Tag: Movies

‘Ballad of a Small Player,’ ‘The Home,’ ‘Det Andet Offer,’ and More | Bite-Sized Reviews

Top Row (L-R): ‘Ballad of a Small Player (Netflix);’ ‘The Home (Lionsgate /Roadside Attractions);’ ‘Det Andet Offer (SF Studios).’
Bottom Row (L-R): ‘Under Stjernerne På Himlen (SF Studios;’ ‘Opus (A24),’ ‘The Amateur (20th Century Studios).’

Every once in a while, I don’t quite have enough to say or the time to put it into enough words for me to write full, dedicated reviews for everything new that I see. So, from time to time, I will just post a short review on Letterboxd, and, as you may have noticed, sometimes these reviews find their way to this site in the form of bite-sized reviews in a compilation article. That is exactly what’s happening today.

In this article, I’ll give you my thoughts on two Danish films starring the same stand-up comedian turned actor, an action thriller that came and went without much fanfare, a mystery thriller that also came and went without making an imprint, a recent Netflix casino flick, and a retirement home-set horror film that may just be one of the worst films I’ve seen this year. Let’s get to it.

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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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John Candy: I Like Me (2025 – Documentary) | REVIEW

PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios.

Directed by Colin Hanks.

Not a month goes by in my family without someone referencing Uncle Buck. It’s fair to say that John Candy has a special place in both my heart and the hearts of my family members. Therefore, I was especially excited to watch Colin Hanks’ film about John Candy‘s life, which, tragically, ended much too soon back in 1994. Actor John Candy, a gentle giant with a special comedic talent, is best known for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and the many other John Hughes films in which he appeared. This latest Amazon Prime Video documentary paints a beautiful portrait of Candy but is, ultimately, both heartwarming and heartbreaking, as you see how many lives he touched, how much of a positive inspiration he was to others in the industry, but also the hole that he left behind for his family. A beloved father, actor, and comedian, John Candy was larger than life, and the documentary does a good job of emphasizing just how talented he was with archival footage of his Second City skits, his films, and plenty of footage of him making public appearances and still being witty as ever.

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Highest 2 Lowest (2025) | REVIEW

Denzel Washington in “HIGHEST 2 LOWEST,” available to stream now on Apple TV+.

Directed by Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods) — Screenplay by Alan Fox.

With Apple TV+’s Highest 2 Lowest, American filmmaker Spike Lee has made his second remake, or reinterpretation, of an East Asian classic in the last twelve years. The last time Lee did this was with 2013‘s Oldboy, a remake of the Park Chan-wook South Korean action thriller classic. Lee’s 2013 film was largely dismissed and criticized as an inferior work, but, at least initially, his second go-around in recent years with an East Asian classic, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, has been met more warmly by critics, even if it isn’t perceived as a slam dunk or an improvement. In my opinion, though, Spike Lee’s attempt at a Kurosawa remake is a disappointment. Although I love several of the master American filmmaker’s earlier works, I found his latest film to be difficult to connect with, largely due to quirks and performances that work against the film.

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The Long Walk (2025) | REVIEW

David Jonsson in THE LONG WALK — PHOTO: Lionsgate (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Francis Lawrence — Screenplay by J.T. Mollner.

Based on the 1979 Stephen King novel of the same name (published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman), Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk is set in a dystopian America under a totalitarian military regime, which holds an annual event referred to as, you guessed it, ‘the Long Walk.’ During this event, fifty young men, one from each state, must take part in a coordinated walk of potentially hundreds of miles, while they’re escorted by the military, which also broadcasts the event live. Those who stop walking, or fall below a dictated pace, will receive three warnings (that eventually replenish) and, should they fail to get back to the right pace in time, be executed. The event will only end once a sole victor remains left standing and alive, and the winner will receive not only an overwhelming cash prize, but also a single wish that the regime must grant. Lawrence’s film follows Maine-born participant Ray Garraty (played by Cooper Hoffman), who quickly befriends a group of young men led by the charismatic Peter McVries (played by David Jonsson). However, we soon learn that there is a secret reason why Ray is taking part in the event.

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The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) | REVIEW

Mia Tomlinson and Patrick Wilson in THE CONJURING: LAST RITES — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures / New Line Cinema (still image from trailers).

Directed by Michael Chaves — Screenplay by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.

We’ve come a long way since the first film about the demonologist duo and married couple Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring, from director James Wan. Depending on whether you count The Curse of La Llorona, there are now nine or ten films in the film series, with its reported conclusion, 2025’s The Conjuring: Last Rites, serving as the dot at the end of the sentence. Like with The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and The Nun 2, this latest film is directed by Michael Chaves, who, despite receiving mixed reviews for his films, has long been positioned as the heir apparent to James Wan (The Conjuring; Insidious; Saw). Chaves has failed in his attempts to reach the height of his mentor’s films, and, in the process of trying to continue Wan’s work in this connected universe of films, has turned in, at best, merely lukewarm films. Does the purported conclusion to the story of the Warrens improve things for Chaves? Well, his latest film still cannot hold a candle to Wan’s Conjuring films, but, to Chaves’ credit, I think this is his most entertaining film yet. 

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