Fall 2025 movie preview

Movie lovers, rejoice: based on festival reporting, the fall 2025 season is gonna be FIRE. I’m getting fall 2023 vibes, when a relatively sleepy spring and summer did not prepare me for the wealth of fantastic films that flooded the last quarter of the year. Only time will tell whether reality meets expectations, but I gotta say it’s been a while since I’ve been so excited about so many movies, most of which thankfully are getting at least some kind of theatrical release within the next few months.

Most excited:

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (Oct. 10 theaters, Oct. 24 Netflix)

Kathryn Bigelow, one of the most kinetic directors working today, depicts the nightmare scenario of an imminent nuclear attack on a major U.S. city through the lens of a government procedural. The scariest part? How little it matters that the government in this scenario is actually functional and plays by the book in its response. Cast includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, and many others.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Nov. 7)

Joachim Trier wowed Cannes with this dramedy about a famous director (Stellan Skarsgård) who tries to win back his estranged daughter, an acclaimed actress (Renate Reinsve), by casting her in an autobiographical film. When she demurs, he casts an American starlet (Elle Fanning) instead. At heart, though, the movie’s really about the family’s history and resulting fucked-up dynamics.

HAMNET (Nov. 27)

I still need to read Maggie O’Farrell’s fictionalized imagining of the death of Shakespeare’s son that focuses on the perspective of the wife/mother (here named Agnes rather than Anne). But by all accounts Chloé Zhao’s gorgeously heartbreaking adaptation and Jessie Buckley’s even more heartbreaking performance as Agnes have absolutely destroyed festival audiences at Telluride and Toronto. Bonus: Sadboy hottie Paul Mescal co-stars as William Shakespeare himself. Bring a hankie or lots of tissues – you’ll need them.

FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER (Dec. 24)

Perennial indie darling-turned elder statesman Jim Jarmusch won the top prize at Venice with this quiet little character piece, a triptych of three different awkward family encounters starring Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Charlotte Rampling, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, and others. Jarmusch can be a little hit or miss, but when he hits there’s nothing better.

NO OTHER CHOICE (Dec. 25)

Park Chan-Wook’s pitch-black satire, which impressed at Venice despite coming away empty-handed, has been drawing comparisons to Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite for its searing critique of modern capitalism. But the premise, drawn from the 2005 Costa-Gavras film The Axe, is way more outré: a formerly successful company man (Lee Byung-Hun) who’s unexpectedly laid off and desperate to preserve his family’s upper-middle class status, decides his only viable path forward is to literally off all his competitors. The Koreans really do have a thing or two to say about the dehumanizing effects of capitalism, don’t they? I also find it bleakly hilarious this movie’s being released here on Christmas Day.

Additionally, the following do not yet have a scheduled theatrical release date and it’s not clear they’ll be released this fall, but I am so there if/when they are:

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

A musical about the founder of the Shaker movement? You bet, and based on early reviews it sounds at once completely fascinating and completely out there. Directed by Mona Fastvold, partner to Brady Corbet and screenwriter for his films, including last year’s The Brutalist, and starring Amanda Seyfried as the titular protagonist. It may not be for everyone, but this is actually the film I’m most looking forward to, assuming it gets a release.

THE CHRISTOPHERS

Steven Soderbergh directed this Ian McKellan showcase about a famous painter and first-class arsehole (McKellan) whose kids hire a talented but struggling artist (Michaela Coen) ostensibly to serve as their dad’s “assistant” but really to help “restore” (read: “forge”) some of his unfinished works. What ensues is a duel of words and wits that might seem more fitting for a stage than the big screen. However, never underestimate Soderbergh’s ability to make even a static room cinematic (see also his delightful Black Bag from earlier this year) or the power of McKellan’s dramatic chops.

Also of high interest:

THE HISTORY OF SOUND (in theaters now)

Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor as a pair of music scholars who fall in love while collecting Americana during the 1920s? Yes, please, even if early reviews have been a bit tepid. While the film’s generally being described as restrained and understated to a fault, that’s not necessarily a bad thing in an age where subtlety is, at best, undervalued.

ROOFMAN (Oct. 10)

This one is based on a real-life dude who robbed a string of fast-food establishments, went to prison for it, but escaped and hid out for a while in a Toys R Us where he ended up getting involved with one of the employees. The movie version, directed by Derek Cianfrance and starring Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, looks warm and charming. I can’t help wondering, though, how closely it adheres to the actual story, which didn’t have a happy ending.

BLUE MOON (Oct. 17)

This fall we get not one but two movies from Richard Linklater, and while this one has gotten a bit overshadowed by the buzzier Nouvelle Vague (see below), it may end up being the more interesting of the two. Ethan Hawke stars as Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in the twilight of his career, looking back on his former working partnership with composer Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott). Expect much reflecting and angsting that remains eminently relatable – it’s the Linklater brand.

THE MASTERMIND (Oct. 17)

Kelly Reichardt’s latest centers on a would-be small-town, small-time art thief (Josh O’Connor) whose attempt at a heist quickly reveals how out of his depth he is. The cast includes a who’s who of undersung pros – Hope Davis, Bill Camp, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann – plus Alana Haim as the thief’s wife. (Not to undercut Haim, who was pretty good in Licorice Pizza.) I feel like this would make a great double bill with Roofman.

HEDDA (Oct. 22 theaters, Oct. 29 Amazon Prime)

Nia DaCosta updates Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for current times, with Tessa Thompson as the glamorous but toxically dissatisfied Hedda, Nina Hoss as her fragile ex-lover Lovborg, and Imogen Poots as Lovborg’s supportive new partner.

