Bottom Row (L-R): F1 (Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple TV+); Jay Kelly (Netflix).
Oh my, we’re back again! In this edition of additional bite-sized reviews – my recurring blog post series highlighting films that I want to share my thoughts on, but that I, crucially, don’t have time enough to cover in a more lengthy full review — I’ll tell you what I think about 1) one of the biggest theater hits of the year, 2) Wes Anderson’s latest flick, 3) Guadagnino’s most recent feature film, 4) Brad Pitt’s racing movie, and 5) Noah Baumbach’s big George Clooney-vehicle. As is often the case, most, if not all, of these bite-sized reviews may have been seen early on my Letterboxd account, so do note that you can get a sneak peek at my future reviews over there. Let’s get to it!
A Minecraft Movie | Film | Directed by Jared Hess | Release Year: 2025 | Recommended?: Not really, but it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be.
Look, yes, I know I’m late to the ‘party’ when it comes to this flick. This critic-proof juggernaut is basically the biggest movie of the year, but, despite the fact that I’ve grown to become a fan of the game (I’ve spent so many hours in this blocky, creative world), I have to admit that the trailer turned me off the film for some time. But, now that it’s on HBO MAX, I didn’t really have an excuse to ignore it much longer. So, I pressed play, and, well, I think it is, ultimately, both exactly the kind of film that I thought it would be and, at the same time, somewhat more palatable than the trailer made me suspect, even though I can’t call it a good movie. I think it is deeply silly, that it features awful writing (when ‘Steve’ isn’t singing, he’s mostly just calling out the names of things, so as to signal to the target audience that, yes, this was included as well), and that about half of the human characters are given nothing to do here, thus stranding the actors. On top of that, the lighting is off, and when you pair that with poor green-screen acting, you have a tough cookie to bite through. At the same time, I do think the movie knows what it is and has fun being what it is, which is an over-budgeted movie in the vein of Spy Kids or The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, but with a (well-chosen) Jumanji-esque premise (and a quasi-Lord of the Rings structure). Despite the material, Jack Black and Jennifer Coolidge are a lot of fun (the “No, I think he’s Swedish,” bit was good fun), and, even though it’s not the most original thing in the world, I like that it promotes creativity (and putting video game creativity to use in the real world). Maybe it’s just ‘cause Borderlands was such a big trainwreck that this lowered my expectations just enough, but I didn’t think A Minecraft Movie was as awful as I had heard. So, it’s not good, but, at the very least, it’s a lot better than Borderlands.
The Phoenician Scheme | Film | Directed by Wes Anderson | Release Year: 2025 | Recommended?: Sure.
“Help yourself to a hand grenade.” – Quote from Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme.
I’ll admit that I was initially quite cold to what this film was throwing at me (though I thought the very first scene provided a surprisingly violent but also rather entertaining jolt). Something was off, I felt. But as it went along, I warmed to it more and more and got closer to the wavelengths of key central performances. I ended up particularly liking what Michael Cera was doing (especially when we get to see his character flip. It’s a great reveal, and a fun switch in character design that Cera handles really well). I also think the final ‘afterlife’ scene and the epilogue were quite effective. I will say that I definitely prefer both Henry Sugar and Asteroid City (the more I think about the latter, the more I love it). I don’t think Anderson’s latest flick is in the best-of-the-year territory, for me, but there’s a lot that I liked here, at the end of the day, including, as is usually the case, Anderson’s style and the outstanding production design.
After the Hunt | Film | Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Release Year: 2025 | Recommended?: Unfortunately, not really.
As someone who has been very happy with Guadagnino’s recent output, I have to say that After the Hunt is a little bit of a disappointment. I’m glad I saw it, and it does have some power as a conversation starter, but that doesn’t mean that the movie is particularly good. On the whole, I thought it felt underbaked, or like the filmmakers in charge were cooking on low heat throughout the runtime and leaving you with something that doesn’t really work. It has its moments, but it feels like not everyone was trying to make the same film. So it is tonally messy, is poorly paced, has a couple of plot contrivances, and it doesn’t say anything particularly clearly because it stays on the surface-level too often. And despite having a pretty stacked cast, no performance is more than ‘fine’ at best (I think Michael Stuhlbarg’s performance choices are the most interesting ones). Frankly, it mostly just made me think about how much better Tár handled some of these themes.
F1 | Film | Directed by Joseph Kosinski | Release Year: 2025 | Recommended?: Yes.
I think the best sports movies are the ones that can make you buy into the sport, and sometimes even fall for it, during the entirety of the runtime, even if you have little or no interest in the sport once you sit down to watch the film. I can’t say that I am a Formula One fan. I know a few names, but the closest thing I get to being a car racing fan that I got is that I sometimes check the 24 Hours of Le Mans race a small handful of times during the day (though I only really watch a few minutes of it, really). Nevertheless, Joseph Kosinski’s F1 hooked me from minute one. Even more impressive, to me, is that, when I watched it with my parents, the somewhat overlong film even managed to hook my dad, who had insisted that he had no interest in it. I imagine it was breathtaking to watch the racing scenes in an IMAX theater, but, even on a television, it was incredibly exhilarating. The car scenes are absolutely electric. The film looks crisp, the music is consistently solid, and the montages are great. The rest, though, isn’t as strong. Don’t get me wrong, Brad Pitt delivers a charming Maverick-esque, and late 20th-century-like, effortlessly cool performance. Also, Javier Bardem and Pitt’s dynamic is quite fun. But, despite the fact that I like Kerry Condon, her romance subplot feels half-baked, and, in general, the film’s ‘stubborn older mentor and reluctant young mentee’ formula is relatively trite. It owes a lot to films like Rocky Balboa and Top Gun: Maverick. So, the formula is relatively ordinary (for more engaging characters in a car racing film, check out Ford v Ferrari), but the racing is extraordinary, which will be more than enough for most.
Jay Kelly | Film | Directed by Noah Baumbach | Release Year: 2025 | Recommended?: Yes.
“Can I go again? I’d like another one.” – Quote from Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly.
Baumbach’s Jay Kelly is a solid flick about an A-lister going down memory lane and figuring out if he’s happy with his legacy both in front of and behind the camera. I enjoyed watching this. Trailers and the Awards-relevant word-of-mouth made me expect this to be a two-hander between George Clooney and Adam Sandler, but for the first 80-90 minutes, at least, it really isn’t. It is Clooney’s film, and he is quite good (and predictably super charming) as the magnetic star retracing his memory, chasing the family he didn’t make time for, and clearly having such a strong pull to his character that he also pulled his entourage down with him (and pushed people away), at least to a certain extent, when it comes to maintaining relationships. Sandler is good, don’t get me wrong, but his character’s past fling with Laura Dern’s character doesn’t feel particularly real or interesting. I also think Billy Crudup is quite strong in the handful of scenes he is in, and the big bar-to-bar-fight sequence is excellent (it’d be a fantastic short). In general, its strong cast is uniformly entertaining, from Kelly’s acquaintances on the train to the pleasant, brief appearances from Eve Hewson and Patrick Wilson. I thought the ending worked really well.
But what did you think about these films? Did you see something recently that you think I should give a shot? Do let me know via social media or via the comment section below.
– Article and reviews written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 