After the Hunt (2025)

My first thoughts digesting After the Hunt were how Guadagnino has made a Woody Allen film. From the obvious (the title cards played over traditional jazz) to the more integral (the focus on well off white liberals discussing their moral ambiguities) After the Hunt feels like 90s Allen only without the director's presence visually in the film.

After the Hunt is a talky movie, but the kind where the words feel violent and intrusive. Guadagnino seems obsessed with taking a subject and dissecting it from all angles. He refuses to give us answers, take a position, or even posit a "good guy". After the Hunt is deliberately agnostic on morality, preferring to remain out of the fray it is chronicling. Whenever we think we have a clue as to the "truth" or to a character's character he pulls that out from under us by giving us more reason to doubt. The film almost violently rejects subjectivity. 

And this is where the film lost me. Yes it was fascinating and it was riddled with interesting quandaries, but its fearfulness of taking any perspective (other than a cowardly detachment) left it feeling nihilistic and cold. And to be honest, a lot of the dilemmas the film is positing feel a bit tired. It all feels very 2021... I guess I'd like to think there is more insight into the power dynamics explored here but much of what After the Hunt focuses on feels like well treaded water. 

This no fault of the cast who all do remarkable work. I love this stage of Roberts' career where she is taking these sorts of meaty roles. For me Stuhlbarg is the true standout, just shining in every scene, even when his character is more background than the main action. But really everyone is very good here.   

It just didn't feel like After the Hunt had much interesting to say about its subject that hasn't already been said before. 

After the Hunt

Starring: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Writer: Nora Garrett

Queens of the Dead (2025)

Yes Queens of the Dead is camp fun and leans away from the scary side of zombie movies and into the comedy. But as the group of queer and trans survivors thinned and were making their final push to safety it became clear that the film is about something really different. Like how the director's father's films used the zombies to comment on issues the world was dealing with, Tina Romero's zombies are commenting too, on something very now, as are her survivors. 

The zombies here are glued to their phones and their focus is pulled by posts, influencers, and the pulsing beats of EDM. They are a reflection on drug culture, made brainless by their addictions. They are crowds that follow, whatever shiny object or show is put in front of them. 

And while that is interesting, it's not what I felt the true triumph of Queens of the Dead was. Romero's insight here is in queerness and queer resiliency. Her cast, made up of queer and trans actors, survive due to their queerness. There is a pivotal moment where it comes together. One character points out that "this is a matter of life and death" and another responds with "it's always both." Because for queer and trans people have always faced choosing life while facing death. They survive through choosing to be alive in the face of a world that wants to wipe them out, and they do so joyfully and authentically. There are strong themes of chosen family here too. Romero has captured the queer experience so insightfully with this camp parody, a love letter to resilience and being anything but normal. 

And that, for me, is what made Queens of the Dead such a beautiful film, and so much fun. From Spivey's delightful cover of Blow, to Jackson's signature cheekbones and attitude, to Cho's over the top butch cameo, to West's mothering, this cast is all here for it and a delight to have together on screen. And the film even ends with a classic zombie movie nod that I want more of. Love live the queens. 

Queens of the Dead

Starring: Katy O'Brian, Jaquel Spivey, Riki Lindhome, Jack Haven, Eve Lindley, Nina West, Cheyenne Jackson, Margaret Cho, Dominique Jackson

Director: Tina Romero

Writers: Erin Judge, Tina Romero

Urchin (2025)

Urchin is a breakout film for its star and for its writer-director. Dickinson has made a name for himself as a promising young actor who has a lot more to offer than just his supermodel appearance. Roles in films like Babygirl and See How They Run have showed a real character actor in him. Dillane appears to like the roles that are more on the edge and here he gets to truly show off what he can do with his outsider energy. 

I'll say that Urchin offers no surprises and its ending, while creative in how it is depicted, is exactly where you think this is going. But the journey on how we get there is remarkably gripping. Dickinson crafts a smart and powerful rollercoaster, with some striking moments early, leading to some hope and joy, before the film begins its dreadful drop towards what feels almost inevitable. He keeps it simple which makes it powerfully effective and it is all grounded in Dillane's brave performance.  

Urchin makes me excited to see Dillane grow into more leading roles as his on screen charisma is palpable. It also makes me want more from Dickinson as a director/writer as he shows quite a sharp sense of how to tell a story and a boldness that he isn't afraid to take some risks. 

