Category: Movie Reviews

Wicked: For Good (2025) | REVIEW

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera in WICKED: FOR GOOD — PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Jon M. Chu — Screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox.

The wait is over for musical theater fans all over the world. The long-awaited sequel to 2024’s Wicked, both based on the musical theater show of the same name, has hit theaters and is already one of the biggest hits of the year. Still directed by In the Heights director Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good is an adaptation of the second half of the aforementioned musical theater show and is thus one of the decade’s key part two films. The sequel follows the wrongly villainized Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo), known for her green skin and her magical powers, some time after the events of the first film, which culminated in an instantly iconic performance of “Defying Gravity,” as Elphaba escaped the Emerald City and left her best friend, Galinda ‘Glinda’ Upland (played by Ariana Grande-Butera), to become ‘Glinda the Good,’ a pinkly-dressed faux-witch and key representative of the Wizard of Oz (played by Jeffrey Goldblum) and his empire. The film sees our main duo step into their roles as opposing forces, hoping for reconciliation and a better future for Oz, with Elphaba being particularly focused on improving the rights of animals and anyone else who may lose their ability to speak up as a result of the Wizard’s regime. 

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Train Dreams (2025) | REVIEW

Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton in TRAIN DREAMS — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Clint Bentley — Screenplay by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar.

Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams is a gripping character drama, based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name, that chronicles the life of a man named Robert Grainier (played by Joel Edgerton), a quiet and humble railroad construction worker and lumberjack. Among other things, over the course of the film, we witness him get to know others like him, fall in love, face heartbreaking loss, and experience some mysterious events in the woods of America. 

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The Running Man (2025) | REVIEW

Glen Powell (as Ben Richards) in disguise in THE RUNNING MAN — PHOTO: Paramount Pictures (still image from trailers).

Directed by Edgar Wright — Screenplay by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright.

The British writer-director Edgar Wright has a fairly significant fanbase, and I think of myself as part of that fanbase. Ever since he burst onto the scene with his second feature, Shaun of the Dead, the first film in his Cornetto trilogy, Wright has been widely praised for his distinctive brand of comedy and his distinctive visual inventiveness that has seen his film stand out for their comedically fast and/or precise editing or the way the films sometimes are paired extraordinarily well with music, with Baby Driver being his best example of that. His latest effort as a director is an adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi novel (written under a pseudonym), The Running Man, which was previously adapted into an Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi action vehicle (despite being a product of its time, it does have its moments, as well as a very good performance from Richard Dawson). It is a story that I can totally understand why it is being put on the big screen again, because that Schwarzenegger flick can be improved upon. Does Wright succeed with that challenge? Well, I’d say that he mostly does, but not by as much as I imagined he would. This is not as smooth a film as the ones Wright has become known for. 

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Predator: Badlands (2025) | REVIEW

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi’s Dek in PREDATOR: BADLANDS — PHOTO: 20th Century Studios (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg — Screenplay by Patrick Aison.

Predator: Badlands is the ninth (seventh if you don’t include the Alien vs. Predator crossovers) film about the alien creatures that we call ‘predators,’ one of which once went toe to toe with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch in the jungle in John McTiernan’s 1987 sci-fi action classic Predator. In the past few years, 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg has tried his best to take the franchise in a new direction with the fantastic live-action prequel titled Prey, where a Comanche woman encountered a Predator, and, more recently, with the animated triptych-esque Predator: Killer of Killers. Both of those Trachtenberg films were released straight to streaming, but now, with his third outing as a director of a Predator film, Predator: Badlands, time will tell if the higher budget and Trachtenberg’s ambitious storytelling will get the audience they deserve. Because, frankly, I think it is a very cool step in the right direction for the long-running franchise. 

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Bring Her Back (2025) | REVIEW

Sally Hawkins in BRING HER BACK — PHOTO: A24 (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou — Screenplay by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman.

In Bring Her Back, we follow Australian step-siblings Andy (played by Billy Barratt), a 17-year-old young man still struggling with previously undisclosed trauma, and Piper (played by Sora Wong), his visually-impaired younger sister, after they find their father dead in the shower. Now, with Andy not being quite old enough yet to be Piper’s legal guardian, they risk being split up by the system, but the siblings put their foot down and eventually get a foster parent to agree to house them. But while this foster parent, Laura (played by Sally Hawkins) hopes to adopt Piper, the siblings still have hope that they can eventually go out on their own. However, Laura, a grief-stricken former counselor who has recently lost her own visually-impaired daughter, has ulterior motives and, it appears, she may have already experimented with occult rituals on another child in her care.

