Graeme Guttmann

That's what makes Forbidden Fruits feel both timely and timeless. We rarely leave the inside of the mall, giving the film a claustrophobic feel. The girls use cell phones – it'd be strange if they didn't – but any recognizable social media are absent. It feels like a distinctly modern take on female friendship, but one that owes a great deal to the films that have come before it. And it's lost the sort of optimism that those films often came with.

Unfortunately, Reminders of Him isn't a very good film, at least in the traditional sense. But, like Regretting You, there's a certain level of lizard brain enjoyment that transcends much of the film's flaws and allows for all the soapy, melodramatic elements to be enjoyed at their own level.

Thankfully, Boon, Graham, and Riseborough do enough to anchor the film and bring it home as it lands on a strangely poignant note both chilling and endearing.

A piercing, explicit, and oftentimes sexy study of one 25-year-old's search for identity in a world that has discouraged him from accepting all of himself unabashedly.

With Holland and Mara, the commitment to The Dutchman is apparent and though its ending feels as if things are wrapped up a bit too cleanly, the film succeeds in being an unnerving odyssey over one New York night.

Even as it veers into darker thematic territory, Feig's light touch and Seyfried's committed performance add an air of deranged enjoyment that make The Housemaid one of the most fun movies of 2025.

Serious People doesn't deal in cynicism. Its quiet ending wraps things up too tidily, but there's a strange sort of optimism to its idiocy that is quite endearing.

Black Phone 2 is still a solid horror film, with gory kills and exciting set pieces. But the question of why still lingers over the film, even as it delivers on its many promises.

Shell is funny and nice to look at it, but it lacks the depth or the darkness that it needs.

Fuze may not reinvent the wheel, but sometimes all you need is a solid thriller with a hot cast to really give a film the oomph it needs.

Tuner is a small film, but one that will leave a big impact. It truly is one of the most delightful surprises of the fall and deserves to be seen on a big screen with the loudest sound possible. Here's hoping it gets that chance.

What makes Carolina Caroline so magical is the way it transcends its clichés to tell an engrossing story.

Its best moments aren't in the octagon — they're in the quiet moments when Johnson's Kerr is talking to an interviewer backstage or when Dawn and Mark are exchanging barbs in between affections in their cozy Arizona home.

By the time the film turns off autopilot, it's far too late, and the ending lands with the dull thud of a long-rotted body wrapped in an old rug.

DaCosta makes some key changes to the ending of this story that slightly undermine its more subversive inclinations, but that doesn't make the film any less effective. Her confident direction and Sean Bobbitt's lush cinematography make Hedda an electrifying adaptation that relishes the chaos as much as its characters, even as blood, bullets, and booze continue to fly.

Just when it feels like it's going to hit the gas, The Wizard of the Kremlin holds back, all the way up to its confounding, out-of-left-field ending that is both abrupt and fittingly bleak.

It’s bleak and hysterical and violent — everything you’d want from a Park film. But it’s also devastatingly intimate and intensely relevant, both in the ways it tackles questions of identity and our place within an increasingly dangerous system, one that could feasibly lead people to murder.

In its own way, Griffin's experience is universal, but Griffin in Summer finds specificity in its amusingly abrasive central character.

It doesn't reinvent the wheel, and it shouldn't have to. What it does prove is that queer stories, more often than not, add new layers to narratives that have been done before.

It’s a stunning achievement from the director, one that has sat with me since I saw it, growing in its effectiveness.

Amrum doesn't fully confront all the questions it poses, instead serving as a meditation on the ways a child might respond to a world he doesn't fully understand.

It’s thoughtful and quietly devastating. In its insistence to buck conventions of the queer drama, though, it inevitably falls into some of the very traps it hopes to avoid, landing somewhere between expectations and the underwhelming pic it flirts with becoming.

Trier captures so much while saying so little and, in many ways, Sentimental Value feels like the film he's been building toward his entire career.

The beauty of a musical isn't just in the songs themselves, but the feelings they leave us with as we exit the theater. Leave One Day opts for a cheerier disposition that undermines staying power beyond its infectious tunes.

Some may find this despairing and baffling, but Ducournau finds a strange layer of hope and love beneath all the dust and grime.

It’s less challenging and possibly less rewarding but it’s no less fun.

Enzo is subtle in its examination of queer desire, understanding that quick glances and soft touch can be just as sensual — and even more effective — as anything intense.

Despite the film’s title, though, The Secret Agent isn’t your typical espionage thriller, but it’s all the better for how it plays with genre, tone, and expectations.

A fever dream in the bleakest sense, Sirat is a wild and apocalyptic epic, mythological in scale but intimate in its story about family.

At times, it can be bitterly hysterical, with Aster, who also wrote the film, further flexing his comedic muscles after his previous film with Phoenix. On the other hand, Eddington can be almost too on-the-nose, knicking the surface of complex issues but pulling the blade away before it can really draw blood.

Visceral, bruising, and darkly humorous, Die, My Love hits like a sledgehammer thanks to Lawrence and director Lynne Ramsay's uncompromisingly grim vision of domestic life.