NUREMBERG (Nov. 7)

A film that screams “important and timely” because, y’know, it is. Unlike the classic Judgment at Nuremberg (which I still need to see), this one is less about the Nuremberg trials than about a psychiatrist’s pre-trial interactions with, and assessment of, one of the key architects of the Third Reich. Russell Crowe is reportedly brilliant as Hermann Göring; Rami Malek plays the shrink.

ETERNITY (Nov. 26)

Who’da thunk it, a rom com with a novel premise: in the afterlife, a woman (Elizabeth Olsen) must choose whether to spend eternity with her dashing first husband (Callum Turner) who died young in a war, or the second husband (Miles Teller) she built a life and family and grew old with.

THE SECRET AGENT (Nov. 26)

Set in 1970s Brazil, this political thriller about an everyman (Wagner Moura) who gets into the crosshairs of the military dictatorship was much praised at Cannes and netted the best actor prize for Moura. Could it be this year’s I’m Still Here?

Will also probably see:

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Sept. 26)

I didn’t love Paul Thomas Anderson’s last attempt at adapting a Pynchon novel (Inherent Vice), and I tend to find Leonardo DiCaprio overrated as an actor. That said, this loose/partial adaptation of Vineland is getting some early raves, and it sounds like Sean Penn steals the show anyway.

THE SMASHING MACHINE (Oct. 3)

While I’m wary of a Benny Safdie movie (I loathed Uncut Gems) and not really interested in MMA, Venice loved this one and Dwayne Johnson is already becoming an early frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar.

AFTER THE HUNT (Oct. 10)

Luca Guadagnino’s take on Me Too fell rather flat at Venice, despite a highly anticipated star turn by Julia Roberts as a female professor caught between a student mentee (Ayo Edibiri) and the male professor (Andrew Garfield) the student accuses of sexual assault. And I don’t even like Julia Roberts! But she’s at her best playing abrasive (see, e.g., Closer), as she seems to be here, and I do like Garfield and Edibiri.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Oct. 15)

Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi’s political thriller explores the moral implications of terrorizing the terrorizer – particularly where the victim-turned-punisher harbors doubt that they’ve got the right guy.

FRANKENSTEIN (Oct. 17)

Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic got a mixed but generally positive reception at Venice, and Jacob Elordi’s drawing excellent notices as the Monster (and probably true hero of the story). Plus I loves me some Oscar Isaac, who plays Victor Frankenstein.

WAKE UP DEAD MAN (Nov. 26 theaters, Dec. 12 Netflix)

The third installment in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out trilogy takes on…organized religion? Or maybe just the culty kind. Anyway, it’s getting solid early reviews, especially for the ubiquitous Josh O’Connor as one of the prime suspects.

THE CHORAL (Dec. 25)

Ralph Fiennes plays a choir master who’s brought in to lead a small Yorkshire town’s choral society during WWI. Unlike No Other Choice, sounds like a very cozy Christmas-appropriate movie, cozily directed by Nicholas Hytner, about bringing folks together in hard times. The main draw here is obviously Fiennes, who’s coming off a run of strong performances that show he’s still one of our finest living actors.

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB

A harrowing film based on the harrowing true story of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza last year, it’s devastated just about everyone who’s seen it and won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice. TBD whether it gets a U.S. distributor or suffers the same fate as last year’s No Other Land, which could not, though it still went on to win the Oscar for best documentary.

Other films of interest:

A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY (Sept. 19) - Kogonada (Columbus, After Yang) embraces full-on whimsy with this romantasy starring Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie as attractive strangers who cross time together and strike sparks along the way.

THE LOST BUS (Sept. 19) – Based on a true story about a bus driver (Matthew McConaughey) who must drive a teacher (America Ferrara) and her young students to safety from a raging California wildfire. Paul Greengrass directs, so you know it'll be a nailbiter.

STEVE (Sept. 19) – Cillian Murphy plays the headmaster of a school for troubled boys.

ANEMONE (Oct. 3) – All I know about this one is that it stars Daniel Day-Lewis (in his first role since Phantom Thread), was directed by his son, was co-written by father and son, and is at some level about father-son dynamics. None of that guarantees it’ll be good, but I think we can guarantee DDL will be riveting in it.

ORWELL: 2+2=5 (Oct. 3) – A documentary about George Orwell seems particularly and unfortunately timely these days. Directed by Raoul Peck, who brought us the outstanding I Am Not Your Negro.

GOOD FORTUNE (Oct. 17) – Keanu Reeves as a guardian angel might be just what I need. But jury’s still out on Aziz Ansari, who makes his directorial debut and stars as Keanu’s charge.

BUGONIA (Oct. 24) – I leave it to you to assess just how bonkers this one is going to be, based on this premise: “Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.” Keep in mind it’s Yorgos Lanthimos we’re talking about, and Emma Stone still all in as his muse. They have done terrific work together, and fucking weird work together, and sometimes work that is both.

NOUVELLE VAGUE (Oct. 31) – Richard Linklater’s recreation – sort of – of the filming of Godard’s Breathless sounds like a pleasant trifle rather than a meaningful disquisition on the French New Wave. That could still be reason enough to see it.

THE RUNNING MAN (Nov. 14) – Edgar Wright takes on a new adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian novel about a game show in which a selected contestant is hunted by assassins and must stay alive for 30 days to win. (Between this and the already-out The Long Walk, it’s a banner year for movies based on proto-Hunger Games Stephen King properties.) While the 1987 version, which I haven’t seen, starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, in this one, it’s a leaner, meaner, more palpably desperate Glen Powell. Based on the trailer, he understands the assignment, as does Josh Brolin, who plays the show’s producer. Will the rest of the movie? Here’s hoping.

