The Films of 2025

[domino harvey]

The Flintstones is the gold standard of this kind of too many cooks in the kitchen equaling nothing good whatsoever (though sometimes this approach does work-- two of NewsRadio's best episodes [the high concept Titanic and Space ones] were written equally by all of the writers as a group project, with straws drawn for who was credited because of guild rules)

[therewillbeblus]

Drop isn't as successful as Landon's other efforts, but I think the queasy vibe of the first two-thirds mimics the self-conscious fumbles of first dates quite well. I'm not sure that was the main intention - the film seems clearly pitched at milking its thriller premise and using a first date for the 'unknowability' factor - but that's what I walked away with. Rarely have I felt so uncomfortable watching a movie, and most of its thriller clichés exacerbated that relatability of first date jitters to the point where I was able to engage with the material on a shared sensory level. In other words, I was responsive to the movie from experience with upset physiological sensations, and that's where it briefly transforms from programmatic to intelligent - engaging with an audience that, these days, all are recognizing personal traumas and then living small ones via robotic social encounters. This is that on steroids, but it amplifies an active phenomenon that's clever in construction.

I'm making the movie sound way better than it is, but its schematic ambitions are deeper than it lets on a surface level. The last section throws it all away for some trite action, but whatever. It's a fine movie that gave a little extra heft in its atmospheric setup.

[black&huge]

Speaking of Drop for anyone else who has seen it what was with the atrocious editing once the date starts? So many cuts back and forth, no wideshots and no stylistic choice to pinpoint for it? Seems like they were in a major rush to just put this put this out and cut the character interactions in the most below amateur way.

[The Curious Sofa]

Another Final Destination movie is coming out in 2025, which has given my life a renewed sense of purpose.

...and it is getting by far the best reviews in the franchise yet.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_ ... bloodlines

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/final- ... loodlines/

[beamish14]

Tyler Perry’s Straw on Netflix fills the void felt by Lee Daniels not having a film out this year. Taraji P. Henson goes through a single-day-in-hell as a struggling single mother working at a grocery store whose livelihood, child, sanity, and freedom are all snatched from her within the span of maybe 4 hours. This piece of shit is incredible. It actually features Henson staring at the sky and screaming to god with her arms outstretched as the camera pulls up.

[The Curious Sofa]

Another Final Destination movie is coming out in 2025, which has given my life a renewed sense of purpose.

Not, as the reviews would suggest, the best entry in the series (the only long running horror franchise where I have enjoyed every single one of the films) it's still a good time. Like the two best Final Destination films, FD2 and FD5, it does what a good sequel should do. It builds on what came before, either confirming or subverting expectations, and engages with the mythology, nonsensical though it may be. I'm glad this is a sequel that builds on what has been established in earlier films, rather than a reboot. Focusing on an extened family rather than a group of young, attractive friends, like FD2, it also includes some older characters on death's to-do list.

On the downside, nobody is going to win any acting awards and there have been better FD lead characters. That said, it gives Tony Todd a fitting send-off, and I've loved Gabrielle Rose ever since she was part of Atom Egoyan's repertory company. The Rube Goldberg deaths have been staged better in earlier films and my biggest bugbear of the series — poor CGI — is also evident here, especially in the opening sequence, which I'm not quite as in love with it as many critics are. I also have some production design quibbles, which indicate a general sloppiness in execution: it makes no sense to design such a small viewing platform for a building like this and the opening sequence is set in 1968, but the costumes suggest the early '60s.

[beamish14]

I’m with you in finding enjoyment in all of the Final Destination films as well. I truly think the ending of the 5th is one of the most genuinely clever and unexpected twists that I’ve ever encountered in a horror film, and I’m very excited to see this installment, although I will check my expectations slightly.

I’d probably rank them (from strongest to weakest): 2, 3, 5, 1, 4 (which is too short and has some really obnoxious characters, but the flaming truck blasting “Why Can’t We Be Friends” might be the best kill of all)

[The Curious Sofa]

Yes, the ending of the fifth one is one of the best plot twists of all time. I literally whooped aloud when I first saw it. I also think it's the best-directed film in the series. As I said, Final Destination is the only horror franchise where I genuinely enjoy all the films, even the fourth one, I actually enjoy the whole meta mall-climax. It also massively improves when watched in 3D, it's one of the best (here meaning most gimmicky and lurid) uses of 3D I've seen and it makes all the wonky CGI look a lot better better. And all the splatstick in the latest film still made me laugh and one thing I'll say for it is that it shakes up the formula a bit. My ranking would be 2, 5, 6, 3, 1, 4.

[Never Cursed]

Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident will open October 15 in the United States. Neon appears to intend to campaign it alongside Sentimental Value for the major non-acting Oscar categories.

Also, Janus/Sideshow has bought the rights to Sergei Loznitsa's Two Prosecutors.