Urchin

Starring: Frank Dillane, Megan Northam, Harris Dickinson

Writer/Director: Harris Dickinson

The Baltimorons (2025)

I love it when a film uses a genre structure (in this case rom-com) to tell a very different story. The Baltimorons is set up like what we would expect from a romantic comedy (the meet cute, the issues pulling apart the characters, the final chase leading to the characters coming together) to explore deeper themes and build rich characters. And I laughed. Comedies rarely make me laugh and I laughed consistently throughout The Baltimorons... at least when I wasn't crying. 

While it plays with dripping charm The Batlimorons undercuts all the rom-com tropes by putting at its centre a couple who do not meet the "acceptable" standards for rom-com partners (their ages, their relationship statuses, their body types - all breaking the mold). The film faces issues such as addiction and suicide head on. The film's humour often turns to the dark side, going to some truly emotional places within the jokes. And it all is rooted in a authentic realism that grounds it and gives you the space to truly inhabit it. 

This is a breakthrough for writer and star Strassner who is magnetically charismatic throughout. As sketch comedian, he excels here at both the comedy and the drama, giving a beautiful and complicated performance. He has based this script on actual events in his life and woven it around real places in his home town of Baltimore which is likely why the film feels so damn honest and real. This film has the audience eating out of the palm of its hand. It is just so lovely and raw. 

The Batlimorons isn't afraid to show us sadness along with the laughs and love. It is delightfully optimistic while confronting real people and their real problems. But all while it is doing that it gives us just a simply good time, focusing on those unexpected moments of fun that sometimes spring up on us, even when things aren't going well. 

The Baltimorons

Starring: Michael Strassner, Liz Larsen, Olivia Luccardi 

Director: Jay Duplass

Writers: Michael Strassner, Jay Duplass

The Mastermind (2025)

At first Reichardt's heist movie is a fascinating anti-heist movie heist movie. Her slow cinema style that was so engaging in First Cow (for example) works well in the first half of the Mastermind, deconstructing what we expect in a heist film. But by the second act I was taken out of the film that seemed to really struggle with what it was trying to do. 

I appreciated the everyday-ness of how she sets up the heist in the opening of the film. There was a lot of just obviousness to it, a lack of extraorindariness to what we are used to seeing as the exact opposite. To make it feel so work-a-day just felt quite remarkable. As the plot started to fall apart it was both tragic and comic. The more characters commented on how our "hero" didn't "think this through", the more it became clear just how poorly planned this was. As a film genre, this is usually where we see how brilliantly the plan comes together and this was the stark contrast to that. 

But by the end Reichart's attention to minuscule detail starts to loose its appeal and takes away from the power of the story. She pulls the story back around with what is a beautifully ironic ending and a sad commentary on futility of progress. But by then I had lost some of my passion for where this was going. 

I found O'Connor to be strong, along with a few of the cameos who appear here. But some of the rest of the cast were too weak to bring what was needed to keep this story engaging. 

The Mastermind

Starring: Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, Bill Camp, Matthew Maher

Writer/Director: Kelly Reichardt

Nouvelle Vague (2025)

In 2025 Linklater released two films about pivotal moments of 20th century pop culture, Blue Moon about the opening night of Oklahoma! and Nouvelle Vague about the making of Breathless. Both feel like love letters to great artists but the latter feels a little more whimsical and slight although it remains a lovely watch. 

In Linklater's telling the filming of what has come to be regarded as one of cinema's greatest accomplishments was a rather haphazard and clumsy bit of playing around. Godard is portrayed as a visionary iconoclast but loveable and delightful and his cast, producers, and crew, while often frustrated by his idiosyncrasies, adore him and have a lovely time making the film despite all the absurdities and costs. It is very rose coloured glasses and never feels like it has stakes. It's hard to take Nouvelle Vague very seriously in all this kumbaya.  Even Deutch's cute frustrations as Seberg seem more like minor annoyances than reflections of reactions to potentially abusive behavior. 

But the film remains very watchable because if there is one thing Linklater does well, it's having us watch people sit around talking. It's true in Blue Moon. It's true in his other famous works. And it's true here. So even if Nouvelle Vague feels a bit like revisionist history, it is one we might be on board with. 

Nouvelle Vague

Starring: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin 

Director: Richard Linklater

Writers: Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025)

Director Condon is good at musicals as proven by his Dreamgirls film and his other Kander/Ebb musical adaptation, the Oscar winning Chicago. I feel he's done it again, bringing Kander and Ebb's musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman to the big technicolor screen with pizzaz and pathos. 