Not my cuppa, but maybe yours: KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (Oct. 10); TRON: ARES (Oct. 10); IF I HAD LEGS, I’D KICK YOU (Oct. 10); SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (Oct. 24); DIE, MY LOVE (Nov. 7); JAY KELLY (Nov. 14 theaters, Dec. 5 Netflix); WICKED: FOR GOOD (Nov. 21); AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH (Dec. 19)

2025 Oscars predix

In contrast to last year's Oppenheimer steamroller, this year's Oscars cap an ever-dynamic, wildly shifting race in which there are pretty much no certainties except for the fact that Kieran Culkin is winning Best Supporting Actor. It's definitely more fun this way, though hell on nerves if you've got any money riding on the outcome. Fortunately, I have nothing to lose but my pride; and I know I'll be in good company since I'm generally going with the (very tenuous) consensus picks. For a slightly broader range of opinions, I refer you to the collected predictions of my fellow Film Experience team members.

BEST PICTURE

Will win: Anora...probably?

Should win: The Brutalist, which could win.

Dark horse: Conclave

BEST DIRECTOR

Will win: Sean Baker, Anora

Should win: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Dark horse: Corbet - and I'd think him likelier if I didn't get the sense that he's not as well liked as Baker and has sometimes come across as a bit too self-important.

BEST ACTOR

Will win: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist.

Should win: I can't argue with a Brody win, though I would love to see Ralph Fiennes finally get an Oscar - and he was excellent in Conclave.

Dark horse: Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown, though I really hope this doesn't happen. He was good but not nearly as good as either Brody or Fiennes.

BEST ACTRESS

Will win: Demi Moore, The Substance

Should win: I haven't seen The Substance (can't do body horror), so I'm not really in a position to say.

Dark horse: Folks are talking up Mikey Madison's firecracker star turn in Anora, and she does have momentum from recent precursor awards - but I think the real dark horse here is Fernanda Torres' quieter but equally powerful performance as the unlikely fighter of government oppression in I'm Still Here.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will win: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Should win: Razor's edge close between Ed Norton's Pete Seeger in A Complete Unknown and Guy Pearce's American tycoon in The Brutalist, but I give the very slight edge to Norton. He captures the soul of Seeger in a way that transcends mimicry, and that Chalamet never quite achieves with Bob Dylan. (In fairness, some of that is due to the way Dylan is written, or maybe even the way he actually is: unknowable.)

Dark horse: None

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will win: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Perez

Should win: Saldaña is eminently worthy, though my personal favorite of the five nominees is Monica Barbaro's knockout turn as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown.

Dark horse: Some are saying Isabella Rossellini will get a career nod for Conclave, but I just don't think she was given enough to do to overcome Saldaña (who was arguably more of a co-lead).

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Will win: Anora

Should win: A Real Pain

Dark horse: A Real Pain

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will win: Conclave

Should win: Nickel Boys

Dark horse: A Complete Unknown

OTHER CATEGORIES

International Feature: I'm Still Here

Animated Feature: The Wild Robot, though Flow could upset

Documentary: No Other Land, though Porcelain War also has a good shot

Cinematography: The Brutalist

Editing: Conclave

Production Design: Wicked

Costume Design: Wicked

Makeup & Hair: The Substance

Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two

Score: The Brutalist

Song: "El Mal" from Emilia Perez

Sound: Either A Complete Unknown or Dune: Part Two; I keep waffling on this one

Animated Short: Haven't seen any of the nominees this year, but based on others' descriptions I'm going out on a bit of a limb and predicting Magic Candies. It's not the consensus pick but it sounds like it's the best of the bunch, and sometimes the best does win this category!

Documentary Short: The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Live Action Short: A Lien

Top Ten Movies of 2024

2024 was an odd year in film for me, in that I liked the majority of the movies I saw but didn’t love any of them. It suffers by comparison to 2023, when I loved or really liked not only my top ten but at least ten more that would have easily made my list in any other year. Indeed, as the current movie awards season approached I found myself kvetching about its meager and uninspiring crop of contenders after 2023’s embarrassment of riches. But the truth is that 2024 was a solid enough year in which I ended up liking several movies I didn’t expect to like while generally also liking but not loving the movies I was most excited to see. The result is a weird flattening of the curve: once I identified my top five(ish), I found it really hard to rank the next five to ten in any meaningful order.

Per usual, there were many movies I missed in theaters and have not yet seen on streaming, including Sing Sing, The Substance, The Apprentice, Gladiator II, Queer, Babygirl, The Room Next Door, Hard Truths, Vermiglio (actually, I don’t think that one has opened yet in a theater near me), and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Also, documentaries remain my blind spot; I’ve basically seen none, unless you count National Geographic’s (heartwarming!) Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story.

With these caveats, here are my top ten movies of 2024, followed by a second band of “alternates”/honorable mentions, and a third band “worth seeing.”

1. CHALLENGERS

I’m as surprised as you that this ended up being my #1, but for my money it was the most purely enjoyable film I saw all year. I’ve been a bit cool on director Luca Guadagnino till now, but I really dug this sleek, sexy romp and its trio of sleek, sexy tennis players (Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist) who just can’t seem to quit each other, even as their careers take sharply different turns. Theirs is a love triangle, yes, but a complicated one, with the balance of power perpetually shifting like a good tennis match. It makes for a compelling watch, propelled by the dynamic cinematography and pulse-pounding Trent Reznor-Atticus Ross soundtrack and capped by an exhilarating ending that shouldn’t work yet somehow does.