[domino harvey]

I don’t usually post links to “funny videos” but I thought this nailed all of the discourse around Happy Gilmore 2 that I’ve been seeing

[bearcuborg]

F1 continues Joseph Kosinki's winning streak. There's nothing new in this story, but the underdog elements are only there to give us a breather from the dazzling races. Hans Zimmer's score is superb. The races (particularly the opening one) are thrilling. The movie frames all of it with a great use of graphics, title cards and narration from a play by play crew. I saw this in IMAX and often found myself moved, literally. The mix of Zimmer, classic rock and new EDM had my head bopping. In 1.90 (throughout) when it all clicks, I had a big smile. My only complaint, F1 continues the theme of overall bland color grading and lighting. Also, I wish some shots held longer. But a pleasant experience overall. It hit me in the 80s vibes and 90s blockbuster feels. Curious if this gets a 4k HDR physical release...

[Matt]

It looks like Warner Bros. has theatrical and home video rights while Apple retains exclusive streaming rights. I can't imagine Warner Bros. would pass up a physical release, but it might have to come after some exclusive Apple TV+ streaming window.

[Yakushima]

Honey Don't is a lot of fun, if imperfect.

Hal Hartley's Where to Land is fantastic despite severe budget constraints.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

What a stinker A Big Bold Beautiful Journey turned out to be and such a shame as Koganada is phenomenal. After Yang is an all time favorite of mine.

[Matt]

Tron: Ares made less money in its opening weekend than Morbius. Maybe we can stop putting Jared Leto in movies now? Oop, no, he's going to be Skeletor in the new Masters of the Universe. I'm sure that one will light up the box office as well.

[Finch]

Especially when he's competing with Frank Langella from the original.

[Monterey Jack]

To be fair, none of the previous Tron movies have exactly torn up the box office, and the last one was fifteen years ago.

[domino harvey]

Aziz Ansari’s comeback starring Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves, Good Fortune, actually looks pretty good?

Nope! Annoyingly didactic and hand holdy in the extreme and with zero laughs, this was a huge miss. There’s one strong comic idea here— what if someone being shown the error of their ways in one of those divine intervention narratives preferred the new life and didn’t want to go back at all? Unfortunately, this film shows the idea could prob only justify a comedy sketch, and everything else here is just the most obnoxious NPR liberal shoulder shoving imaginable

[Never Cursed]

Aziz Ansari’s comeback starring Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves, Good Fortune, actually looks pretty good?

Nope! Annoyingly didactic and hand holdy in the extreme and with zero laughs, this was a huge miss. There’s one strong comic idea here— what if someone being shown the error of their ways in one of those divine intervention narratives preferred the new life and didn’t want to go back at all? Unfortunately, this film shows the idea could prob only justify a comedy sketch, and everything else here is just the most obnoxious NPR liberal shoulder shoving imaginable

They were test screening this in NYC quite frequently and up to a surprisingly close time before release (something like a couple weeks ahead or something). While I am sure any version of this probably would not have been worthwhile, they definitely focus-grouped this to death.

When I wrote this out last night, I was gonna say something like “glad you’re back to going to movie theaters, but why see this instead of the new PTA?” Glad you took care of that too!

[domino harvey]

Interesting, because apparently no one had a problem with a certain plot point here (which I will spoiler box even though I suspect this is on no one’s watch list)

Spoiler

Ansari is fired by Rogen because he uses his company card to pay for his date. This is already set up poorly by drawing attention to him receiving the card, but I hoped the film wasn’t so clueless as to have our protagonist be this stupid. There’s one brief moment where it appears Ansari might know what it’s like to be broke— Keke Palmer immediately recognizes the prices are high and without drawing attention to it, recommends they order one of the cheap entrees. Yes, this is what would happen in this scenario. But then Ansari orders an expensive bottle of wine without asking the price? I don’t live in this particular world anymore, thank god, but I assure you every broke person knows the exact price of everything they have ever bought. But him actually using the card made it impossible to sympathize with him. And Ansari doesn’t have the gumption to lean into this and make the problems of Ansari’s life fully a function of his (limited by his class role) choices, even when he arguably should be seen as the villain late in the film. The movie is essentially spineless and Ansari is too overprotective of his character (I wonder how this all would have played out with him not in this role— much better in all regards, surely, since most actors have a register beyond whiny and acting miffed)

Also I saw this in a theatre for the same reason I’ve seen stuff like the Adjustment Bureau in theatres - I needed to kill time and it was the best option available (besides, how would I ever be able to follow the established lore of the first Black Phone by leaping directly into its sequel?). There was exactly one other person in the theatre with me and she didn’t laugh once either, so I prob won’t have the option of watching another Ansari directed film again anyways

[bearcuborg]

Aziz Ansari, at the very least, has great taste in movies. He programmed a pretty solid night on TCM a week ago. His segments with Mankiewicz were quite thoughtful. A man who likes John Ford’s non westerns can’t be all bad.

Toni Storm still has the TCM segment of the year. I love that movie fans scratched their heads over “who is she/she said what!?” and most wrestling fans didn’t see it at all. Toni is a treasure…

Tron Ares doesn’t do anything all that new…dusted off are classic car chases through highways that lead into a parking garage, cyber tech vs old school, etc-but it does it all so well you don’t mind. An ageless Gillian Anderson makes the costume department look world class. And the NIN soundtrack is fucking rad. Any Trent fan needs to see this in IMAX or Dolby Cinema while they have chance!