For all The Phoenician Scheme's eccentric thrills, sardonic performances, and globe-trotting adventure, the film still feels limited in the grand scheme of things.

I imagine that Sound of Falling will reward repeat viewings. There's almost too much to take in upon first glance, decades of life condensed into two and a half hours. Schilinski's vision is so confident and so bracing that it's hard not to be arrested by what's happening onscreen, even if you're not sure what's going on.

Yet, despite this apathy, there is an emotional core to Friendship, one that made me root for Craig despite all of his shortcomings and unpleasantness.

With its brisk runtime, the film wastes no time and, though it plays into genre tropes often, its premise is enough to make this film a compelling watch. The film ends up being surprisingly emotional thanks to its protagonist, though its lack of characterization of its human counterparts hurts the film's climax just a bit.

It’s a fun B-movie with timely elements and some exciting kills. It may not be much more than that, but sometimes that’s enough.

Its charms grew on me so fast that I couldn't help but love almost everything about it, logic be damned.

Cave's assured direction creates a sickly sweet, dreamy world, and though its story sometimes lacks the dynamism it needs to fully connect, Kidman, unsurprisingly, carries the film over the finish line.

Broe is able to go beyond a clichéd queer cityscape to capture something that feels achingly real, all the more so in the evolution of Johan and William's relationship. There's a sadness here, but it's blunted by the fact that it plays out in a way that feels very true to life.

The Things You Kill may seem like a simple revenge drama, but it allows itself to be so much more through form and story.

Despite some of Bunnylovr's shortcomings, Zhu has a knack for filmmaking, and it's an exciting debut for the young artist.

Rebuilding chooses a gentle, deliberate approach to its story, making it all the more powerful in its observations on what it means to find a home and community in places and ways you'd least expect.

The Ballad of Wallis Island is effortless in its execution and breezy in its pacing, which makes its emotional undertones all the more surprising and affecting.

Twinless is designed to make you squirm, but it's through this discomfort that Sweeney finds humor and heart.

Along with its genuine humor and a frank exploration of the different ways queer people live today, Jimpa is an emotional experience that feels authentic in a way that can be difficult to capture.

It's a riveting film, but one that left me feeling hollow and ultimately frustrated with the continued way in which much of American cinema tackles crises like the one at the center of September 5.

Gladiator II really soars when it does the unexpected and, for the most part, that only happens when Washington, Quinn, and Hechinger are onscreen. It doesn't make for a well-rounded film, but it does make for an entertaining one. For all its faults (of which there are only a few), Scott is still fully in control of this massive undertaking, letting his contemporary sensibilities bleed into the gravity of the past.

Despite sturdy performances, Without Blood doesn’t fully come together.

Though the script fails to follow through on some of its promises, the subtext is there and Elordi, Edgar-Jones, and the rest of the cast give quietly devastating performances as their dreams manifest in ways they cannot predict.

It's not a perfect film, but Emilia Pérez is endlessly captivating, an exercise in genre, tone, and sheer fearlessness.

It's one of Adams' best performances in a career full of them, messy and feral and unwiedly, just like Nightbitch itself.

Conclave is not trying to be some treatise on the state of the Catholic Church, nor is it saying anything new about modern religion. It's engrossing nonetheless, and it milks the titular event for every dramatic drop its worth.

The Last Showgirl isn't perfect - it's melodramatic by design, and it wears its heart on its sleeve. But Anderson's raw and unfiltered performance, one clearly tailor-made for her, makes up for the film's weaker elements, as does the chemistry between the cast.

The transition of tones is subtle - you don't realize you're watching a horror movie until it's too late.

The action isn't elegant. It's erratic and loud and ugly. . . it's a symphony of chaos. It's also a damn good time, even if Kurosawa leaves us with the haunting notion that we're all too connected, just one click away from finding opportunity or something much more dangerous.

The End is a challenging film and the rewards may be minimal, but that it exists at all is a miracle itself.

Somewhere between Alien & Aliens — fitting given its place in the timeline — Romulus serves up blockbuster-level action & visceral horror all in one.

Using her face alone, Monroe shifts from morbid curiosity to abject terror and emotional devastation, culminating in a killer final shot that encapsulates what's so unnerving about the movie. Sometimes fear doesn't immediately register — it can be a seed, planted and cultivated over time and, once a full bloom settles in, it's hard to shake the fears that grip you.

The script is caught between wanting to be a full-blown horror movie and wanting to be a tense psychological thriller.

Rent Free doesn't veer too far into dramatic territory, but when it does, it feels earned, a sobering moment that snaps the blurry edges of our protagonists' perspective into crystal clear view.

Despite finding a sweet spot, The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer falters as a whole. Buscemi, Magaro, and Lower give great performances, but it does little to fill in the gaps of the story.

Baker's familiarity with the area gives Janet Planet a distinct sense of place and Baker an assured way with the camera, but there's also a universality to it and to the film's central pair that helps it transcend to something even more affecting.

There are great moments in the quiet of Treasure, the scenes where director Julia von Heinz's camera lingers on a look, an item, or a landscape. But Treasure finds itself stuck in the middle of these tender moments and a heavy-handed way with emotion that has good intentions but doesn't land the same.

