Look, it’s just science. You get a glimpse of Uma Thurman and Charlize Theron in a sword fight, you get your hopes up. I did, hopeful that The Old Guard 2 on Netflix could match – or maybe even exceed the fun of the original.
But while it is a blast to see those two bad asses in a blade battle, it’s too little too late in a sequel that gets bogged down in speeches, heavy meaningful glances, and plans for the future of this group of immortals.
It also really helps to have seen part one, or at least be familiar with the graphic novels by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández. They’re both back as co-writers, with director Victoria Mahoney taking over for Gina Prince-Bythewood. They put the now-mortal Andy (Theron) and her crew (including Kiki Layne, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthias Schoenaerts) on a collision course with the long-lost Quynh (Veronica Neo) – who returned at the close of part one after centuries locked in an Iron Maiden.
Andy also has a new friend, Tuah (Henry Golding) who speaks a lot about legends, lore, and the power of Discord (Uma), the original immortal who rescued Quynh as part of a nefarious plan.
This veteran cast looks a bit lost amid the bright neon palettes, plodding dialog and awkwardly choreographed fight sequences. Mahoney never really lets the fun in, returning to tired blocking and exposition dialog every time you think we’re finally gonna get cooking.
And just when you’re wondering what the point of this sequel is…you find out.
Mild spoiler ahead.
This is a just a bridge to the next chapter. And when that works in a film series, it’s because the bridge also supports its own story arc, one that leaves you satisfied while still wanting to follow these characters into the future.
The Old Guard 2 just leaves you frustrated on all counts, with nothin’ mister but boring stories of the glory days.
If the heat doesn’t get under your skin, maybe this will: 2025 is half over! What? I guess we should get those Christmas decorations down. But it has been quite a year already in terms of movies. From Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece to a grown up spy movie, incredible indie horror to revelatory documentary, awkward buddy comedies to beautiful dramas, the year already has it all. So much, in fact, that we couldn’t stop at 10!
11. Eephus
It’s mid-October in a small New Hampshire town, and rec league teams are assembling to wrap up the season at Soldiers Field. Some bellies are a bit larger, some fastballs are a bit slower, but the cracks are as wise as ever and the love of the game has never wavered. And though what bleachers there are will be nearly empty, Franny (Cliff Blake) will be keeping the scorebook as usual, and there may even be fireworks after the final out.
Because next year, local development will bulldoze the field, and these players may have to accept a future without that diamond life.
Director/co-writer (and veteran cinematographer) Carson Lund finds the emotional pull that exists in the space between an enduring game and the souls forced to let it move on without them. The ensemble cast (including legendary MLB free spirt Bill “Spaceman” Lee on hand to perfectly illustrate the titular type of pitch) is authentic and eccentric in equal measure, and anyone who has ever spent time around the ballfield will recognize these people, and the simpler way of life that may also be slipping away.
10. My Dead Friend Zoe
Filmmaker Kyle Hausmann-Stokes impresses with his feature debut, My Dead Friend Zoe. Based on his 2022 short Merit x Zoe, the film follows Army veteran Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green, Star Trek: Discovery) as she tries to overcome some post-Afghanistan trauma.
While the title and premise may sound a tad flippant, My Dead Friend Zoe turns out to be a rewarding and earnest drama. Natalie Morales delivers a boldly funny and equally vulnerable turn, and love interest Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar) injects the film with charming, self-deprecating humor. But the levity tends to enrich the film’s truly human quality rather than distract from its underlying tensions.
9. Mickey 17
People mainly familiar with filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-sweeping masterpiece Parasite may not know of his remarkable skill with a SciFi creature feature. Mickey 17, then, will be an excellent primer.
Robert Pattinson is the titular Mickey. Well, he’s a bunch of Mickeys, all 17 of them. He’s a hilarious, self-deprecating charmer, a man who believes he somehow deserves his fate. Fates. Through him the filmmaker employs absurd, sometimes even slapstick humor to satirize our own current fate. Beautifully (and characteristically), all of this is in favor of the reminder that our humanity requires us to be humane.
Weaving sensibilities and ideas present in Snowpiercer,Okja, The Host as well as any number of clone movies, Mickey 17 could feel borrowed. It doesn’t. Like the best science fiction, it feels close enough to reality to be a bit nightmarish.
8. Surviving Ohio State
A searing takedown of abuse, power and heartbreaking betrayal, HBO’s Surviving Ohio State deconstructs the decades of alleged abuse of athletes by Ohio State University physician Richard Strauss. Based on the reporting of Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim and directed with a patient hand by Eva Orner, the film features first-person interviews with victims that reveal the timeline of a calculating predator and shatter a pervasive myth.