2. THE BRUTALIST

A sweeping Film with a capital “F” that swings for the fences and doesn’t quite make it – more of a triple than a homer – but you have to admire its ambition. Up-and-coming director Brady Corbet spins an engrossing tale of a fictional Hungarian Jewish architect (Adrien Brody) who emigrates to the U.S. after WWII and attracts the interest of a rich industrialist (Guy Pearce). The latter commissions him to build a cultural center, a project that drags on for decades due in part to the architect’s unwillingness to compromise his vision, in part to circumstances beyond his control. Part Great Man narrative, part interrogation of the American Dream, and part meditation on the long shadows of the Holocaust, it's no wonder the movie runs 3.5 hours, including a 15-minute intermission; the wonder is that it held my attention the entire time, even if not everything about it works. Extra kudos go to the spectacular production design and cinematography (plus, ok, a dash of AI) that managed to create, on a very lean budget, compelling images of a visionary architectural work that never actually got built! The acting, too, is spectacular: Brody delivers an impressive performance, at once impassioned and nuanced, while Pearce almost steals the show as the tycoon whose superficial charm can’t hide the darkness beneath.

3. SEPTEMBER 5

A lean, tight, absorbing newsroom procedural that’s less about the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre than the making of the massacre into a live TV event. Shot from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew that ended up covering the attack, it touches lightly on classic questions about journalistic ethics but is fundamentally more interested in showing the actual nuts-and-bolts work behind the scenes that captured and to some degree shaped an especially dark day in 20th century history. It succeeds due in large part to a fine cast that includes John Magaro as the guy in charge of the control room that day, Ben Chaplin as his immediate boss, Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge, then-President of ABC Sports (later of ABC News), and Leonie Benesch as the translator and only German in the room. (Wisely, the film doesn’t cast anyone as Jim McKay, relying instead on archival footage of his broadcast.) But just as much credit goes to the painstaking physical recreation of the control room and its operations, which gives the film its sheen of authenticity and tangibly analog feel.

4. A REAL PAIN

Full disclosure: going into this movie, I was not at all looking forward to spending a couple of hours (ok, 90 minutes: points for trimness!) with a Jesse Eisenberg nebbish and a Kieran Culkin loose cannon whose neck you want to wring after five minutes. Yet I found myself totally won over by this road trip/odd couple movie about a pair of Jewish American cousins who embark on a tour of Holocaust sites in Poland as half bonding session, half tribute to their recently deceased Polish grandmother. Yes, the two actors play to their respective types – Eisenberg the neurotic but conventional one, Culkin the charismatic but manic one who veers wildly between charming and exhausting. But they display a convincing rapport, while Eisenberg (who wrote and directed) manages to strike the tonal balance just right between the awkward comedy of Culkin’s shenanigans and the seriousness of grappling with a heritage of trauma, both historical and personal. The supporting cast – playing the rest of the tour group – is also quite good. And Poland never looked so lovely as it does through the lens of DP and Warsaw native Michal Dymek.

5. GHOSTLIGHT

This indie gem – about a construction worker (Keith Kupferer) who works through a devastating personal loss by participating in a community theater production of Romeo and Juliet – largely flew under the radar last year, but deserves broader recognition. Let’s just say I’m glad I had the foresight to bring a packet of Kleenex to my show because I used almost all of it before the movie was over. Not because it’s sad – though the shadow of tragedy hangs over it, both on and off stage – but because it’s an incredibly moving slow-burn catharsis for an emotionally closed off guy who finds a channel for his grief and anger. The relevance of the play to his own life is a bit too on the nose, but the stellar performances by Kupferer and the rest of the cast make it ring 100% true.

6. ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

This was a film that grew on me over time. Set in current-day Mumbai, it quietly illuminates the lives of three women of different generations and backgrounds who work at a hospital. Each is dealing with her own source of heartache or emotional stress, which director Payal Kapaydia depicts with an interesting mix of intimacy and detachment. In the final act, the trio make a trip to a village by the sea, where they all manage to find catharsis and communion. Kapadia paints an exceptionally delicate and lyrical portrait not just of the challenges faced by women in modern India but of the incredibly disparate, multicultural, multilingual, more than slightly lonely vastness that is modern Mumbai.

7. NICKEL BOYS

Confession: I haven’t been able to bring myself to read the Colson Whitehead novel about two black boys – one idealistic, one cynical – who become friends at a “reform school” (read: institute for state-sanctioned abuse) in 1960s Florida. So it’s probably good for me that director RaMell Ross takes a highly aestheticized approach to such grim, even gruesome subject matter. He chooses to film in first person perspective, switching back and forth between the two boys and one of them as an adult, 20 years later. He also chooses to convey much of their horrific treatment via suggestion rather than direct depiction. Both of these choices work surprisingly well, even if the film feels almost too lyrical and impressionistic as a result – like a cross between Malick and Moonlight. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and avoids the trap of misery/trauma porn in favor of lifting up the connection between the boys.

8. THELMA

June Squibb (still going strong at 90+) finally gets her spotlight as the eponymous heroine of this delightful comedy, whose response to getting scammed is to hunt down her scammer – with the help of a fellow elder (Richard Roundtree) and notwithstanding the best efforts of her worried family to deter her. Josh Margolin’s debut feature is a very funny yet empathetic look at the challenges of growing old, with Thelma having to learn her limitations even as she rises above them. The movie isn’t perfect – it depends on some creaky plot contrivances, chiefly involving a scooter (partly for the sight gag effect, partly to introduce Roundtree’s character) and a gun, and it drags a little in the middle section – but it’s so endearing its flaws ultimately don’t matter. Squibb is fantastic as Thelma, while Roundtree deserves equal props for the grace, dignity, and warmth he brings as her straight man. This was his last film, and a hell of a high note to end his career.

9. THE BIKERIDERS

Another surprise inclusion here; what can I say? Jeff Nichols’ loose chronicle of the rise and fall of a motorcycle club in 1960s and early ’70s Chicago has really stuck with me. It’s more about vibes and images than plot, as one might expect from a film literally based on a photo book, but they’re damn good-looking vibes and images, anchored in damn good-looking – and more importantly, just damn good – actors. Once again, the Brits show they can do heartland America better than most Americans: Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer are great as the leader of the group and the wife of his protégé, respectively. Meanwhile, Austin Butler, as said protégé, looks way too pretty and well coiffed even when he's getting beat up, but exudes enough charisma that we understand just why neither of them can let go of him. The movie is exceptionally good at capturing mood and is often surprisingly funny, even as its portrait of biker culture grows inevitably darker and uglier.

