The Screen Critic: A top body-horror jaunt, a second-tier Marvel superhero bids farewell and a terrific local version of a classic workplace sitcom

The great run of top-quality horror films that have graced us over recent years continues apace with Smile 2, an absolute ripper sequel to the 2022 film about mysterious cases of demonic possession that target those afflicted by trauma.

Here we have the case of Skye Riley (Naomi Scott, excellent in a demanding role), a Lady Gaga-like pop star who is eager to reclaim the spotlight and respect she lost when drug addiction took over her life.

As the advent of her comeback world tour nears, she is visited by the evil spirit that feeds off the vulnerable, but she has trouble telling whether the horrors she’s experiencing are real or in her increasingly disturbed head.

Similar to The Substance, the film has enough gore and gross out moments to keep genre fans happy, yet underpinning all the mayhem is a strong tale about self control and the dubious allure of fame.

It’s a knockout horror movie, and probably the biggest surprise package of the year. What a lucky lot we are.

In what we are promised is the final Venom film, Venom: The Last Dance sees Tom Hardy (who co-wrote and produced this lark) again play ex-reporter Eddie Brock who shares his body and headspace with Venom, an over-sized, bulb-headed creature with jagged teeth and large almond eyes who can emerge from Tom’s back in fluid shape-shifting form.

Intent on destroying them is a giant, spider-like monster from an alternate universe, the chase involving much effects-laden action in Las Vegas (where barely anyone notices the clash) and at the site of the super-secret Area 51, which is being closed down.

Nothing more than a pure popcorn-selling time killer, the film features a fun encounter with a travelling family headed by born-again hippies and enough rapidly edited mayhem to keep you from nodding off.

Of course, whether this is actually the final Venom film depends on whether it makes a dollar. If it does…guess what?

After waiting a long, long time for Memoir of a Snail – the second feature from Oscar-winning Australian animator Adam Elliot who gave us Mary and Max back in 2009 – it’s a little disappointing what a downer this visually beautiful film turns out to be.

Made in defiantly non-digital stop motion – where meticulously hand-crafted models and sets are filmed frame by frame – the tragi-comic story follows the bumpy life story of Grace, a girl who is separated from her loving twin brother Gilbert when she is orphaned and sent to a foster family.

There are enough moments of delight and eccentricity to keep Memoir of a Snail from becoming mordant, yet the film is crammed with some pretty heavy scenes regarding neglect, abuse, religious extremism and sexual perversion.

So, just to clear, while it looks inviting it’s definitely not a film for non-adults.

Pioneering female war photographer Lee Miller was an extraordinary figure and has long deserved a great biopic about her incredible, historically important life. Unfortunately, Lee isn’t it.

Though Kate Winslet does an admirable job as the strong-willed photojournalist, the film is a blandly directed affair, obviously made on a low budget and with dialogue that too often sounds like a women’s rights pamphlet.

Produced by Winslet – who used her own money to keep the production from being shut down when it ran into financing trouble – the film nobly attempts to honour Lee’s achievements but falls short not surprisingly, it did not make much of an impression when released in the US and UK.

It was, perhaps, a little mean-spirited of all those online commentators to write off the Australian version of The Office based on one poorly edited trailer.

The bile poured forth for weeks, yet none of it sticks when you actually sit down and watch all eight episodes of what is a consistently funny local take on the workplace premise created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant back in 2001.

Comedian Felicity Ward plays Hannah Howard, a branch office manager of packaging company Flinley Craddick who is scared witless by a head-office directive to shut the office down and have everyone work from home.

With little left in her life other than her co-workers Hannah desperately tries to keep the place together, her bubbly personality and constant joking masking a lonely soul in need of daily human contact.

Fans of the original Office and its hugely successful US adaptation will recognise how well put together this Australian update is, following the overall formula yet with enough distinctive quirks and variations to let it breathe on its own.

It was a tough ask, but this Office works nicely. Catch it on Prime.

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