Inside Out 2 leans more towards greatness than redundancy & though it falls short of being one of Pixar's best, it's a worthy addition to the library.

It eludes classification, refusing to commit to being one thing and instead asking us to question our relationship with the world around us.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a rousing action-adventure in the ruins of the human world – traces of the past remain but this is Noa's story.

Writer and director Chris Nash's In A Violent Nature may be the first slasher in a long time to truly deconstruct the genre in a way that feels surprising, even if the results of its experiment are mixed.

It's dramatic storytelling with blockbuster-levels of energy, a triumph for Guadagnino, and a new all-time great sports movie where the games off the court are just as hot as they are on it.

Bonello posits that, even in fear, feeling is more important than forgetting, and every little death is a door to another future.

Dune: Part Two is an awe-inspiring, visually stunning sci-fi spectacle and a devastating collision of myth and destiny on a galactic scale.

Perfect Days is engrossing in its monotony and fascinating when something disrupts it, a portrait of a simple but beautiful existence that serves as a life-affirming reminder to value the little moments as much as we do the monumental ones.

As Between the Temples reveals more layers to him, Schwartzman deftly uncovers something much deeper. There's grief there, but there's also a profound ability to love without shame and that is perhaps the most revelatory thing of all.

Handling the Under is not an effective horror movie, but its zombie-drama formula allows for a portrait of pain that settles in and stays like an infection.

Little Death is two vignettes — one more compelling than the other – that only loosely come together.

It's unclear if Stress Positions has arrived "too soon" but its proximity to the pandemic doesn't make it any less hysterical, even if it's hollow in other areas.

The Zone of Interest is one of the most unsettling movies of the 21st century, stunningly relevant, invasive by design, lodging itself in your head as an unforgettable cinematic experience.

Leave the World Behind may pull some of its punches in favor of an easy out, but it's still a thought-provoking, dread-inducing tale about the end of a world that has become all too familiar.

Lanthimos has often bewildered audiences with his sensibilities, but Bella Baxter proves to be the perfect muse for the director's inherent curiosity, a lens through which to look at the world that reveals harsh truths and startling beauty.

It's a bold swing from the director and, despite it being tonally uneven and a bit messy, Napoleon can be still quite fun.

Thanksgiving is special in the way all good slashers are — it's funny and gruesome, with a trashy B-movie energy and a solid whodunit at the center of it all.

Priscilla is another masterwork from Coppola, a study of a woman in a gilded cage and her journey to freedom with two central performances that will go down as some of the best in Coppola's entire filmography.

The film presents a bold vision of what movies can and should be and, ultimately, it's a more exhilarating experience to watch a movie of this scale take risks and fall short than it is to see a blockbuster play it safe and deliver mediocre results.

Bottoms nearly has it all and even where it falls short, it is still far bolder than much of anything released by major studios in the last few years.

While Red, White & Royal Blue is a little too light on laughs, its central romance follows the book closely enough that die-hard fans will be pleased and casual viewers will be able to find something to love.

Oppenheimer is a devastating portrait of man's hubris in the face of change, with some of the most startling & horrifying images of Nolan's career.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 isn't a perfect movie — there's one big fumble that's sure to be divisive — but it's damn near close.

Unfortunately, Run Rabbit Run is less than the sum of its parts, and even an excellent turn from Sarah Snook can't elevate the movie beyond its basest instincts.

No Hard Feelings is a dual coming-of-age story hidden inside a raunchy comedy that, despite its faults, is both sweet and hysterical, with a chaotic performance from Lawrence that shows the actress can do just about anything.

There are a few bright spots in Rise of the Beasts, but these are largely overshadowed by a lot of generic parts that would not be out of place in any of the previous six Transformers movies.

The cast's chemistry really sells what transpires here and without that, it's hard to see the film working. Luckily, Brooklyn 45's disparate pieces come together to make for a wholly unique film that feels rare to come across these days.

While Schrader's directing and the casts' performances are more than up to standard, Master Gardener somehow ends up being less than the sum of its parts.

The narrative of Monica is scant, but this makes way for a poignant examination of trans identity and loneliness through the lens of one family.

It's full of fast-talking tech nerds and morally compromised corporate A-holes, it bites off a bit more than it can chew in telling the story of Research in Motion, but it's still a good time, reminiscent of mid-budget dramedies that have all but disappeared in recent years.

It's a film that sneaks up on its audience, revealing layers to friendship and other intimate relationships that otherwise would not be parsed through if there wasn't the time.

While it doesn't quite reach the horrific highs of the 2013 remake, it rips through other splatter-fests with the finesse of a freshly whetted chainsaw blade.

Beau is Afraid will make one feel alongside its title character in a way few films do, and it's a torturous and glorious ride.

From its close-up shots to its wide framing of characters against the barren Texas desert, there is a sense of immediacy that makes the film's thriller elements all the more enrapturing.

Tetris is a serviceable adaptation, but for all its visual flair and 80s nostalgia, there's still something missing when all the pieces come together.