10. Tie:

FLOW

There’s something at once mystical and familiar about this Latvian animated film centered on a cat whose world is overtaken by a biblical-scale flood and who ends up seeking refuge on a drifting sailboat, along with a very random assortment of other animals that include a dog, a capybara, a lemur, and a huge white crane-like bird. There’s no dialogue – the animals all sound and behave remarkably like their real-life counterparts (except for the fact that no one tries to prey on each other) – and no real plot, though plenty of moments of tension, suspense, humor, and even transcendence. You could read all kinds of allegorical meanings into their incredible journey, or you could just treat it as a beautiful dream. I’m inclined to the latter view though I can appreciate the former.

and

CONCLAVE

I resisted including this one in my top ten because it’s basically a potboiler – based on the novel by Robert Harris about the intrigue-laden election of a fictional pope – dressed up as something more profound than it is. Here’s the thing: it’s a really entertaining potboiler, directed with flair by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), that also offers a fascinating character study of a seemingly low-profile, dedicated servant of the church (a terrific Ralph Fiennes, as the cardinal presiding over the process) whose intentions and motivations are more complex and conflicted than they initially appear. It’s also exquisitely crafted, from the strong cast – including Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, among others, as competing cardinals who range across the ideological spectrum – to the striking cinematography and meticulous production design. And whatever you think of its jaw-dropping dénouement, its final message of empathy, balance, and humility carries a particularly poignant resonance at a time when these qualities seem to be not only disappearing from our public discourse but openly derided.

Honorable mentions:

Janet Planet

The semiautobiographical debut feature of playwright Annie Baker – tracing one summer in the life of a pre-adolescent girl and her hippie-ish single mom (Julianne Nicholson) in early 1990s western Massachusetts – is not for those with a short attention span or intolerance for ellipses. But if you’re patient you’ll be rewarded with a beautifully studied portrait of a particular moment and place in time and a close mother-daughter relationship observed through the loving but critical eyes of the daughter.

Maria

The final installment of Pablo Larraín’s trilogy about Very Famous Women Going Through Turmoil – in this case Maria Callas, played by Angelina Jolie – looks like a cross between museum exhibit and high-end perfume commercial (not a bad thing, actually). But it achieves surprising emotional depth by shifting between flashbacks to the soprano’s prime and her final, futile efforts to recover her lost voice. Jolie brings a startling delicacy to the pathos of those last days without losing the inherent magnetism of a larger-than-life superstar.

Dune: Part Two

Visually and aurally, it’s a knockout; and it’s undoubtedly an intelligent and skillful adaptation of notoriously difficult-to-adapt material. However, its overarching cold, ceremonial tone – making everything feel at once heavily manipulated and utterly predetermined – also prevented any real emotional investment on my part, in contrast to the more human-scaled urgency of Part One. More thoughts here.

Also worth seeing:

Anora; Emilia Perez; I’m Still Here; The Seed of the Sacred Fig; A Complete Unknown; Saturday Night; The Order; The Wild Robot; A Different Man; Hit Man; Fly Me to the Moon; Wicked

2024 Oscars predix

For a fantastic year in movies that yielded one of the strongest Oscar Best Picture nominee lineups in recent memory, the actual Oscars race is turning out to be a bit of a snoozefest. Oppenheimer has steamrolled its competitors all season and is almost certainly taking home the most awards (including picture and director) tonight. All of the acting awards are pretty much locked up, and while the screenplay awards have a little more room to surprise, they're trending towards heavy favorites. Still, I can't complain too much given the high quality of most of the nominees and likely winners. I just hope the ceremony offers some unexpected moments (in a good way), since the awards themselves aren't likely to provide any.

BEST PICTURE

Will win: Oppenheimer

Should win: My personal favorites were The Holdovers and American Fiction, but I think Oppenheimer would be a worthy winner.

Dark horse: There just isn't one this year.

BEST DIRECTOR

Will win: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Should win: Nolan - this is his best film in a long time.

Dark horse: Once again, there isn't one. Nolan or bust.

BEST ACTOR

Will win: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer, which surprises me a bit since it's a very good but very reserved performance. Yet he's been dominating all the precursor awards.

Should win: Look, I'm a longtime Murphy fan, but I would give this to Paul Giamatti for career-best work in The Holdovers. Even better would be a tie between Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright, who also delivered career-best work in American Fiction. And honestly, I'm a little sad Bradley Cooper never really got any traction for Maestro.

Dark horse: Again, none, though Giamatti still has a tiny sliver of a chance of an upset.

BEST ACTRESS

Will win: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Should win: Where the fuck is Margot Robbie for Barbie?

Dark horse: Emma Stone could still win for her tour de force performance as woman-child Bella Baxter in Poor Things, but my gut says the Oscar's going to Gladstone.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will win: Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer

Should win: Ryan Gosling, Barbie - though I am sad Willem Dafoe did not get nominated for his lovely turn in Poor Things.

Dark horse: None

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will win: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Should win: Randolph, although I haven't seen The Color Purple (Danielle Brooks was nominated) or Nyad (Jodie Foster).

Dark horse: None

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Will win: Anatomy of a Fall

Should win: Anatomy of a Fall

Dark horse: Past Lives

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will win: American Fiction (I'm switching last minute from Oppenheimer since most of the pundits seem to be saying AF, which would be just dandy with me!)

