M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

I didn't love M3GAN in the way many did. Sure it was camp and fun, but not so much in a clever way and more in a rather average way. It was fine, had its pop culture moment, and perhaps was more about the memes than about the film itself. Well it turns out they may not be able to return to the well for another round. M3GAN 2.0 feels even more paint by numbers than the first one did and certainly is a lot less fun. 

Again, it's fine. Sure the plot doesn't make a lot of sense and feels like it's there to set up scenes more than any real organic story. The motivations of the characters, don't always seem logical. And the film goes on and on. This maybe would have been a better movie at 90 minutes than 2 hours. But it's not terrible. 

I guess if you are a die hard M3GAN fan you might enjoy it but the level of delicious camp feels muted compared to the first and I do wonder if the idea of M3GAN was more appealing than the actual movie. I'm not sure 2.0 is going to change any of that. 

M3GAN 2.0

Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ivanna Sakhno, Jenna Davis, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Jemaine Clement, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp

Writer/Director: Gerard Johnstone

Please Don't Feed the Children (2025)

Please Don't Feed the Children is pure B-movie. The premise doesn't quite make sense. Dockery's villain is cartoonish. And the plot follows the usual sort of stumbling blocks so that it doesn't get resolved too quickly. But it works because it embraces its roots and leans into what it is in refreshing ways. It stays entertaining and satisfying right up to the end. 

In her first feature film, Destry Allyn Spielberg shows she has either inherited some of her famous father's talents, or learned from him, or both. She quite deftly films this story in a tight and engaging manner, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats even when the film feels a little on the predictable side. 

I don't mean to knock Dockery. Her villain may be a bit tropey but she, like the film, embraces it and commits. She becomes quite unnerving. There are a few moments that end up feeling quite unnerving, perhaps due to Spielberg's trend of turning away from gore and cleverly leaving things to our imagination. She quite effectively builds un-ease as does Dockery through her performance. 

Please Don't Feed the Children is a promising start to a second generation film maker who hopefully will make her own catalogue of great films.

Please Don't Feed the Children

Starring: Michelle Dockery, Zoe Colletti, Giancarlo Esposito

Director: Destry Allyn Spielberg

Writer: Paul Bertino

28 Years Later (2025)

I've always described 28 Days Later as a drama wearing the skin of a horror movie. While I fully admit these debates are academic only, I find it a helpful way to explain the way the film hits for me, differently than most horror. I felt 28 Weeks Later tried this with mixed success but Boyle and Garland have returned to this with their ambitious and bold 28 Years Later, a film that might be a bit inconsistent but mostly succeeds in not only the world building and character development a film like this needs to work, but in telling a narrative that I was invested in and moved by. 

I described the film as ambitious. Unlike the original film, this film is structured as a part of a larger whole, clearly there is a plan here for this story to open up to others and connect with the previous. Therefore it doesn't limit itself solely to the confinements of this 115 minute runtime. Even within that there are 3 distinct acts, each with different tones and emotional arcs. Finally those are bookended by prologue and epilogue which stand on their own.

I going to say they body of this film works. The main storyline, a series of stories featuring Williams' Spike character, are rich with emotional power and resonance. Sometimes it is a bit rushed and there are a few moments that require a bit of forgiveness. But the strength of the writing and Williams' precocious performance make it come together powerfully. This story builds, as a good sequel should, the mythology of the world. The Rage Virus is developing in ways we hadn't seen before and becoming more threatening that it was before. But this is handled in a smart and character driven way, not just in the typical more/more/more approach most sequels take. 

And this takes me back to where I started. 28 Years Later, like the film that inspired it, builds its story first on character and story and not on the "premise." Perhaps it is taking on a lot here and some of this will depend on how the next chapters go. The controversial epilogue may end up being the introduction of an incredible part of this story or perhaps something regrettable. We don't have enough to make that call yet. Check in with me after the release of the sequel.  

28 Years Later

Starring: Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Edvin Ryding, Jack O'Connell

Director: Danny Boyle

Writer: Alex Garland 

Elio (2025)

The best Pixar movies spark something emotional for me and it wasn't far into Elio's runtime that this one found its mark. Elio is an exploration of loneliness and the challenges of finding connection, all packaged in an all ages story that, while completely accessible for younger audiences, reaches the youngster in all of us. It finds that spot where we remember being isolated, awkward, unable to fit, and it gives us some hope. 

