Seven Veils (2025)

I can't remember seeing a film with such a blending of two art forms, in this case cinema and opera, in a very long time. Egoyan has almost mounted a production of the opera Salome along with filming this very Egoyan narrative about how the present mixes with the past, how past trauma informs our present choices. His lead character is re-mounting a stage production of the opera and he has done that here too, to set his movie in. It is a mixing of reality and fiction that is something he always seems quite fascinated with and he pulls it off. 

Seyfried is very strong in a role that puts her through a bit of an emotional wringer but never gives her the big scenes to thrash that out in. Instead she uses her famously large eyes to do much of the character building, her arc remaining just out of sight. Subplots interact with the main story, one of processing our trauma through art, something Egoyan is well versed in. He explores the closeness of sexual desire and pain to our self expression as well as the ways gendered experiences may play into how these stories are told. It is all very fascinating while the story of how the production is made is played out. 

And so much of Salome is on the screen for us to experience. It is an opera whose story resonates with this one, although the interpretations are varied and the relationships to the story are in tension with each other. However that is part of what he does that makes this work so well. I was struck by just how much was going on throughout this narrative, and how much it offered us to think about while keeping most of its visual presentation on the stage.  

Seven Veils

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Mark O'Brien, Vinessa Antoine 

Writer/Director: Atom Egoyan

Mickey 17 (2025)

Mickey 17 is pretty much a mixed bag. There is a lot to like and a lot not to. High concept absurd satire is hard to pull off and Joon-ho takes a good a swing as anyone but doesn't quite succeed. Pattinson, on his tour of wacky roles hoping to shake off the sparkle of Twilight, pulls off another great performance here playing a number of roles quite well. Unfortunately most of the rest of the (normally quite stellar) cast is just hamming it up. 

Mickey 17's big ideas get pushed to the side often to service the jokes. There will be an interesting thread happens that uses up its usefulness and then gets dropped. The movie is sold in ads through the gimmick of the "expendable" character being sent to die again and again and being reborn into a clone body. But the movie isn't interested in that much, not even as a metaphor for capitalism's exploitation of labour. It moves into it's fascination with "multiples" and even begins to push some comfort with a rather junior-high level tease of a threesome which conveniently gets sidelines before it can become anything too weird. 

The film dodges bullets like that quite a bit. When it starts to get interestingly weird, someone conveniently takes the story in another direction. Much of the script just shifts from one idea to the next without having to commit. The film flirts with a queer character but keeps her queerness sidelined only acknowledging it in passing. The film flirts with totalitarian impulses but just shuffles that off by the end without any real processing of the themes. And it's always done with a sarcastic dark comedy vibe so that we never feel it too much. 

Joon-ho visually creates a stunning world to set his story in and while I appreciated it sometimes it was a distraction from the weaknesses in the story. Mickey 17 walks up to the line of asking quite a few interesting questions but then always just steps back to never deal with it, often in ways that just aren't super convincing. It may be mostly a miss but often it is fascinating to watch the spectacular swing before the strike is called. 

Mickey 17

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo 

Writer/Director: Bong Joon-ho

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

The amount I smiled during Mad About the Boy was a lot more than I expected. The Bridget Jones series mostly succeeds due to the sheer likability of the character and Zellweger's charisma and screen presence. I'm not sure I can say Mad About the Boy is a good movie, I have quite a few nitpicks, but I also can't say I didn't enjoy watching it. 

So they kill off Darcy so that Jones is single again, this time raising adorable children in her adorable and messy way. Then they introduce a Darcy substitute in Ejiofor's character who is similarly gruff, handsome, and awkward. But first they distract us with Woodall's young hottie even though it's quite clear that's never going to go anywhere. And they throw in Grant behaving badly (but adorably) as always. 

It doesn't amount to much and there are times that you have to roll your eyes. But damn I laughed and smiled a great deal. Zellweger really is so appealing in this role even when very little is happening that I forgave the film most of its faults and just let myself sit back and enjoy it. 

So why not? 

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Jim Broadbent, Isla Fisher, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, James Callas, Celia Imre, Shirley Henderson, Sally Phillips, Sarah Solemani, Nico Parker

Director: Michael Morris

Writers: Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan

My Dead Friend Zoe (2025)

There are many times My Dead Friend Zoe tends to fall into a lot of predictable patterns of movies dealing with post-combat PTSD. But what saves it from some of that predictability is the cast and their dedication to the roles. Martin-Green truly breaks out here giving an especially moving performance opposite some great actors. Her relationship with Harris especially is quite well executed between the performers and it makes Merit's struggle and her journey feel very real. 

I understand this is a personal project for writer/director Hausmann-Stokes and you can feel that honesty in the structure of the screenplay. His building of the connection between our protagonist and who she has lost is very powerful and helps bring home the story in a moving way. While sometimes the use of Morales' character's memory sometimes pushed my limits, overall it was a very effective means of communicating the effects of Merit's PTSD.

I'm not sure the film manages to convincingly build its romance subplot. I don't feel such a story is superfluous either as it also speaks to how she is unable to move forward. Despite all Ambudkar's heaping charisma, there is little connection between him and Martin-Green and I think the film would have benefited from that. 

However, My Dead Friend Zoe really does manage to pull it off in the end and delivers a truly moving, if overly formulaic, ending that makes its journey successful. And if it helps some in real life begin to open up about what they need, then it is certainly worthwhile. 

My Dead Friend Zoe

Starring: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Gloria Reuben, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris 

Director: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes

Writers: A. J. Bermudez, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes

Handling the Undead/Håndtering av udøde (2024)

Horror comes in many forms but in the end is about scaring its audience in some way. Most tend towards scaring us through violence, through gore, through things jumping out and going "boo". But every now and then a horror film can scare us through emotions. Handling the Undead takes the "zombie" trope and laser focuses on loss. And it may be one of the saddest films I've ever seen. 

In Handling the Undead there is a general "zombie" apocalypse but without the hordes or gruesome attacks (generally). Here the dead begin to slowly awake. Instead of attacking (generally) they just exist. Instead of us focusing on a group of survivors attempting to flee or kill of undead armies, we follow three stories of people attempting to deal with the fact their dead loved ones are back; a long time partner, a dead child, a mother who just died but was resurrected. 

Handling the Undead turns its focus on the pain and grief of mourning, the unbearable pain of seeing your loved one, who you had lost, come back to you but not be themselves. The performances are incredible, subtle yet deeply moving. It is a study in some of the worst pain anyone can feel and it is devastating. 

The film begins to bring in some of the more expected "zombie" violence near the end as the resurrected begin to harm those around them but it never becomes the zombie horror that we are used to. Instead this finalizes the realization our characters have that their loved ones cannot come back and are gone forever. It is deeply traumatizing. The film's focus on pain and loss, on grieving is palpable and the way it eschews the escaping motifs of the genre is bold. It is a film I had to sit with for a while. 

Handling the Undead/Håndtering av udøde

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars, Inesa Dauksta 

Director: Thea Hvistendahl

Writers: John Ajvide Lindqvist, Thea Hvistendahl