Film Reviews by SS

Welcome to SS's film reviews page. SS has written 8 reviews and rated 10 films.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Nomadland

Is this the American Retirement ?

(Edit) 21/12/2021

This is an honest film which portrays a character embodying both the the cruelty of the U.S. welfare system, the heartless vagaries of capitalism and the personal traits of character which can resist these while preventing an escape. Frances McDormand is one of the greatest actresses of her generation. ask the question:What makes a great film actor or actress? One who can play a part so well that you forget the character they portrayed in a film you also liked. (Sadly , Kevin Spacey also meets this definition.)

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Black '47

Grim but thrilling,historically accurate.

(Edit) 18/11/2021

The film replays in a classic revenger's tragedy, the horror and cruelty of Ireland's potato famine.For anyone Irish, it's cathartic, for anyone who isn't, it's an education in the history and language of the country.Hugo Weaving is brooding and dynamic, an Australian who masters the language and character of the ex-British Army renegade, who expiates the guilt of the atrocities he has committed in Afghanistan in the Queen's service by visiting violent revenge on those who have evicted and murdered his family in Ireland.

1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Occupation

The truth is always complicated

(Edit) 30/11/2020

Given the contested history of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine and the persecution of the Jews, this brilliant film lets us see how a Jewish girl managed to evince help and protection from a family suffering its own contradictions under the hammer of Nazi oppression and partisan resistance.The primitive anti-Jewish prejudice in the people who protected her and their common suffering are shown without sentimentality, as is the humanity of an Orthodox priest, the barbarity of Nazi reprisals and her own steely determination to survive.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Wild Tales

Wildly satiric ,bitterly accurate.

(Edit) 18/06/2020

This collection of six films contain the best,most telling satires on modern capitalist society I have seen since "Oh Lucky Man" by Lindsay Anderson -and that was in 1970! Sharp, funny, unsentimental -Johnathan Swift would have welcomed them as worthy successors to "Gulliver's Travels". I have rented this DVD twice!

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Vanishing

Pinter meets Winner.

(Edit) 18/10/2019

"The Vanishing " sets a claustrophobic backdrop to inter-generational and greed vs wisdom clashes between three lighthouse men.Based on the poem "Flannan Isle" ,the film takes its theme from the real-life disappearance of the keepers of Flannan Isle Lighthouse. Terse dialogue degenerates into graphic violence as the three seek to hold on to gold that washed up on the island in a dinghy accompanied by a psychopathic mariner whom the youngest member of the team dispatches with a traditional rock to the side of the head. As each member of the lighthouse crew probe each other's character in light of their acquisition, two Norwegian sailors turn up looking for their loot.The following scenes could be titled" The Birthday Party" meets "Straw Dogs" -the ensuing violence is personal and graphic...and I have to say, too much for me as the character exploration is smothered by paranoid acts involving ropes and blunt objects.

2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Climax

Climax- not really -more an anti-climax.

(Edit) 09/07/2019

Good films tell a story about memorable characters and their struggles.This film is so confused that I found it difficult to like any of the characters or know what they thought about each other -so dull and amateurish. Nor is there a social commentary of any kind like in Amarcord (a fantasy film composed of disjointed images.) or 'American Werewolf in London' or 'World War Z' all fantasy/horror films with zig-zag plot lines.

0 out of 3 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Anatomy of Hell

Anatomy of Hell

(Edit) 19/04/2018

This film is well named as I felt i had been shown the door to Hell while watching it.It is a promotion of female self-loathing that doesn't shy away from repetitive ,revolting scenes which are hung with existentialist maxims and pseudo-psychological diagnoses.

0 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Pornographer

Drawn out

(Edit) 05/02/2018

If you like to experience existential anomie (detachment) or in contrast, want to confirm that your own life, however humdrum , is packed with incident and meaning, meaning, watch this film.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.