Amid a backdrop of social media posts that doubt how big, strong athletes could become easy prey, the men detail just how and why they felt powerless to stop the atrocities. The only thing more heartbreaking is how the coaches they looked up to (yes, including Congressman Jim Jordan) and the university they still love refused to support them once the whispers became screams and the accusations grew too big to ignore.
The one or two occasions where the film tries to connect dots for us are the exceptions in a measured and precise exposé. Surviving Ohio State is no joy to watch, but it’s too important to ignore.
7.Sacramento
Michael Anganaro’s instincts are sharp in Sacramento, only his second feature as writer/director after decades of acting gigs. He co-stars wth Michael Cera as two men with differing challenges facing adult life who take a weird road trip down memory lane. It’s a witty combination of finely-drawn characters, consistently boasting a dry self-awareness that earns the LOLs.
Sacramento haș plenty of fun with arrested development – Cera’s desperate phone calls to one of his old buddies are awkwardly hilarious. But the film’s heart comes from those moments when boys (and girls, too) start accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. It’s far from a new story, but these characters make it one worth revisiting.
6. Friendship
Writer/director Andrew DeYoung harnesses the essence of Tim Robinson’s socially awkward comedic stylings, attached it to Paul Rudd’s impeccable comic delivery, and crafted the most profoundly uncomfortable and endlessly watchable bromance in film.
Friendship is a bizarro-world I Love You, Man, and it is so much more than what that tantalizing trailer promises. Unpredictable, absurd, cringy, perfectly cast and that coat! How priceless is that coat?!
It’s maybe the funniest film of 2025.
5. Invader
Lean, mean and affecting, Mickey Keating’s take on the home invasion film wastes no time. In a wordless—though not soundless—opening, the filmmaker introduces an unhinged presence.
Immediately Keating sets our eyes and ears against us. His soundtrack frequently blares death metal, a tactic that emphasizes a chaotic, menacing mood the film never shakes. Using primarily handheld cameras from the unnerving opening throughout the entire film, the filmmaker maintains an anarchic energy, a sense of the characters’ frenzy and the endless possibility of violence.
Joe Swanberg, with limited screentime and even more limited dialog, crafts a terrifying image of havoc. His presence is perversely menacing, an explosion of rage and horror. Invader delivers a spare, nasty, memorable piece of horror in just over an hour. It will stick with you a while longer.
4. Black Bag
What is more diabolical: enacting a global plan for widespread destruction, or pursuing a selfish agenda in your relationship, ready to twist the knife precisely where it hurts your partner the most?
Black Bag has a satchel full of fun weighing the two options, as director Steven Soderbergh and a crackling ensemble contrast the power plays in both love connections and spy games.
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett (already sounds good, right?) are downright delicious as Londoners George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean, master spies and devoted spouses. He’s emotionless and tidy, an expert cook, and a dogged sleuth with a hatred of dishonesty. She’s cool, calculating and seductive, with a wry sense of humor, a prescription for anxiety meds and a sudden cloud of suspicion around her.
Throw in a fine meal beforehand, and you’ve got a damn fine date night that just might put you in a pretty friendly mood when you get home.
3. The Ugly Stepsister
Writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt infuses her feature debut with an impossible-to-ignore blast of sharp wit, subdued rage, and grotesque bodily horrors.
The Ugly Stepsister(Den stygge stesøsteren) is the latest new angle to a classic tale, but don’t expect it follow the trend of humanizing misunderstood villains. Blichfeldt makes sure there are plenty of bad guys and girls throughout this Norwegian Cinderella story, punctuated by grisly violence surprisingly close to what’s in the 17th Century French version of the fairy tale penned by Charles Perrault.
It is fierce, funny, gross and subversively defiant. But is one feature film enough to immediately put Blichfeldt on the watch list of cinema’s feminist hell raisers?
Yes. The shoe fits.
2. Pee-wee as Himself
If there’s one thing Matt Wolf’s 2-part documentary Pee-wee as Himself does, it reminds you what a cultural phenomenon Pee-wee Herman was in the 80s. Movies to TV to MTV to toys to talk shows, he was everywhere and he was beloved by children, college kids, and adults alike.
Charmingly acerbic but often candid, Paul Reubens is openly reluctant to hand over control of his image after so many years of calculating every detail of his public life. Part of what makes the film so electric is how early and often the two butt heads over which of them ought to be in control of the documentary. This conflict itself paints a portrait of the artist more authentic than any amount of historical data ever could.