Jennifer Lopez, as the title character is the marquee name, and she shines here in a scene stealing role that sets her as queen of the silver screen, a title she lives up to and more. But this is Tonatiuh's film. His performance as Molina (the role that won William Hurt his Oscar) is easily one of the best performances of the year. He is mesmerizing and captivating in every moment, bringing an authenticity and creativity to the role. He made the film for me. Poor Diego Luna, who gives a strong performance, but is completely eclipsed by his co-star in his breakout role. 

Condon's approach, similar to his work in Chicago, is to use the musical numbers in the fantasy world, keeping the prison moments grounded in reality and the imagined world of an old fashioned movie musical is the escape and liberation. His staging is pure 50 musical magic, from the costumes to the art direction, to the melodrama. It's all delicious and rich. Condon has taken the musical, incorporated elements from the novel and the 80s film adaptation, to create something truly lovely and what might be my favourite of the tellings of this tale. 

My only real critique is that the music isn't Kander and Ebb's best work. There is nothing near a Cell Block Tango or a Willkommen, very few of the songs stick with you or capture your heart. Still, Tonatiuh and Lopez are both outstanding as they perform the musical numbers which papers over the weakness of the source music. 

Still Kiss of the Spider Woman is gorgeous, tragic, spectical and I am here for it. It is also a showcase for an incredible new talent in Tonatiuh and perhaps the role Jennifer Lopez was born to play. 

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Bruno Bichir, Tony Dovolani, Aline Mayagoitia

Writer/Director: Bill Condon

 

It Was Just an Accident (2025)

The story behind It Was Just An Accident is as compelling as its rich and engaging story. Filmed in secret, breaking all sorts of Iranian laws, this movie is part thriller, part comedy, part morality play, and Panahi finds just the right balance in tone between all of it. It is compelling from start to finish... and man what a finish. 

The strong cast juggles the transitions from dark humour to powerful pathos. There is an authenticity in every scene brought together by the actors and the guerrilla film making style. But at the heart of this is just a damn good story filled with well rounded characters, and a smart/funny/moving script. It's the whole package. 

The film never gives away its secrets. It will keep you guessing until the end. There are fascinating questions woven throughout, the kinds that don't have easy answers and dive deep into our emotions, our reason, our humanity. It culminates in a moment of catharsis, a resolution that a feeling of peace to it. But then it goes just a bit further and leaves you with even more questions than you had before. It is just wonderful cinema. 

It Was Just an Accident 

Starring: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Writer/Director: Jafar Panahi

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)

The biggest problem with this Big Bold Beautiful Journey is that it really isn't any of those things. The film feels remarkably small, takes little to no risks, and is filmed in a rather pedantic fashion that keeps it from being very cinematic. My previous experiences with Kogonada's work have gorgeous films that, while a little plodding, were incredibly to look at and reached into some deep beautiful metaphors. So it is surprising to see this feel so simplistic and cliched. 

Farrell and Robbie don't find any chemistry here. There "meet cute" is anything but. It's awkward and doesn't feel real. They are the kinds of characters that speak what they are thinking instead of how humans might translate their inner thoughts into filtered conversations. So their interactions feel constructed or wooden. And the journey's they go through, revisiting formative moments in their past, all feel like text book ideas of what makes us who we are. There seems to be little to no insight into the human condition. It's like Chat GPT tried to find pathos in the stories of regular lives. 

And the film most often visually falls flat. There are moments the film has its characters tell us that what we are watching is beautiful scenery but neither part feels like it really is. The rain looks like rain machines. There is even a moment when the film gives up trying to even be on sets and just puts our characters on a sound stage for no reason. None of it came together or made it that watchable. 

But I think it's the films less than bold story lines that were the most disappointing. The ideas of parent issues or relationship issues just felt so 101 they didn't feel honest. It all amounts to a rather small, plain, trip and not what the title of this film promises at all. 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Starring: Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jodie Turner Smith, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Hamish Linklater

Director: Kogonada

Writer: Seth Reiss

Him (2025)

I have to push back at the negative reception Him has received upon its release. While not perfect, Tipping doesn't quite stick the landing, Him is a bold vision that takes risks and, in my opinion, mostly scores. It was fascinating to watch this visionary deconstruction of western ideas of masculinity and it's the sign of a powerful new cinematic voice in new director Tipping. 

Him is a fever dream, a purging of all the masculine images celebrated in our culture, that challenges our notions of the possibilities of goodness and manliness. It doesn't shy away from tying its condemnations religious imagery, specifically Christianity (just look at the poster), taking down God and Country and our western patriarchy. Him attacks our idolatry of athletes and sport while working in as much Americana and religion into the toxic mix. No wonder people are falling all over themselves to condemn this film. It holds a funhouse mirror up to our straight male culture to show what it really does. People don't want that. 