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A House of Dynamite (2025) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Netflix.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow — Screenplay by Noah Oppenheim.

For most of this young century, Point Break director Kathryn Bigelow has dedicated her filmmaking career to these intensely political thrillers that have sparked a lot of discussion at the time of release (e.g., The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, Detroit). Now, eight years after the release of Detroit, Bigelow is back with another political thriller with its finger on the pulse of America and the world with Netflix’s A House of Dynamite, an occasionally thrilling and terrifying apocalyptic triptych about a fictional immediate panicked response to a single nuclear missile headed for America. 

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Black Phone 2 (2025) | REVIEW

Finney Blake (Mason Thames) and the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) in BLACK PHONE 2 — PHOTO: Universal Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Scott Derrickson — Screenplay by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill.

Earlier this year, director Scott Derrickson gave us Apple TV+’s The Gorge, which I found to be a gripping genre-blender with two fun leads. Now, Derrickson, the Doctor Strange and Sinister director, is back with a direct continuation of one of the cinematic horror worlds he helped bring to life with a sequel to 2021’s The Black Phone. When I first saw the 2021 effort, I described it as another gripping horror home run from Derrickson, who has previously shone as a horror filmmaker with Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose being, arguably, his best horror efforts. Although I have had some doubts about how they could continue the story of The Black Phone, given its ending, I’ve been excited to see it for some time. Now that I’ve seen the sequel, I can report that, admittedly, it doesn’t feel like as much of a neatly balanced horror outing as some of his best films, but it does represent a jump up in violence from the previous film, as Derrickson and his frequent collaborator and co-writer C. Robert Cargill have infused the sequel with a giddiness when it comes to implanting genre references and upping the intensity a notch. It mostly works, even if there are some issues along the way. 

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Tron: Ares (2025) | REVIEW

Jared Leto in TRON: ARES — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Joachim Rønning (Young Woman and the Sea) — Screenplay by Jesse Wigutow.

One good thing that Tron: Ares immediately accomplished was getting me to give Tron: Legacy a rewatch. Back in the day, I greatly enjoyed Legacy, which was essentially Disney’s attempt to get their own Matrix clone, but I hadn’t rewatched it in so long. Though Legacy has its issues with performance, runtime, and slightly dated visual effects, it is such a good time.  Its visual style was effective, Daft Punk’s music was sensational, and Olivia Wilde and Jeff Bridges were joys to watch. It may have been style over substance, but it was genuinely entertaining and has rightfully earned a cult following in recent years despite underwhelming at the box office. Now, with Tron: Ares, Disney has switched out Joseph Kosinski for Joachim Rønning, Daft Punk for Nine Inch Nails, the digital world for the real world, and the cold blue look for a reddish one. Unfortunately, while there are things to like about Tron: Ares, the writing and casting let it down. 

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Den Sidste Viking (2025) | REVIEW

(L-R) Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas in THE LAST VIKING (DEN SIDSTE VIKING) — PHOTO: Nordisk Film / Rolf Konow.

Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen — Screenplay by Anders Thomas Jensen.

Only a select few films can fill up theater rooms across Denmark like Anders Thomas Jensen’s directorial efforts can. Ever since he burst onto the scene with Flickering Lights, he has been a favorite for Danish filmgoers, and it is always genuinely delightful to see Danes flock to theaters whenever he has gotten ‘the gang back together’ (the gang always consists of Denmark’s two most popular actors Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mads Mikkelsen) to tell a ‘black comedy’ narrative with absurd quirks and goofy but strangely lovable oddball characters. Now, he’s back again with The Last Viking (Danish title: Den Sidste Viking), which is yet another instantly successful Danish black comedy with some of Denmark’s most popular actors. It doesn’t quite hit the highs that Riders of Justice (Retfærdighedens Ryttere) did, but it is nonetheless quite good and will be very satisfying to those with a love for the wavelengths of Jensen’s oeuvre. 

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The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025) | REVIEW

Keira Knightley in THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from trailer).

Directed by Simon Stone — Screenplay by Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse, and Simon Stone.

The generically titled The Woman in Cabin 10 — not to be confused with The Woman in the Window, The Woman in the Yard, The Woman in Black, The Woman in the Wall, or The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window — is the latest feature from The Dig director Simon Stone. The film, which is based on Ruth Ware’s novel of the same name, is designed as a whodunnit psychological thriller, and it follows a journalist (Laura Blacklock, played by Keira Knightley) on a billionaire’s luxury yacht, who believes she has witnessed a passenger being thrown overboard and possibly killed. However, when she brings this up to anyone on the ship, no one seems to believe her. As our protagonist starts questioning her sanity, she also starts to uncover clues. 

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