SSP Thinks Film

Frankenstein (2025) Review

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Sam S-P

https://secondcutpod.substack.com/p/frankenstein-2025-review SSP

Posted in Film, Film Review, Second Cut | Tagged Christoph Waltz, Frankenstein, Gothic Horror, Guillermo del Toro, Horror, Jacob Elordi, Mary Shelley, Mia Goth, Netflix, Oscar Isaac, Sci-fi | Leave a comment

Review in Brief: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024/25)

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Sam S-P

Small wins for art are worth savouring, especially in an age when it is seemingly under attack from all sides. In the first cinematically released, all-animated Looney Tunes feature film that was thankfully sold to Ketchup Entertainment rather than being junked by David Zazlav’s Warner Bros, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza) fight to save their home, and then their planet, from an alien plot revolving around of all things, bubble gum. Considering the uphill struggle this one had to go through to get released, it’s almost disappointing that the final product is just a really good Looney Tunes movie. It doesn’t innovate beyond preserving the traditional cel animation style, it’s not about anything more than being silly, but it evokes the anarchic mischief of the best Looney Tunes shorts and celebrates top-notch vocal performances and talented craftspeople. SSP

Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief | Tagged Animation, Comedy, Eric Bauza, Family Film, Looney Tunes, Peter Browngardt, The Day the Earth Blew Up | Leave a comment

Review in Brief: Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Sam S-P

If PREY proved that there is still plenty of life in the PREDATOR franchise, then animated anthology KILLER OF KILLERS offers more exciting new routes for it to take. Extraterrestrial predators face off against warriors from three of Earth’s time periods: a 9th century Viking, a 16th century samurai and a 20th century fighter pilot. Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) might have gone for the most obvious historical settings to slot in a predator to cause havoc, but he and his animators have a lot of fun playing with technologically asymmetrical combat formula and coming up with the elaborate bloody action sequences. Aside from a pleasing gag with a flintlock pistol, the film’s final stretch that brings all three stories together is a little underwhelming, but it’s enough to make you hope for further creative takes on the Predator universe. The standard has well and truly been set for Trachtenberg’s upcoming PREDATOR: BADLANDS. SSP

Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief | Tagged Action, Animation, Dan Trachtenberg, Predator, Predator: Killer of Killers, Prey, Sci-fi | Leave a comment

Review in Brief: The Ugly Stepsister (2025)

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Sam S-P

A pitch-black, gnarly, body-horror heavy retelling of the Brothers Grimm version of the Cinderella fairytale from Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt. The terminally shy Elvira (a mesmerising Lea Myren) competes with her beautiful new stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) and prepares to be noticed at the Prince’s upcoming ball. In order to prepare for her happily ever after, her domineering mother (Ane Dahl Torp) has her remade with cruel and rudimentary cosmetic surgery while Elvira consumes a tapeworm egg, the parasite ravaging her body far beyond the intended rapid weight-loss. THE UGLY STEPSISTER is a deeply uncomfortable watch, but provides queasy thrills and dark humour in spades and shines a feminist, empathetic spotlight on outcasts being forced to painfully transform themselves to be noticed, and accepted by a vapid aesthetics-obsessed society. I’d be very surprised indeed if this twisted treat doesn’t end up on my top 10 of the year. SSP

Posted in Film, Film Review, Review in Brief | Tagged Ane Dahl Torp, Dark Comedy, Emilie Blichfeldt, Horror, Lea Myren, Norwegian Film, The Ugly Stepsister, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, World Cinema | 1 Comment

Review in Brief: I’m Still Here (2024)

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Sam S-P

This is such a quietly unsettling portrayal of state cruelty. During Brazil’s military dictatorship, the family of former congressman Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) are watched, intimidated and interrogated by the regime following the disappearing of Rubens, leaving his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) to hold their family together while the state refuses to provide answers. I’M STILL HERE is a slow-burn, but it’s never anything less than captivating. The camera is so often laser-focused on Eunice’s defiant face as she suffers one indignity after another, after which she has to be a fixed point of stability for her family, to give the illusion of normality. Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here is a drama for the times that interrogates a dark chapter of history and provides an uncomfortable number of parallels for the state of much of the world today. SSP