Elio also has a fun story about aliens. The story might cut a couple corners but it bases its imagery and mythology in familiar sci fi tropes of the past in a way that is charming and delightful. Yes the story skews younger than their recent Inside Out 2 or even the underrated Onward, but it never talks down to its audience. I'd compare it most closely to Luca, as it works by getting us all to see our inner children. 

Elio is also a beautiful film. I love that Pixar is returning to a "cartoony" look instead of aiming for photorealism. Some of the set designs and "galactic" effects are just gorgeous but the character designs are done with a flair for a very animated style. Much of Elio's look is reminiscent of Monsters Inc. but without being derivative. 

Elio was fresh and I didn't always know where it was going, which is such a rare treat these days. I know its the sequels and remakes that make all the money for these studios but when I see something like Elio I am hopeful there will always be spaces and time for original little films like this. 

Elio

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil, Shirley Henderson, Matthias Schweighöfer, Brendan Hunt, Kate Mulgrew

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Writers: Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, Mike Jones

The Life of Chuck (2025)

Some of Stephen King's best works are those that don't fall into the horror genre, and that is also true of films based on his work. From Shawshank to Stand By Me King's ability to weave complex threads into accessible and gripping stories is unrivalled. The Life of Chuck, with all its personal grandeur should easily be in that category but I'm not sure it gets there. There feels something timid and restrained about this film that never lets it really take off. 

The story is lovely and speaks to our uniqueness, our specialness, and our loneliness. It is about the complicated relationships between our interior and exterior lives, our need for connections and our need to be who we are. There is an element of magic or providence involved that is at once disheartening and comforting. It contains a lot of seemingly contradictory feelings brought together in very clever ways. 

But the film never quite makes any of it real. It always feels a bit constructed, a little to pat. I never felt I could see Chuck's journey as authentic, and it always felt more like it was trying to make its point more than tell its story. 

Still it is a nice story and honestly a rather entertaining one. I didn't dislike The Life of Chuck, not at all. But it never crossed into the place where it swept me up in its magic, which, felt necessary in this particular case. 

The Life of Chuck

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill, Matthew Lillard, Carl Lumbly, Nick Offerman, Annalise Basso, Taylor Gordon, Kate Siegal, Samantha Sloyen, Trinity Bliss, Mia Sara, Carla Gugino, Q'orianka Kilcher, Rahul Kohli, Harvey Guillén, David Dastmalchian

Writer/Director: Mike Flanagan

Materialists (2025)

I love it when a film can surprise me. Materialists sets itself up (and is marketed similarly) with what appears to be a typical love triangle scenario but quickly deconstructs that in its exploration of western conceptions of what "love" and "relationships" mean. By using this trope, Song plays with our expectations in ways that force us through our perceptions and assumptions that these sorts of films usually reinforce. I wish she had had the courage to end her journey here in a different place than she does but the journey remains interesting. 

Song has such a deft hand both as a director and a writer. The dialogue is sharp and piercing and her style of filming, while unassuming and never flashy, is so intricate in how it expresses the film's themes and ideas, the emotions of the characters, that I felt like I knew these people. Her characters never feel stock and are wholly flawed people that feel like they stepped out of real life. 

The thing that didn't work for me was the chemistry of the actors. I never felt the connection that Lucy and Johnathan needed to make this story feel authentic. Sure the energy wasn't there for Lucy and Harry either but that was supposed to be the point. Materialists delves into the transactional nature of relationships, and not in a judgement way. Yet even then I never truly bought that Harry and Lucy would make this transaction. Materialists is also making a point about the naturalness of falling in love but little felt natural between Evans and Johnson. 

So in my head Materialists worked wonders. It have been thinking about it over and over since I saw it, mulling over ideas about how we structure not only our "romantic" connections but also our relationships to those connections. But if I am being honest, my heart never bought in. Perhaps this could have been more effective if the film didn't try to find a happily-ever-after for Lucy, at least not one that involved her finding "love." Perhaps then I wouldn't have been so underwhelmed by seeing her and Jonathan reunite. A film that maybe ended with her choosing something else might have knocked it out of the park for me. Maybe. 

