Category: Drama
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Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: Stuck in the Biopic Blues
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025) Scott Cooper Much like the superhero fatigue that has plagued society for the last few years (funny, though, considering that’s when I decided to start watching them), it feels like the music biopic’s time in the sun has come and gone, yet a new music biopic comes out every six months. Even with some fatigue in the genre, I wanted…
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After the Hunt: Call Me By Your Next Movie
After the Hunt (2025) Luca Guadagnino My first two Luca Guadagnino experiences—Call Me By Your Name and Challengers—were both knockouts, so I came to expect greatness from Guadagnino, only to be let down last year by Queer. Like Ariana Grande in the late 2010s, Guadagnino seems to be prioritizing quantity over quality recently, and that continued with After the Hunt. I was definitely drawn in by the director’s pedigree and the stacked primary cast…
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Roofman: The Man Who Stole My Heart, Among Other Things
Roofman (2025) Derek Cianfrance Heading into Roofman tonight, I had been led to believe by its marketing that this was going to be a straight studio comedy, and that couldn’t have been much further from the truth. While there were certainly plenty of laughs to go around—and I mean plenty—Roofman really surprised in its emotional storytelling and family dynamics, which had me not only cheesing for most of the movie, but on the…
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The Smashing Machine: The Boulder Has Entered the Ring
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The Smashing Machine (2025) Benny Safdie I’ve always been a fan of athletes finding a second life in acting, whether they gun for the more dramatic roles like Dave Bautista or they go full comedy like John Cena and Marshawn Lynch. I’ve always enjoyed The Rock’s movies, but his résumé was always missing a dramatic turn that The Smashing Machine has now impressively satisfied. I totally get that…
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Light of the World: Redeeming the Age-Old Narrative
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Light of the World (2025) Tom Bancroft and John J. Schafer I remember hearing about both The King of Kings and Light of the World around the same time this year, and I initially believed Angel Studios would come out on top. Angel Studios left the door open for Light of the World to take the top spot on my 2025 Animated Jesus Movie List, and boy, did it ever do just…
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The Assessment: Parents and Normalcy in Short Supply
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The Assessment (2024) Fleur Fortuné For the last night of the Estes Park trip, we wanted to end on a banger, so we sidestepped Happy Gilmore 2 for The Assessment, which was undoubtedly more memorable. The jury is still out on whether that’s a good thing; Sammy and Abby logged their displeasure on Letterboxd, I’m sure my parents would’ve done the same if they had the app, but Morgan…
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Eddington: Mask Mandate Time Machine
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Eddington (2025) Ari Aster With a cast as stacked and enjoyable as Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler, it wouldn’t have mattered what the plot of Eddington was; I would be seated. I had only seen one Ari Aster film—Midsommar—prior to tonight, so I truly didn’t know what to expect out of Eddington, and what I got was quite the mixed bag. In theory, I would’ve…
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Superman (2025): A Hopeful, Heroic Return to Form
Superman (2025) James Gunn Rarely do I anticipate a movie’s release so excitedly or for so long as I have James Gunn’s Superman. In these seven months since the first trailer that I’ve been waiting, I have shockingly rekindled a love for superhero movies that has seemingly hit its climax tonight, in glorious IMAX, which I don’t think I’ve experienced since our elementary school field trip to the downtown IMAX theater. Superman had…