Like Challengers before it, Him isn't afraid to highlight the homoerotic nature of straight masculinity; its obsession with male bodies, male romance. There are lines in the script that specifically reference straight men desiring each other. Make no mistake, this isn't an attempt to claim the characters are gay. It's to show just how much straght men worship and desire each other. Audiences are going to be extremely uncomfortable with that and I think that's good. Him should make straight American male audiences extremely uncomfortable, especially those that love to warp themselves in the flag and the church.

As I mentioned in the beginning, Tipping doesn't make the end work. Likely one could have ended Him five minutes early and it would have been great. The ambiguity of wondering if Cam was going to "sign" at the end would have been a master stroke. Just but to black as he stands there contemplating. Instead the film's bloody climax, one that still fits with the violent nature of the story til then, doesn't end up delivering on the promise Him delivers. This is a Faustian tale that equates western masculinity with a deal with the devil and the almost heroic ending takes away some from that. But while it didn't quite get into the endzone, Him is still heralding the arrival of an exciting new film maker. 

Him
Starring: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox 

Director: Justin Tipping

Writers: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping

Blue Moon (2025)

I am a sucker for "talky" movies. Sit me down and let me watch actors banter back and forth with a witty and cerebral script and I'm in heaven. I know this isn't for everyone but it's my jam. Linklater is good at this sort of thing and Blue Moon, with its theatre lover-bait premise and its cinemaphile cast, is just the sort of film I like to lose myself in for a little while. 

Set on the opening night of Richard Rogers' legendary smash hit Oklahoma!, Rogers' former writing partner, Lorenz Hart, spends the night at Sardis chatting with the bartender, a woman he is obsessed with, and the attendees of the premier's afterparty including his former colleague himself. We know they aren't going to write another show together and that Rogers is going on to work with his new collaborator to write South Pacific, The King and I, and the goddamned Sound of Music of all things. It is a beautiful moment of pathos and loss.

Hawke is Hart and he dissolves into the character in a way that is delightful. He is a talker and the film is mostly him speaking at muzzle velocity, covering over all his wounds and thankfully never having that dramatic breakdown moment one would expect if the film had gone more in the cliche direction. What we witness instead is a man acknowledging a world that has given him so much to squander and offering his own rational for his journey without blaming. He flounders a little but mostly holds himself together and it's a beautiful and complicated little dance he is doing. The film has a lovely sympathy for him without taking pity. 

By being set almost all the action in a bar next to a piano, Blue Moon gets to be serenaded throughout with a beautiful piano medley of the standards, ending with the song Blue Moon itself, which the film posits is not Harts' favourite of his compositions. Yet it is clearly a thing of true beauty; he had written something timeless and gorgeous. 

Blue Moon

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott 

Director: Richard Linklater

Writer: Robert Kaplow

No Other Choice (2025)

No Other Choice feels like a bit of a departure for Park Chan-wook, known in the west mostly for violent revenge crime like his Revenge Trilogy and the classic Oldboy. There is still a bit of violence here, and the premise itself is rather violent, the film leans far more into the back comedy than his previous works like the outstanding recent works Decision to Leave and The Handmaiden. My only complaint is that his dive into humour sometimes borders on the absurd, slapstick. But No Other Choice is biting satire, highlighting the harms of late stage capitalism, and the cruelty of economic competition in our faces. Underneath all the comedy is a profound sadness.

Fast forward to the end of No Other Choice, I found myself quite unsettled. Its hard to exist in this era without seeing and feeling the effects of our economic system's failures, but the strength of this film is the way it makes it visceral. As the beautiful credit sequence began (Park has crafted something visually stunning, yet again), I was reflecting with some dread on the state of our world. 

What didn't work for me was the humour. This is more a personal style thing but the comedy went too far into the ludicrous for my tastes. Its almost cartoony silliness sapped some of the pathos for me and I would have preferred a subtler, more balanced tone with the darker elements of the story. My other complaint is that the story lurches a bit in its narrative. Our hero's plan just sort of comes from no where and his steps don't always make a lot of logic sense. Yes he's bumbling, which does make sense, but if sometimes feels like its not clear what he's trying to do and that set pieces are set up more for their comedic potential than to drive the plot forward. 

Having said that No Other Choice remains a delightful watch. Especially strong is Son Ye-jin who brought a bit more understatement to her performance than a lot of the scenery chewing that the rest of the cast was doing. It is was in the film's quietest moments that I found myself the most engaged. For example there is a little speech by a shoe salesman that is down right heart breaking, especially in light of the fate we know he is facing. 

