The Souvenir Part II (2021)

It was interesting to learn on release of The Souvenir back in 2019 that Joanna Hogg was already working on a follow up. The film felt like it was a single piece of art in more ways than one, and although highly impressive and brilliantly made, I found it difficult to decipher out how much I liked the film. I don’t have the same issues with part II. We rejoin Julie (once again Honor Swinton Byrne on sublime form) shortly after the incident that ended the first film (I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t seen part I), as she begins work on her graduation film project. Hogg invokes several of her peers here, most notably Charlie Kauffman; The Souvenir Part II bears a startling resemblance to portions of Synecdoche, New York (2008). That’s not a criticism, and indeed, Hogg’s film is a superior one to Kauffman's; Hogg knows when to rein the self-indulgence in, something that Kauffman occasionally veers into, certainly in Synecdoche, New York, fine film though it is. The Souvenir Part II is about cinema itself as much as it’s about dealing with human issues and exploring ways of getting through life’s big problems; and the way in which Hogg provides Julie with solutions through the film, and indeed, Julie’s own film, work beautifully and if you’re a fan of cinema you should be gripped with the simplicity of large portions of the films’ plot addressing. Hogg leaves you with more questions than answers, and is bold enough to finish with a final quarter that conjures memories of David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006) just as you begin to query Julie’s reality, is this simply a dream within a dream having already been drawn into a film within a film, tainting Julie’s own truth? These are the questions that you answer yourself (or don’t) but to pigeonhole Hogg’s film as a Lynchian dystopian unreality does it a massive disservice; this is also a film about film, and it is absolutely superb. 8.5/10