Tag: mason thames

‘Oh, Hi!,’ ‘Is This Thing On?,’ ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,’ and More (2025) | Bite-Sized Reviews

Top Row: Oh, Hi! (Sony Pictures Classics); How to Train Your Dragon (Universal Pictures); Caught Stealing (Sony Pictures Releasing).
Bottom Row: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Sony Pictures Releasing); Is This Thing On? (Searchlight Pictures); Anaconda (Sony Pictures Releasing).

Being a cinephile means that you’re never done trying to catch up. Therefore, I sometimes write these bite-sized review collections of films from recent years that I didn’t get to see at the time but have since seen. Today, I want to share my thoughts on six films from 2025. It is a varied collection of films. There are films here that I really loved, but also films that I have complicated relationships with. It’s a mixed bag of films, a potpourri of movies, or as we say in Denmark, “en blandet landhandel.” Perhaps some of these really worked for you, in which case, don’t be shy. Please comment below with your own thoughts on some of these films. If you follow me on Letterboxd, do know that these bite-sized reviews have previously been posted on my Letterboxd profile (either partially or entirely). Should you wish to get a sneak peek at what films I see, I advise you to follow me on that social media platform.

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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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