Should win: American Fiction

Dark horse: Poor Things

Other Categories

International Feature: The Zone of Interest

Animated Feature: The Boy and the Heron, though Across the Spider-verse could overtake it

Documentary: 20 Days in Mariupol

Cinematography: Oppenheimer

Editing: Oppenheimer

Production Design: Poor Things, though Barbie could sneak in here

Costume Design: same

Makeup & Hair: Maestro

Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One

Score: Oppenheimer

Song: Billie Eilish, "What Was I Made For?" - Barbie

Sound: Oppenheimer

Animated Short: War is Over!

Documentary Short: No idea, but others seem to be predicting The Last Repair Shop so I'll go with that.

Live Action Short: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - check it out on Netflix, it's delightful!

Top Movies of 2023

What a difference a year makes! About this time last year I was bemoaning my lack of enthusiasm for the movies of 2022, including most of the likely Oscar contenders. While there were a number of very good films that year, there just weren’t many that truly thrilled or delighted me. In 2023, by contrast, I felt like a kid in a candy store. It’s true that “Barbenheimer” aside, the year was back-loaded with nearly all of the best movies dropping in the last quarter. However, it felt front-loaded for me in that four of the films I saw at the Middleburg Film Festival in October ended up in my top five of the year. Even more tellingly, I would recommend the vast majority of the films I saw in 2023. There were a few disappointments (Killers of the Flower Moon among the most notable), but many more that met or exceeded my expectations. The result is a lot of “honorable mentions” that in another year would have made my top ten.

The usual caveats: I didn’t see any documentaries in 2023 – though I want to see Menus-Plaisirs: Les Troisgrois, Occupied City, American Symphony, and Anselm – or nearly enough foreign language films, which don’t usually stay long in theaters around here but tend to take longer to hit streaming. Still, I’ll stand by my choices any day. These films enthralled me, moved me, rocked me with laughter – sometimes all three. I share them in the hope that they did or do the same for you.

1. Tie:

AMERICAN FICTION

Writer-director Cord Jefferson delivers a gangbuster of a debut feature with this highly entertaining satire of the literary establishment and the politics of racial representation. Based on a novel written over 20 years ago by Percival Everett, it’s if anything even more current today; think less angry, more wry mash-up of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and Radha Blank’s The 40 Year Old Version. Jeffrey Wright is outstanding as protagonist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a highbrow middle-aged black American writer who writes a ghetto porn novel as a bitter joke...only to see it meet with an effusive reception beyond his wildest imagination. This may be the funniest movie I saw all year; while the satire starts out quite broad, it develops more shading and nuance as it goes on and is deftly interlaced with the more realistic dramedy of Monk’s strained relationship with his family.

THE HOLDOVERS

In what may be Alexander Payne’s softest and sweetest film (in a good way!), Paul Giamatti delivers a career-best performance as a curmudgeonly terror of a history teacher at a boys’ prep school in the early 1970s. Stuck with looking after the few boys who are left behind to spend their Christmas holidays at the school, he builds a slow, mutually begrudging bond with the brightest and most troubled of them (Dominic Sessa), as well as the school cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who’s mourning the death of her son in Vietnam. Both Sessa and Randolph are excellent, but it’s Giamatti who elevates the film to the next level. He somehow manages to be at once the antithesis of Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society and his natural heir – no mean feat.

3. ALL OF US STRANGERS

Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years, HBO’s Looking) once again confirms why he’s one of my favorite writer-directors working today. In his latest film, a London-based writer (Andrew Scott) finds himself visiting his long-dead parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) – or incarnations of them at the point when he tragically lost them – around the same time he begins a relationship with his younger neighbor (Paul Mescal). The parent storyline is loosely based on a Japanese novel; the romance is all Haigh, layering on the perspective of a Gen X gay man whose personal and generational trauma have made it hard to open up to love. Both narratives eventually meld into a haunting, deeply poignant meditation on grief and missed connections. I’m making the movie sound like a downer, but it isn’t really; it works a strange magic that holds you in its grip right up to the end.

4. OPPENHEIMER

Amazingly for a film clocking in at 3 hours of (mostly) men talking, testifying, and writing on chalkboards, Chris Nolan’s take on the “American Prometheus” never once flags or drags; if anything, it’s almost too frenetic, especially initially, in its cross-cutting between different stages of Oppenheimer’s life. It does eventually settle down into a compelling portrait and Nolan’s best film in years. His depiction of the race to build the first A-bomb is particularly riveting, though he somehow manages to generate almost equally high drama and tension from congressional and security clearance board hearings. Boosted by a large and excellent cast, the film ultimately derives much of its power from Cillian Murphy’s spare yet magnetic performance as a man who for all the renown and intense scrutiny he drew remained a profound – and profoundly conflicted – enigma.

5. ANATOMY OF A FALL

Ostensibly a murder mystery and courtroom drama about a man who fell to his death (or was he pushed?), Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner is at its core an almost clinical dissection of a troubled marriage and the difficulty of reconstructing the truth from inevitably subjective and incomplete accounts. By turns chilling, harrowing, and unexpectedly funny, the film sharply underscores how impossible it is to truly understand a relationship from the outside – and sometimes from the inside, too. Sandra Hüller is terrific as the prime suspect, as is Milo Machado-Graner, the young actor who plays her son.

6. THE BOY AND THE HERON

As far as I’m concerned, Miyazaki can keep un-retiring if he continues to create films like this. A gorgeous, moving fantasy about a boy whose grief over his mother’s death leads him to a series of otherworldly adventures, it held me rapt from start to finish and also made me laugh out loud without ever breaking the spell. True, the ending felt a little rushed, and I never entirely untangled how the different worlds in the story were linked. But for me, at least, the film’s best experienced as a dream vision, which means figuring out its internal logic matters less than submitting to its surreal beauty.

