One film after another: 2025-26 review collection
2025
10/31
Sinners (video review)
Anderson updates Thomas Pynchon for the era of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) roundups, pitting shaggy revolutionary Leonardo DiCaprio against cartoonish forces of reaction
VIDEO
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/17/one-battle-after-another-review-paul-thomas-andersons-thrillingly-helter-skelter-counter-culture-caper
VIDEO
The Housemaid
VIDEO
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Mercy
VIDEO
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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
VIDEO
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/26/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery-review-josh-oconnor-excels-in-another-deadpan-delight
Daniel Craig returns as private detective Benoit Blanc, in a slightly more serious mode than before
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/07/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery-review
The obvious shadow of Trump looms over Brolin’s vile and destructive head of parish, whose double standards and hateful rhetoric do nothing to quell the unquestioning support of his followers.
Slyly comic panels of drama on the awkwardness and closeness of parents with their grown-up children
VIDEO
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/31/father-mother-sister-brother-review-jim-jarmusch-cate-blanchett-charlotte-rampling-tom-waits
A not working pastiche, mixing genres like western, comedy, drama and gun crazy action.
VIDEO
A ri Aster now worryingly creates a losing streak with this bafflingly dull movie, a laborious and weirdly self-important satire which makes a heavy, flavourless meal of some uninteresting and unoriginal thoughts – on the Covid lockdown, online conspiracy theories, social polarisation, Black Lives Matter, liberal-white privilege and guns. The movie looks good, courtesy of Darius Khondji’s cinematography, but has nothing new or dramatically vital to say, and moreover manages the extraordinary achievement of making Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix look like boring actors. This is by virtue of its moderate script and by the unvarying stolid pace over its hefty running time which might have suited a 12-episode streamer.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/16/eddington-review-ari-asters-tedious-covid-western-masks-drama-and-mutes-his-stars