friend Tena (Guka Han, who imbues the simple question “why are you so sad?” with the rawest of emotion). We subsequently drop in on the sometimes abrasive but always compelling Freddie and the ups and downs of her life over the next decade. After the initial strained meeting with Freddie’s biological father (Oh Kwang-rok), the film constantly wrong-foots you and goes in some unexpected directions but is always in service of its contradictory, complicated lead character. SSP
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, being a lonely single mum desperate for intimacy, also balancing a busy work schedule as a translator and having to consider care options for her ailing academic father (Pascal Greggory). ONE FINE MORNING is a tough watch at times but it’s not without hope, passion and humour. Seydoux’s lead performance is honest and unadorned and the rest of the ensemble bring multiple shades to Sandra’s family and social circle. Hansen-Løve has explored the demands of supporting parents in decline while not losing your sense of self to the commitment before in films like THINGS TO COME, and here she presents Sandra’s quest for connection over multiple seasons of the year with a hopeful ellipses by the end. SSP
Review in Brief: The Flash (2023)
The final gag almost makes it all worth it. What’s been saddest about seeing the slow decline of the failed DC shared movie universe is the frankly obscene amount of money and talent that’s gone to waste particularly over the last five years. This film, that loosely adapts the “Flashpoint” storyline from the comics sees Barry Allen / The Flash (Ezra Miller) use his super-speed to travel back in time to prevent his mother’s murder and his father’s false imprisonment and in the process changes the course of history and tears open the multiverse. Michael Keaton’s return to the role of Bruce Wayne / Batman after three decades is a joy, when he’s actually on screen and not a more agile digital double, and the under-used Sasha Calle as Super Girl makes for a restrained, burdened contrast to the irritatingly hyper and giggly younger Barry. But whatever early charm THE FLASH has soon gets weighed down by misjudged multiverse fanservice and never quite deciding what it’s trying to say. SSP
Review in Brief: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
All I wanted was something better than KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. It is, but only just. Given its old-fashioned adventure story origins, an Indiana Jones movie should never feel video-gamey, but during its opening and final act set pieces DIAL OF DESTINY this disappointingly does. Elsewhere it’s more promising and more fun, with a septuagenarian Indy (Harrison Ford) reluctantly recruited by his formidable goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to find Archimedes’ legendary temporal-shifting dial before the Nazis (them again) do. You get all of the franchise greatest hits from elaborate puzzles in ancient temples to encounters with nasty beasties and various chases on an assortment of modes of transport all accompanied by John Williams’ uplifting orchestration. Ford is at his growly best until unexpected moments of humour or vulnerability shine through the cracks and it’s great to see Waller-Bridge get to play such a kick-ass role for a change, but most of the rest of the cast are disposable and by the end you find yourself asking, was that it? SSP
Review in Brief: Infinity Pool (2023)
Along with Julie Ducournau, Brandon Cronenberg is one of the most exciting, twisted directors to break through in the last decade. His latest uncomfortably funny sensory assault INFINITY POOL follows James (Alexander Skarsgård) a struggling author who has married rich and is holidaying in a perfect nightmare of a resort somewhere in Europe. Soon he gets drawn into the orbit of a gang of awful, privileged fellow guests led by Gabi (Mia Goth) who get their kicks through hallucinogen-fuelled orgies and murder without consequence, because if you’re rich enough the punishment for any heinous crime can be passed on to a purpose-built clone of yourself… Cronenberg delved into identity disassociation as a vehicle for horror in his previous film POSSESSOR and here it is used as a satirical sledgehammer standing in for inhumanity in a capitalist system. Skarsgård dials back his natural charisma to play a frankly pathetic, detestable man and Goth continues one hell of a run in horror as perhaps the most terrifying but also hilarious antagonist in recent genre cinema. SSP
Review in Brief: Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Who needs Ash? Lee Cronin’s addition to the Evil Dead franchise is just as, if not more, mischievously gnarly as the Sam Raimi-masterminded films, but he keeps things contained and personal throughout. Swapping out the usual cabin in the woods for a claustrophobic apartment building, we follow recently single mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) her three kids Bridget, Danny and Kassie (Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies and Nell Fisher) and their visiting guitar tech aunt Beth (Lily Sullivan). The awkwardness of slightly distant sisters soon falls by the wayside when an earthquake hits and unearths a recording of an incantation that awakens an ancient evil, an evil that corrupts Ellie and drives her to harm her family. EVIL DEAD RISE is a nail-biting chase movie confined almost entirely to a few rooms in a tower block and deviously makes it clear from the off that everyone is expendable, especially the children. More of this please. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 