Sisu (Jalmari Helander, 2022)

The text right at the start explaining that the Finnish word 'sisu' is untranslatable does not bode well for what's to come (this is an oft-stated Finnish fallacy, 'guts' or 'determination' are quite adequate translations). In any case, the protagonist if meant to be the embodiment of it, a one-man army prospecting for gold in the wilds of Lapland in 1944 with the retreating German army all around. He comes up against a German unit who try to rob him of his gold, so he summarily kills the lot of them. Then another unit comes after him, led by an off-the-shelf cartoonishly brutal Nazi officer, and more extreme violence ensues.

It is as efficiently scripted as its hero is single-minded and taciturn, but that doesn't excuse the tiresome ludicrosity of its action sequences, its scant regard for historical accuracy and lack of any point at all.

4/10

He ovat paenneet (Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää, 2014)

A young man who went AWOL from his national military service is sent to a centre for problem youths to carry out his national service as civil service instead. There he's befriended by a troubled girl who's determined to get out and they set out across the country in a stolen car, on a quest for what she promises is buried treasure. As in every road movie, there are numerous twists and turns along the way, including encounters with many odd characters, but unlike in most, there are constant surrealistic interludes with the quality of mystical visions and large gaps in the narrative which leave the viewer with the task of trying to piece together what might have happened between scenes. This would be justifiable, but only if there were enough of a promise of a concrete reward for the effort demanded. This They Have Escaped ultimately fails to deliver, stringing you along with its sheer weirdness, a hotchpotch of thriller, arthouse drama, and horror.

4/10 

Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger (Chris Foggin, 2025)

The first part did nicely, being mostly fact-based about a very real topical issue and a feelgood comedy at the same time, with decent actors. So of course there was going to be a sequel, with Rory Kinnear's crusader now taking on the ogres of the loathsome payday loan companies driving people to destitution with their astronomical interest rates and other criminal practices. We know he'll win, so exactly as last time around, the pleasure isn't in the plot, just in the vicarious satisfaction of seeing the little guy stick it to the crooks, which is needed quite badly in the current global climate.

6/10

Comment je suis devenu super-héros (Douglas Attal, 2020)

How I Became a Superhero does have one newish take on the flagging genre, in that superpowers are not just existent in some individuals, but that stupid teens in particular are desperate to acquire ones of their own. This means that the villain is a gang boss who abducts people with powers to tap them for their blood and turn it into a street drug. After that, though, it's strictly run of the mill fare, two cops tracking the bad guys down with the help of retired superheroes. Its stabs at a comic tone fall pretty flat too.

4/10

Treasure (Julia von Heinz, 2024)

 

A New York jounalist takes her father, a Holocaust survivor, back to Poland to try to dissect what happened 50 years earlier. She insists on getting to the bottom of it and he  tries constantly stave it off.

It's a new approach to the subject of the mass genocide, especially by having a comic tone until the closing stages, but is hindered by the lead actress's pointlessly teenage behaviour and really having nothing of import to say. Worthy but beige, just like its TV movie presentation.

5/10

Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)

Two Texan brothers, one up to his neck in debt and the other just a thrill-seeking loose cannon, embark on a spree of bank robberies across their home state. You know from the very start, with the drawn-out shots of miles and miles of featureless plains and Jeff Bridges as a wise old buzzard of a lawman on their tail, nearing retirement, that things will not turn out well for them. This is the America of Badlands and No Country for Old Men, all hicks with guns, endless roads and dead-end small towns with no prospects.

Still, knowing what the outcome will be, doesn't make it a pointless exercise at all. It's packed with sparse but pithy dialogue, the action scenes are efficiently shot and it doesn't resort to too many cliches in terms of plot turns. It also helpfully reminds you again, if any reminder were needed, not to go to Texas.

6/10

Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022)

Most critics did not particularly like this, simplistically misinterpreting it as yet another paean to the magic of cinema à la Cinema Paradiso. Yes, it revolves around a seaside cinema and its staff, and wonderful classic films are there in the background, but it's really about mental illness, misogyny and racism. The backdrop is Thatcher's Britain in 1981, riven with economic depression and race riots. The peerless Olivia Colman plays the duty manager at a Margate cinema, on lithium following a schizophrenic breakdown and constantly dragged in by her sleazy boss for illicit sex in his office. When a sensitive younger black man joins the staff, they become friends and eventually lovers. But given toxic atmosphere of the era and her mental fragility, there are dark clouds on the horizon.

The film does tail off to some extent in its closing part, as unwilling to acknowledge a tidy ending as many great works are wont to do, but there are some genuinely moving moments along the way, and Colman's performance in particular is quite remarkable, as is the luminous photography of the incomparable Roger Deakins.

7/10