7. POOR THINGS

In this retelling of Frankenstein through the fisheye lens of Yorgos Lanthimos, the “monster” is a female beauty (Emma Stone), appropriately named Bella, who provokes not terror but a desire to control her even as she stubbornly seeks freedom and self-actualization. Based on the novel by Alasdair Gray, the film’s a colorful funhouse romp, tricked out with characteristic Lanthimos deadpan humor, lots of sex, and a visually inspired reimagining of an alternate-universe, vaguely steampunk-ish version of Victorian-era Europe. It’s a fascinating watch, and Stone is fierce, fearless, and wonderful as the insatiable Bella, though the performance that affected me most was that of Willem Dafoe as her damaged and damaging, yet surprisingly sympathetic, creator.

8. ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET

Despite never having read the Judy Blume classic, I fell in love with this adaptation, which captures all the joys and anxieties of being a pre-adolescent girl with both humor and empathy and not one whiff of preciousness or condescension. I expected no less from director Kelly Fremon-Craig, who previously wrote and directed the delightful The Edge of Seventeen and, as with that film, gets wonderful performances from her young stars – especially Abby Ryder Fortson as the titular protagonist. Rachel McAdams delivers fine supporting work as Margaret’s equally displaced and disoriented mother, and the film does a nice job evoking the cultural era (NY/NJ circa 1970) without letting it distract from the timelessness of the narrative.

9. MAESTRO

Say what you like about Bradley Cooper’s latest passion project (and it seems many have nothing good to say about it), I found it an impressive directorial and acting follow-up to A Star is Born. Less a biopic than a kaleidoscopic look at the life of Leonard Bernstein, its emotional fulcrum is his loving but complicated marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Both Cooper and Mulligan are top-notch and really sell their characters at each point of their lives; the cinematography, too, is seriously virtuosic and rangey work that doesn’t feel like showing off so much as channeling Bernstein’s exuberance. It helps if you don’t treat Maestro as a movie “about” either Lenny or Felicia but about their relationship. On that level, I think it works beautifully.

10. SHOWING UP

With Kelly Reichardt, it’s always about the little things. Here she provides a glimpse of a few days in the life of an artist (Michelle Williams) who’s struggling to put together a show while dealing with the distractions of no hot water, tensions with her family and with her more successful frenemy (Hong Chau), and a wounded pigeon (yes, a pigeon). Like Reichardt’s other films, this one isn’t driven by plot – there isn’t really one – but by her unsentimental yet empathetic observations of a character, her community, and the dynamics therein. It’s the kind of quiet little film that sneaks up on you long after you’ve seen it and other, flashier movies have faded. It’s also a thought-provoking reminder of how much of making art is about...well, showing up.

Next 10 / Honorable mentions: Barbie; The Zone of Interest; Past Lives; Perfect Days; The Teachers’ Lounge; Fallen Leaves; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Suzume; Joy Ride; Asteroid City

Also a passing word in defense of two blockbusters that weren’t: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Marvels. Were they great films? No. Did they need to be made? No. Still, both were both rollicking fun and didn’t take themselves too seriously, and both deserved to perform better than they did – especially the much-maligned Marvels.

And finally, a shout-out to two 2022 films that I did not see until 2023 but that would surely have made my top 10 for 2022 if I had seen them in time:

Return to Seoul

Cambodian-French director Davy Chou’s gorgeous air kiss of a film charts the fitful odyssey of a restless young Korean-French woman (Ji Min-Park), adopted by a French couple as a baby, who finds herself in Seoul and ends up looking for her birth parents. After that first visit, the narrative flashes forward, a few years at a time, to her subsequent return trips. Each time she brings a radically different outward persona but the same big question mark about what she really wants – an elusiveness that would be frustrating were it not for Park’s startlingly assured performance. The film’s vibes are part Lost in Translation, part Wong Kar-Wai, part Korean comedy of manners – but what Chou delivers is his own uniquely rich evocation of the disorienting experience of visiting one’s country of origin for the first time.

The Quiet Girl

In this tiny gem of a film, a young Irish girl is sent by her sprawling, largely uncaring family to live for a while with distant relatives; they treat her with simple kindness and attention, and she thrives under their care. And that’s it: the kind of small, quiet, precisely observed film that carefully avoids easy sensibility only to hit you with ALL THE FEELINGS by the end. I still tear up at the memory of the last line.

How Had I Never - 2023

For someone who loves movies as much as I do, there are a lot of well-known films – including way too many stone-cold classics – that I’ve never seen. There are a few reasons for these gaps, the main one being that I'm very bad about watching movies at home; I strongly prefer to see them in theaters. A corollary reason is that I invariably prioritize the hot new release that’s just hit theaters rather than the classic I’ve been meaning to watch for years. Nevertheless, I do try periodically – if sporadically – to play catch-up through home viewing.

This year’s “how had I never seen” list was shaped largely by two phenomena: (1) the end of Netflix’s DVD program (RIP), which resulted in a cascade of long-deferred DVDs from my queue; (2) my participation in online guess-the-movie games Framed and AFI’s Get the Picture, which regularly surfaced films I knew I should have seen but had not. The result is an odd mix of classic noir, French New Wave, Mel Brooks, silent films, and animated films. All were worth watching, though the three that really exceeded my expectations, as noted below, were Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr, and Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7.

**My Neighbor Totoro (1988) – Now my favorite Miyazaki. What I found most striking is how gentle it is, in the best possible way. It never makes light of the fears or fancies of childhood, but spins them into exhilarating and ultimately reassuring fantasy.

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) – My introduction to Alain Resnais. Frankly I found it a little hard to gin up sympathy for a woman whose great lost love was a Nazi and the new lover we never really get to know, but the two actors sell it, especially the great Emmanuelle Riva.

Laura (1944) – Was expecting something more like Rebecca; glad I did not know in advance about the main plot twist. Clifton Webb gives All About Eve's George Saunders a run for his money as the controlling, gay-coded web-weaver.