1. Sinners
Ryan Coogler reteams with longtime creative partner Michael B. Jordan to sing a song of a 1932 Mississippi juke joint. The Smoke Stack twins (Jordan) are back from Chicago, a truckload of ill-gotten liquor and a satchel full of cash along with them. They intend to open a club “for us, by us” and can hardly believe their eyes when three hillbillies come calling.
Jack O’Connell (an amazing actor in everything he’s done since Eden Lake) has a brogue and a banjo. He and his two friends would love to come on in, sing, dance, and spend some money, if only Smoke would invite them.
It’s scary. It’s sexy. The action slaps. It’s funny when it needs to be, sad just as often. It looks and sounds incredible. And there’s a cameo from Buddy F. Guy, in case you needed a little authenticity. When Ryan Coogler writes and directs a vampire movie, he gives you reason to believe there is yet new life for the old monster.
At one time, a lot of people were promised 40 acres and a mule. It was a lie. But Hailey Freeman’s ancestor had freed himself, left his family behind, and walked to Canada to make his own promises. Generations later, Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler, a force of nature) will be damned if the apocalypse, wandering cannibals, or a teenage boy’s hormonal behavior is going to jeopardize that farm.
Co-writer/director R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalyptic horror/thriller feature debut 40 Acres benefits early and often from inspired framing, gorgeous shot making, and one remarkable performance. Indeed, Deadwyler is so good that sometimes the cast around her can’t keep up.
She’s the matriarch of the Freeman farm and she’s a hard woman. She has to be, but the land is providing for the family, and the family is protecting it from those outside the electric fence and barbed wire who might want to come inside.
The bigger problem might be Hailey’s oldest, Manny (Kataem O’Connor), whose restlessness and desires put the family at risk.
Thorne uses flashbacks sparingly, which gives them some weight. Wisely, these serve less to explain the apocalypse than to hint at relationships and character, because, naturally, the real story here is not the flesh eaters moving from farm to farm, but the strains of coming of age within this pressure cooker.
Many films—horror movies, in particular—rely on terrible decision making to move the plot forward. 40 Acres weakens as it moves from Act 2 to Act 3 with wildly bad character choices. But something has to trip this family up so Thorne can show off remarkable instincts for action cinematography, as well as his lead’s range.
Yes, we know Danielle Deadwyler—snubbed by Oscar for her searing performances in The Piano Lesson (2024) and Till (2022)—is a magnificent actor. One of the best working today. But you might not realize (unless you’ve seen her fantastic 2019 thriller Devi to Pay) that she’s also quite at home in genre films. The degree to which she brings authenticity to her role as an Army veteran annihilating redneck cannibals with machetes is breathtaking.
Michael Greyeyes (Wild Indian, Blood Quantum) delivers needed warmth and humor, and he and Deadwyler share a touching chemistry. A full slate of nasty marauders impresses, especially veteran genre actor Patrick Garrow.
The writing periodically drags 40 Acres backwards, particularly the budding romance and related choices. But for thrills-aplenty action with something on its mind, you could do worse than this.
Sometimes a fun horror movie needs to become a fun action movie if you really hope to have a franchise. At least, a PG13 franchise. That’s clearly Gerard Johnstone’s thinking with M3GAN 2.0
Co-writing this time with M3GAN scribes Akela Cooper and James Wan, Johnstone imagines a future where the tech that fueled a bloodthirsty doll has been stolen and put to use as a weapon called Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno).
Amelia sets her murderous sights on the architect of her AI, Gemma (Allison Williams)—which, in turn, puts young Cady (Violet McGraw) in peril. Guess it’s time to dust off last year’s model.
So, in the same way that the old T-800 helped John and Sarah Connor save the world from Terminator 2, M3GAN (Jenna Davis voice, Amie Donald body) has to help humanity survive Amelia.
Johnstone and team do abandon the horror in favor of action, but the comic tone remains, thankfully. Even before we’re graced with M3GAN’s gallows wit, Johnstone’s fellow Kiwi and comedic treasure Jemaine Clement joins the cast as a billionaire philanthro-capitalist and easy mark.
Clement is a hoot, and soon enough, the dark wit that made M3GAN so much fun is back, and secured safely in the body of a child’s toy. But if they really are going to do battle with hew new model, upgrades will be needed.
Plenty of self-aware dialog inches the film more clearly toward comedy than the original, which wore its own dark humor with a little more nuance. 2.0 is definitely going for laughs alongside its thrills, helping to elevate scenes burdened with exposition.
The plot gets convoluted and silly, the message about AI holds no water at all, and Amelia’s true purpose is always beside the point, never driving the narrative. And abandoning horror entirely is a bit of a disappointment.
With Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski understood the assignment better than any director in recent years. Talent, swagger, airborne thrills and pinpoint vibe control made that film better than we could have imagined.
Now Kosinski brings a very similar blueprint to F1: The Movie, right down to that punctuation in the title.
Brad Pitt effortlessly assumes the role of a rogue mentor flying by his own rules, this time on the racetrack. Thirty years ago, Sonny Hayes (Pitt) had a promising career as a Grand Prix driver. A nasty crash derailed that, sending him to decades of minor league racing, professional gambling and even some cab driving.
But now, Sonny is the Hail Mary called by his old racing partner. Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) is a desperate team owner with a cocky young driver named Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) and a losing streak about to bring the whole thing down.
If Sonny’s “maverick” approach to driving can somehow get Ruben one win before the season ends, he can save the whole APX team.
Can Sonny be the Crash Davis to Joshua’s Nuke LaLoosh? Is he up for taking one more shot at glory and maybe some sexy time with APX tech director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon)?
It doesn’t matter if you already know, just like it doesn’t matter that much of the dialog is cheesy, many reaction shots deliver sitcom-worthy mugging and the TV commentators narrate straight from “Racing for Dummies.”
Pitt, Bardem, Condon and Idris might as well be winking through it all. They’re clearly having a ball, and elevate material that – like Maverick -would have been insufferable in lesser hands. F1 may not have nostalgia in its cockpit, but the swagger and the vibe are too fun to resist, while Kosinski (also a co-writer this time) delivers the pinpoint control.
Filmed for IMAX, F1‘s racing sequences are as thrilling on the track as Top Gun is in the air. The camerawork and pacing, the editing and some rockin’ needle drops keep the adrenaline pumping, and even that two and a half hour run time doesn’t feel as bloated as it probably should.
F1: The Movie won’t keep you guessing. And it won’t challenge your brain. But that isn’t the mission of this race team. The goal here is (really) big screen entertainment, movie star glamour, plenty of speed-fueled visceral thrills and maybe even a fist pump or two.
Ground control to victory lane: get the champagne ready.
I love Max’s unapologetic nature. Writer/director James Villeneuve’s spare feature Pins & Needles shares an adventure with a biology major and insulin-dependent diabetic who has no Fs to give. The result is a nice change of pace from “likable female leads.”
Max (Chelsea Clark) is leaving her biology field trip early, mainly because she’s not about to ride several hours back to campus with her “don’t be mad” lab partner, John. Because she is mad. And she’s not thrilled with Harold (Daniel Gravelle), even though he’s volunteered to give her a lift. She’s especially irritated when he picks up a buddy along the way, chooses an off-the-map route to avoid drug sniffing police, and gets a flat.
What Pins & Needles does in Act 1 is slightly revise the traditional road trip horror story in that it gives us a lead who doesn’t care if anyone—audience included—likes her. Everything else, from the medical frailty to the isolated home to the suspiciously friendly homeowners, is straight out of the genre playbook, though.
For the film to proceed, you need a reason that Max doesn’t just bolt while she can. Well, it’s that pesky insulin, an obstacle that certainly feels convenient and telegraphed, but honest enough.
What matters is that Clark and the homeowners, Emily (Kate Corbett) and Frank (Ryan McDonald) keep it interesting and sometimes wickedly funny back at the house.
Villeneuve’s medical horror contrasts the genuine needs of ordinary people (Max’s insulin) with the diabolical excess of obscene wealth (what’s going on in that basement). The commentary might feel heavy handed were it not for the sharp comic instincts of both Corbett and McDonald. The film itself is by no means a comedy, but the absurdity the actors bring to this glibly privileged pair of villains gives Pins & Needles a bright tension rather than the grimy feel a movie this gory might carry.
The plots needed some complications. This feels like a short film padded to feature length, and a couple of the lengthening pieces (particularly a dream sequence) don’t fit well. A solid b-story would have added needed depth, but there are some tense and satisfying moments to be had.
“Hey, what’s that?” is a phrase that has driven the majority of human exploration, from the first cave person to see a hill to your dad hearing a noise outside at night. This phrase also drives the plot in The Sound, as climbers ascend a forbidden mountain to check out what’s on top.
The CIA is aware of a mysterious signal emanating from the top of a mountain range in indigenous territory. A failed climbing expedition in the 1950s has brought them no closer to the truth, as none of the climbers returned. Now, six decades later, the tribal authority has agreed to let another team of climbers attempt the ascent. The mountain is sacred so they can’t drill or otherwise deface the surface, so the climb will also be technically difficult.