Materialists 

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal

Writer/Director: Celine Song

 

Pride vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story (2025)

There is a simplicity to the way Hagen presents this history of one of Canada's most seminal human rights cases that brings out the humanity of those involved in the historic, yet surprisingly recent, event. It is the focus on the human elements that makes Pride vs. Prejudice so impactful. 

The recentness of the case does allow many people directly involved to be interviewed. While the film does deal with the legal and charter aspects of this history its main focus is those who were there, the advocates, the activists, and many affected. 

The film also accomplishes the task of showing us just how different things could have been and how quickly we forget and move on. It also focuses on just how relevant the issues remain and how vigilance is necessary. Yet it is also a very hopeful and optimistic film about regular people doing extraordinary things.  

Pride vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story

Writer/Director: Darrin Hagen

 

Ballerina (2025)

Ballerina is as much a John Wick movie as any John Wick movies. The plot is over the top and filled with enough shark jumping to satisfy the indulgent crowd. The action is intricate and choreographed within an inch of its life. The film even has extended sequences featuring Wick himself. I'll admit, for me a lot of Ballerina feels like just repeating the John Wick schtick. Fortunately de Armas is charismatic enough to carry the film. But with such a heavy use of Keanu and a reliance of repetitive formula, Ballerina suffers from not distinguishing itself enough.

There is one big exception to this and it is likely what I enjoyed most about the film. de Armas' Eve, while very much a female Wick analogue, breaks the female action hero mold in an effective manner. Much of the action movie trope is for female action heroes to be hyper masculine. But Eve isn't Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley. This film goes out of its way to use Eve's femininity as her strength. She is effective because she is not male, not masculine. she is the titular ballerina, a profession not seen as manly in anyway (ask male ballerinas how they are viewed) yet the film spends time showing us just how brutal mastering the art form is, what a tole it takes and how tough one must be to excel at it. It flips the script on what makes on "tough". I found the film's examination of gender interesting here. 

But this is a John Wick film so explorations of themes like this are sidelined for the main event. The action. Fans won't be disappointed by the set pieces. They are gloriously ridiculous and a lot of fun. The plot may make you roll your eyes a few times (not a rare experience in this franchise) but if you're prepared for that you can enjoy it for what it is. I wish the film hadn't relied entirely so much on wedging Wick in here. The initial appearance makes sense and reflects events of John Wick 3 but the climax not only doesn't fit the timeline well (if I understand it this is happening during the events of JW3 or before JW4 when John was pretty occupied running from the High Table's assassins and wouldn't have much time for a side gig on behalf of the Director), but also doesn't fit entirely with his character. Sure he's prepared to bend rules for what he thinks is right but it could be argued he is completely abdicating the mission he was sent to do. That's debatable so I'll leave that for now. 

I wish the film had had enough courage to bank on it's star instead of needing so much Keanu but I get where we are in the whole realm of big budget sequel politics. Even that aside, Ballerina feels like it doesn't hit the heights of the best Wick films as it is a little too safe, but it also isn't the worst Wick film out there. What it is at its least is proof of concept that the "World of John Wick" is strong enough to flesh out a much larger "universe" than just stories about John himself. 

Ballerina

Starring: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves 

Director: Len Wiseman

Writer: Shay Hatten

Lost in Starlight (2025)

This charming little love story which spans the stars offers a delightful if simple tale and some characters that are easy to fall for. Mostly following the rom-com archetype of the meet cute with some barrier that keeps our lovers from being together, the film also builds in a science fiction background to give it a different spin. 

Lost in Starlight explores a very literal distance between its characters but even that is the metaphor for the traditional love-knows-no-bounds narrative. A big part of what makes it work is that it is completely earnest without trying to add jaded elements in anyway. Perhaps the animation also helps, giving it that just slight distance so we can accept the film's premise and its thesis. 

The animation here is quite beautiful. With few big set pieces Lost is Starlight isn't showy with its visuals. It finds ways to be beautiful in subtler, smaller ways. There is a sequence near the end I found breathtaking. Even without being bombastic it manages to be artistically very endearing. 

Lost in Starlight

Director: Han Ji-won

Writer: Kang Hyun-Joo