It’s also the kind of date movie where the boyfriend and girlfriend want to have sex with the opposite gender star. Jared Leto (at his coolest) and Greta Lee look fantastic.

The second film of the year to have a Terminator influence after One Battle After Another… And we still have Avatar awaiting us! Solid movie year so far…

[hearthesilence]

I was a little wary of Richard Linklater's Blue Moon, but Molly Haskell (who was surprised herself) convinced me to check it out and I liked it quite a bit. Ethan Hawke gave what's easily one of his best performances - I haven't seen all of his films, but it may very well be my favorite one he's ever given - and he's also surrounded by a wonderful cast. It was written by the same screenwriter who did Me and Orson Welles and it's probably on par with that film. It's a credit to the warmth and chemistry of the cast that I found it easy to forgive anything that I could otherwise nitpick. What I loved most about it though was something that's often done too superficially by too many biographical films about songwriters and musicians: what it means to be a creative individual in terms of how you critically view your craft, and how that critical and creative perspective can be inseparable to one's own personality (and even define it in all its complexities).

[Matt]

The Perfect Neighbor is a documentary that's probably going to be showing up on year-end lists, if for no other reason than it's got Netflix $$$ behind it. I had not known anything about it going in, and the trailer and description made it seem like an interesting advance in direct cinema—composed almost entirely from police body cameras and surveillance cameras. Alas, that's little more than a clever marketing hook. Yes, most of the film is from those sources, but late in the film there is some footage that is jarringly not "neutral" or "objective"—I'm using scare quotes because I'm fully aware that there's no such thing as a neutral or objective documentary, even if the footage is from "found" sources—and it was then that the film suddenly reveals itself as grossly manipulative. I'm going to spoiler everything here just for good measure.

Spoiler

I should have clocked the film earlier because of the subtle but emotionally leading music that underpins the footage, music that Netflix's own subtitles describe as "tense" or "plaintive" depending on the context. But late in the film, it suddenly shifts from observation to treatise, here a (rather weak) indictment of Florida's "stand your ground" laws. Rather oddly, the climactic jury trial plays out underneath the end credits and then the film ends with the usual "here's what happened next and here are some statistics" title cards.

The film doesn't trust the viewer to understand the gravity of the events depicted in the film, their representation of larger social issues, and the frightening uncertainty of the final outcome, so it has to resort late in the film to some mawkish professionally shot footage to prod the viewer towards its point of view. In the end, that move proves entirely unnecessary—the outcome of the trial is entirely in keeping with the now-revealed bias of the filmmakers, so the justified guilty verdict seems to be served up with a revolting side of smug "justice served" on the part of the filmmakers.

I might be stating my displeasure with the film clumsily, and I apologize for that. The events depicted in the film are unquestionably tragic and entirely the result of one person's lifetime of stupid (possibly mentally disordered) decisions, each more harmful to everyone around her than the last. My complaint is with the form, the disingenuous bait-and-switch from detached Wiseman-esque social observation to some sort of crusading "feel good about feeling bad" bait for white Liberals. This feels even more gross when you learn that the victim of the shooting was the best friend of the director's sister-in-law, and that the film's genesis was specifically in wanting to depict the case as a statement on Florida's "stand your ground" laws. My most horrible, cynical self wonders if the director wasn't pissed off when the shooter wasn't acquitted because it ruined the ending of her film. It's depressingly ironic that the first production credit logo at the end of the film is for "Message Pictures."

One point of complete astonishment for me in this film: How did that woman not have a lawyer present at any point during her questioning? She was essentially goaded (quite easily) into providing a written confession in the form of an apology letter to the victim's family! My dad was (and my brother is) a criminal defense lawyer, and during her questioning I could see her, in a matter of seconds, casually talking her way right into a guilty verdict. 25 years is a pretty stiff sentence for voluntary manslaughter, especially in Florida, so she might as well have been her own prosecutor. (The film does not make clear that she was also convicted of culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault.)

[cdnchris]

Spoiler

One point of complete astonishment for me in this film: How did that woman not have a lawyer present at any point during her questioning? She was essentially goaded (quite easily) into providing a written confession in the form of an apology letter to the victim's family!

Spoiler

My dad was a lawyer as well, so it was clear to me, too (litterally grimaced), but It's also pretty clear she didn't think anything was going to come of it. You get the sense she's done a number of stupid things without consequence through her life so it never occurred to her anything was going to come of it. And at the end there she walked in thinking she was leaving, which was more evident when she was really trying to reject the reality she was being placed under arrest.

[Murdoch]

I haven't seen this movie but as a lawyer who has had clients with IQs around the mid-60s questioned by police and be essentially walked into a confession,.I can tell you that the cops always do it without a lawyer and, at least in New York, the courts rubber-stamp it because the right to counsel doesn't attach until a written charge is filed. Then the burden is on the defendant to rebut that the confession was voluntary.