https://secondcutpod.substack.com/p/second-cuts-top-10-films-of-2025 SSP
Review in Brief: The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)
Much like the similarly rural Wales-set BRIAN & CHARLES, THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND is an elliptical, low-key and bittersweet tale of lost souls finding meaning. Rich superfan Charles (Tim Key) underhandedly reunites former musical and romantic partners Herb (Tom Basden) and Nell (Carey Mulligan) for a private gig on a remote Welsh island, and things get awkward and emotionally fraught rather quickly from there. Director James Griffiths, Key and Basden have expanded and developed their short film from almost 20 years ago, recruited Mulligan for a little star power and come up with an album’s worth of melancholy folk songs worthy of these characters. There are many neat, comforting, crowd-pleasing ways this film could go if it was a conventional Hollywood romcom, but this goes to some much darker places and largely refuses to indulge convention. This is a warm but unsentimental, romantic but grounded, poignant and witty sort-of musical. SSP
Review in Brief: The Shrouds (2024/25)
David Cronenberg plumbs his real-life grief trauma to fuel one of the most twisted yet affecting sci-fi horrors for years. Following his invention of technology allowing mourners to view a live feed of their loved ones’ decomposing body from their grave side, grieving tech mogul Karsh’s (Vincent Cassel) company is subject to hacking and sabotage while he receives vivid visions of his deceased wife Becca (Diane Kruger) coming back to him. You definitely have to already be on Cronenberg’s wavelength for this one, but the vulnerable performances, the emotional rawness and a deft balancing of disparate tones reaffirms the maverick Canadian as the best there is at this sort of thing. Prepare to feel deeply uncomfortable at some of the sights and sounds in THE SHROUDS, but you have to admire how it’s all laid out there without shame, a particularly graphic form of therapy. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged David Cronenberg, Diane Kruger, Horror, Sci-fi, The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel
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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) Review
Posted in Film, Film Review, Second Cut
Tagged Daniel Craig, Glenn Close, Josh O'Connor, Knives Out, Mystery, Netflix, Rian Johnson, Wake Up Dead Man
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Review in Brief: The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
“I feel very safe myself”. On the whole I think I’m much more of a fan than many others of Wes Anderson’s latest career stage where his unmistakable style has never been more prominent but he continues to experiment with storytelling techniques and vivid characterisation. It’s definitely not style over substance, whatever lazy naysayers might say. Following infamous arms manufacturer Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) miraculously continuing to cheat death while reconnecting with his estranged nun daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) and attempting to close the biggest deal of his career, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME is one of Anderson’s most ambitious projects to date. Apart from anything else, this has got a real scale to it. He still plays with reality and dials up the theatrical elements, but this is a real globe-trotter, an absurdist comedy showcasing a diverse ensemble of regular collaborators and even dicing with a bit of political commentary. It’s mad, it’s exciting and breathlessly convoluted and one of Anderson’s best in years. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief
Tagged Benicio del Toro, Comedy, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Satire, The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson
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Wicked: For Good (2025) Review
Posted in Film, Film Review, Second Cut
Tagged Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Fantasy, Jeff Goldblum, Jon M Chu, L Frank Baum, Musical, The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Wicked: For Good
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Insulate (2025) Short Film Review
Posted in Film, Film Review, Second Cut
Tagged British, Daniel Poyser, David Fielder, Drama, Independent Film, Insulate, Mark Parham, Short Film
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Sam’s Noirvember 2025
Film 1 – Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). Fritz Lang’s final American film is a clever story well told, though somewhat lacking the mastery of style from his early career.
Film 2 – Le Samouraï (1967). Jean-Pierre Melville’s endlessly influential hitman noir is morally murky, suspenseful and largely built around how great Alain Delon looked in a coat and hat.
Film 3 – Laura (1944). Otto Preminger’s mannered but intriguing murder-mystery looks and sounds great, with striking performances from Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and a young, sexy Vincent Price.
Film 4 – The Breaking Point (1950). In the second, less famous but more faithful adaptation of Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, Michael Curtiz trades in romance for grit to largely good effect.
Film 5 – The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). This knotty classic about murder, passion and the consequences of both is good-looking and well performed in an old-fashioned way (complimentary) that belies its twisted core.
Film 6 – While the City Sleeps (1956). Visually and thematically referring to Fritz Lang’s earlier work, here the German expat’s direction remains tightly controlled, though the script does too much telling rather than showing.
Film 7 – Naked Alibi (1954). A taut, dynamic and surprisingly brutal crime thriller with top-class work from Sterling Hayden and Gloria Grahame. As should be a given for everything I watch this month, it looks amazing too.
Film 8 – Out of the Past (1947). A soaring romance punctured by extreme darkness and cynicism that gets a lot of mileage out of Robert Mitchum’s physicality. Jacques Tourneur forever a master of atmosphere.
Film 9 – The Big Heat (1953). The best of Fritz Lang’s final career phase by some distance, this is a tough and uncompromising cops and gangsters picture with operatic flourishes.
Film 10 – Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948). This UK-set, US-shot postwar blackmail thriller doesn’t have many surprises in store, but is entertainingly played, particularly by Robert Newton at his slimy best. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 