It is clear that writer/director Brendan Devane is an avid climber. There’s an attention paid to the specific details of the climbing depicted in the movie that you don’t see in other mountain climbing films. Characters carefully latch themselves into crevices, pitch their mountain-side tents, and otherwise skillfully scale a sheer granite cliff. No one is going to make an epic leap with an ice axe in each hand.
Cinematographer Ryan Galvan also does a tremendous job of capturing some breathtaking shots of the climbers as they ascend. They likely used professional climbers for the long shots and their cast for the close-ups, but it all blends together convincingly.
Outside of the climbing elements, the movie suffers from a generic sci-fi plot and dull characters. You won’t find yourself caring about any of them as they meet their various ends as they get closer to the mysterious object. There’s a fight scene that has some Power Rangers-esque choreography, including magically teleporting characters, that is truly groanworthy.
Some notable faces like William Fichtner (Blackhawk Down, The Dark Knight), Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), and Alex Honnold (Free Solo) show up for brief cameos, but they don’t really boost the movie, other than having their names attached. There’s a clear strength when The Sound is focused on the actual climbing, but it falls flat once it tries to mash in its sci-fi elements.
Get to know Dale Dickey. There is nobody else like her in film or TV, and what she brings to a role is grit and authenticity that can be heartbreaking or frightening. In the case of filmmaker Karl R. Hearne’s The G, it’s a bit of both.
Dickey plays Ann, known to her step-granddaughter Emma (Romane Denis, Slaxx) as The G. She smokes a lot, drinks vodka by the bottle, and has a tough time returning her invalid husband’s affection. Until a sketchy doctor tells a scheming judge the couple can’t care for themselves, and before either can change out of their PJs, their new custodian has them locked in a cheerless room with no access to the outside world.
It’s like I Care a Lot, J Blakeson’s 2020 thriller about the organized, legal business of preying on the elderly. Except The G takes place in a depressed small town where the stakes are lower and the lives considerably less glamorous. But the fantasy is still the same.
Because The G has connections and skills her new facility leadership doesn’t expect.
Dickey is, characteristically, understated, gravely perfection as the wrong granny to cross, but Hearne is not in this for comedy. This is no Thelma. The G mines a horrifying reality of disposable people for indie thrills without abandoning the tragedy at the film’s center.
A plucky Denis and the balance of the supporting cast populates this bleak town with low-rent hoods, smalltown gangsters, sleazy opportunists, and cowards. Hearne complicates the slow boiler without losing the threads or the sense of realism.
There are one or two lapses in logic, but at least as many welcome surprises. The G boasts a tight script and a director who knows how to showcase a lead. And Dickey takes advantage, from the drunken joy of Ann’s face bathed in the artificial light of a bulb she managed to change, to her pitiless growl, “He might last a day out here. Maybe less.”
Dickey’s a treasure, and one filmmakers are finally, truly recognizing. Her finest moment might have been Max Walker-Silverman’s lyrical A Love Song, but Dale Dickey delivers no matter the role.
Few films, animated or otherwise, breathe the rarified air of Pixar’s best. The animation giant has turned out an alarming number of outright masterpieces: Toy Story, WALL-E, Up!, Toy Story 3, Inside Out. Their second tier is better than nearly every other animated film you’ll come across. The originality, humanity, and visual magic on display in these films is so superior to anything else out there, it becomes an almost impossible standard to bear.
Pixar’s latest effort, Elio, tells the sweet story of a lonesome orphan who wants desperately to believe that “we are not alone.” Elio inadvertently casts himself as leader of earth and invites aliens to abduct him. They accept.
Elio’s writing team includes Julia Cho, who penned the charming Turning Red, and Mike Jones, whose Soul rightfully took 2021’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The directing team includes Turning Red’s Domee Shi and Coco’s Adrian Molina. That’s a solid team, one fully aware of the wondrous possibilities of animation and family friendly storytelling.
And they do tell a lovely story. As Elio (Yonas Kibreab) finally finds a friend in galactic warlord Grigon’s (Brad Garrett) son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), he also realizes that he might have liked his Auntie (Zoe Saldaña) more than he thought.
Once Elio is space bound, the film brightens. The inhabitants of the Communiverse are delightfully oddball. There’s brightly colored fun to be had. But Act I doesn’t dig deep enough into Elio’s relationship with his auntie to give the film real stakes, so the emotional center that creates the Pixar gravitational pull is never as strong as it is in their best efforts.
The story beats also lack the freshness of the best Pixar has to offer. Still, a first-contact film that retails a childlike wonder about what lies beyond the stars without resenting what waits at home is a rare thing.
