Star Rating:

Sisu

Director: Jalmari Helander

Actors: Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan

Release Date: Friday 26th May 2023

Genre(s): Action, War

Running time: 91 minutes

Clocking in just a minute over 90 minutes, 'Sisu' is exactly the grindhouse, balls-to-the-wall, genre-action movie that gets cranked out every few years and reminds us how much fun it is to go to the movies. 'John Wick' and the ageless wonder that is Keanu Reeves excelled in this endeavour, and in the '90s, you had Jean-Claude Van Damme splitting his legs across movies like 'Hard Target' and 'Sudden Death'. In the '80s, of course, there was Sylvester Stallone's 'Rambo' - a clear reference point for Finnish director Jamari Headlander. Indeed, when we interviewed him about this movie, the poster for 1980's 'First Blood' loomed over his desk.

No director ever lost an audience by finding new ways of slaughtering Nazis, and 'Sisu' utilises anything and everything as a machine for killing fascists. Shovels, bare hands, a flying mine - at one point, he even sets himself on fire to try and kill somebody. The kind of stop-at-nothing resilience is central to 'Sisu', and central to Finnish culture as a rule. Jalmari Headlander's camera captures the barren tundras of Lapland, and while he's evoking Westerns and the like with both the music and some of the design choices in this, 'Sisu' has a pugilistic, gung-ho sense of Finland about itself.

Indeed, the taciturn lead - Jorma Tommila - is in keeping with Finnish brevity. Aksel Hennie plays a used-up Nazi officer with ease, and doesn't succumb to an easy performance. Rather than playing it like a preening narcissist, Hennie instead opts for portraying him like a wounded animal. All of the Nazis, in fact, look like they're in various stages of decay. Even the tank they drive around in looks like something from 'Mad Max' than World War II. Compared to something like 'Fury' with Brad Pitt, 'Sisu' has more of an awareness of its genre roots. 'Inglorious Basterds' isn't a good comparison, because it doesn't have the same scale or willingness to rewrite history. Instead, 'Sisu' feels more like a Sam Peckinpah vehicle, with Tommila channeling a particularly angry Lee Marvin for his performance.

There's a sparseness to 'Sisu' that's appealing, in that it doesn't require anything other than what's on screen to tell you what's happening. The backstory of the main character is wrapped up in one scene, complete with a bad-ass nickname and a "Who the hell is this guy?!" moment from the bad guys. Again, Jalmari Headlander is a student of bravado action movies and utilises that language to tell a distinctly homespun tale here. Compared to something like 'Fast X', the lack of budget and the tautness of it all is just liberating and exciting to watch.

'Sisu' is grisly, entertaining, and with a distinct flavour and personality in a landscape of movies that is increasingly homogenised and flatten to meet broad, accepted tastes. It's sharp, strong, and leaves you thirsty for more.