Graeme Guttmann

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

An effective portrait of ambiguity accompanied by a stellar lead performance, Apples' contemplative nature hides nuanced questions about the modern age underneath its placid surface.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

There may be few miracles in The Wonder, but it's clear that Pugh is one unto herself.

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.

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.

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.

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.