Close-Up (1990) – One of Abbas Kiarostami’s earliest and perhaps best-known “docufiction” films; plays like a straight-up documentary until you look closer. Thought-provoking.

Blazing Saddles (1974) – Some belly laughs for sure, but as always with Mel Brooks, I found the jokes hit-or-miss and the plot felt like an afterthought. I did, however, enjoy the literal breaking of the fourth wall. Also, unpopular opinion: I really don’t get Madeline Kahn or why people find her funny.

Rififi (1955) – Darker and more brutal than I was expecting for a 1950s heist film. But damn riveting, right up to the climactic mad drive and final shot.

Double Indemnity (1944) – Billy Wilder + Raymond Chandler + Barbara Stanwyck + Fred MacMurray (playing deliciously against type) + Edward G. Robinson (who very nearly steals the show) = seedy noir perfection.

Lilo & Stitch (2002) – Weirder than I was expecting, in a good way. Also not expecting the film would make me cry like a fool. Disney should make more movies like this.

Frankenstein (1931) – Weird tonal shifts in some of the village merriment scenes, but what you remember is the iconic scenes, which have lost none of their power even after almost a century.

Bride of Frankenstein (1934) – Slightly preferred to the original; it’s campier in some ways, but overall more tonally consistent, and the plight of the Monster cuts sharper and deeper.

Young Frankenstein (1974) – OK, I think this is the best Mel Brooks I’ve seen, though maybe that’s because it’s a pretty straight-up parody of both Frankenstein and Bride?

**Sherlock Jr. (1924) – What a delight! Meta before meta was really a “thing” in movies. The movie within the movie is sheer brilliance.

The Double Life of Véronique (1991) – Gorgeous, and not only because of Irène Jacob (although I don’t think anyone can watch this and not fall in love with her). The final reveal of the literal puppet master is a bit creepy, though.

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) – A fun caper, but as someone who grew up with a Yorkshire terrier, I found one of its running gags slightly traumatizing.

**Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) – Oh, this was so great! My first Agnès Varda, and by far my favorite nouvelle vague film. Feels like it could have been filmed today.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961) – This film practically parodies itself as an overly rococo example of the Resnais brand of nouvelle vague. It is, nonetheless, haunting.

Modern Times (1936) – A classic for a reason; the social themes still bite today.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) – The spiritual sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, with the same gentle sensibility if a touch less whimsy. This is appropriate, given that it’s about the transition to adolescence/ young adulthood.

2023 Oscars predix

I'll be honest: it's been hard for me to get excited about this year's Oscars. That's largely reflective of my general lack of enthusiasm for the movies of 2022, not so much any particular beef with the nominations. Four of the Best Picture nominees were in my own top ten for the year, and two in my top five - not a bad batting average at all for the Academy. But for the most part this year's crop doesn't inspire the same depth of support that my favorites usually do. I'm simply not as emotionally invested this year; I haven't even seen all of the BP nominees, for the first time in at least 15 years. Sorry, Triangle of Sadness and Avatar 2, I just couldn't find the time for you, no matter how many glowing testaments I read to the brilliance of your social satire or your visual effects, respectively.

That said, it's the Oscars, so I can't not care at least a little; it's a reflex. And there are aspects of this year's race I'm very pleased about - most notably, the unexpected dominance of what was probably the most bonkers and most inspired movie I saw last year, Everything Everywhere All at Once. If someone had told me last year it was going to be the BP frontrunner, I'd have assumed they were smoking the same drugs the Daniels were when they wrote the script. But here we are, and I couldn't be happier.

Let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

BEST PICTURE

Will win: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Should win: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Dark horse: All Quiet on the Western Front, which might peel off just enough of both the international voters and the older, more conservative voters; The Banshees of Inisherin also has a fighting shot.

BEST DIRECTOR

Will win: The Daniels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert), Everything Everywhere All at Once

Should win: The Daniels

Dark horse: Martin McDonagh, Banshees

BEST ACTOR

Will win: Seems to be down to Brendan Fraser, The Whale, and Austin Butler in Elvis, though my gut says it's going to Fraser.

Should win: Colin Farrell, Banshees, though I'd be happy with a Fraser win, and I'm also a big fan of Bill Nighy's lovely, delicate turn in Living.

Dark horse: Farrell

BEST ACTRESS

Will win: A real nailbiter between Cate Blanchett for Tár and Michelle Yeoh for EEAaO. I'll say Blanchett by a hair.

Should win: I haven't seen either de Armas' or Riseborough's performances, but Blanchett's is a master class in both playing a larger-than-life character and stripping her down to nothing - her best work since Blue Jasmine. That said...my heart wants Yeoh to win.

Dark horse: I really don't see it being anyone other than Yeoh or Blanchett

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will win: The one true lock of the night - Ke Huy Quan, EEAaO, both for the performance and for the comeback story of the year, if not the decade

Should win: Quan. He was the heart to Yeoh's soul in EEAaO, or maybe it was the other way around? He deserves the fairy tale ending to his fairy tale season. But first let me shed a tear for Paul Dano, who was incredibly NOT EVEN NOMINATED for his best-in-show performance in The Fabelmans.

Dark horse: None

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will win: A toss-up between veterans Jamie Lee Curtis and Angela Bassett; I think Curtis has the edge

Should win: They're all worthy, but my personal fave is Stephanie Hsu as the tormented daughter in EEAaO

Dark horse: Kerry Condon could sneak in for Banshees if JLC and Bassett split the "legend!" vote

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Will win: Banshees

Should win: EEAaO for sheer inventiveness

Dark horse: Eh, I think it's gotta be either EEAaO or Banshees

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will win: Women Talking

Should win: I'm not wildly jazzed about this category, but of this group I'd give it to Women Talking

Dark horse: All Quiet on the Western Front