Overall No Other Choice is a fascinating film that, while it didn't always hit for me, was entertaining left with me reflecting on a lot as I left the cinema. 

No Other Choice

Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin

Director: Park Chan-wook

Writers: Don McKellar, Lee Kyoung-mi, Lee Ja-hye, Park Chan-wook

The Long Walk (2025)

There are a good deal of challenges when adapting a story like The Long Walk for the screen. It's a very literary story, where much of the drama is explored in the characters' heads or through their conversations, and the explicit physical action is repetitive and monotonous (the walking) and viscerally violent (the executions). Finding visual and auditory ways of communicating all of this is not necessarily an easy task which is why I think Mollner and Lawrence have pulled off a bit of a miracle here by making one of 2025's most compelling, most engaging, and most impactful films. I came out of The Long Walk completely shook, and it gave me so much to reflect upon. The Long Walk is the sort of film you don't want to get up to go to the bathroom because every moment is important and riveting.  And they have made this tale very cinematic. 

The Long Walk is truly an ensemble piece and the cast here is wonderful, living up to what this story demands. They are just... walking... and talking and through this they develop their characters into fully realized and recognizable humans, discuss concepts in complex and meaningful ways, and build relationships that make the impact of the events even more raw and powerful. Hoffman and Jonsson are the central characters and are a perfect collaborative team, but the others are no less impressive in making sure we care about each one, even those we resent. This is the sort of cast that "ensemble awards" are designed for. 

I want to talk about the violence. Stephen King famously indicated he wanted the film makers not to shy away from the killings. This story, at its heart, is about the young men who are sacrificed for "our nation" (gun violence, the armed forced), the way we celebrate their deaths ("thank you for your service"), and the true horror of that. King doesn't want us looking away and The Long Walk makes us look. I never became desensitized to the death and that's on purpose. We are supposed to feel it and we do. 

I want to talk about the queerness/masculinity. I have complicated feelings here. The novel suggests some romantic/sexual feelings amongst the characters and the film has toned some of that down with only one brief, off hand explicit reference (which arguably could be seen as a joke... but as any queer person knows, that's how these things are often originally communicated) and then more suggestion than anything else. I was a bit disappointed the film wasn't braver here. But it does deconstruct performative masculinity quite well over its run time, as well as the bonds and feelings between men, even tying these threads together at moments. The film codes hyper masculinity in negative tones while extolling male connection, sensitivity, empathy. There is a romance structure to the central relationship with the meet cute and the growing affinity. The Long Walk admittedly leaves room for McVries' sexuality to be explicitly queer, never cutting off that option. I would argue he is positively queer coded througout. He is presented as a strong, bold character who goes his own way and nurtures those around him. He is cut off from family ties and builds his own chosen family. While queer coding has historically been used to villainize a character I would say here it is used to "heroitize" him. While I was disappointed the film left this vague enough to be ignored, I appreciated what it did with his character even if he just represents the values and isn't literally queer himself. 

What truly impacted me was the ending. I'm still reflecting on this and my feelings might change a bit as I think about it more but I found the film truly bleak as it ended, in a way that I appreciate deeply. From this part on I will talk *spoilers* so stop reading here until you have seen it. It was confused a bit at first by how the film's ending differs from the book (on the record I am a big fan of films varying from their source material in ways that work better for their medium - reducing the characters, and heightening the danger levels make sense here). On the one had it was a shock for anyone who has read the book to see Garraty die. Hell it's a shock for anyone who hasn't... the movie completely sets him up with all cinematic conventions to be the final boy. This rocks you more than you expect when it happens. American movies usually sacrifice the noble black (maybe queer) friend for his white buddy, the central character. The Long Walk was brave in pulling this switcheroo, even if it was just for the shock value. 

But for me the biggest impact of the change was how it made the ending even sadder, even more discouraging. After McVries has inspired so many of his compatriots along the way to reach to a higher goal or even just to find peace, he succumbs. The ending shows he has even he has been tainted and damaged by the totalitarian society that couldn't break him until now. The magical unicorn character, the one that is supposed to be there to transform the hero, becomes the centre himself, and is in that corrupted. It is dark and foreboding and something I'm still struggling to process. I intend to rewatch this to explore these further and I might have more thoughts but these are my first reactions. 

As I said I left The Long Walk completely shook. I know sometimes cinema is great for escapism and often that's what people want from it. Sometimes that's what I want from it. But it is films like this that remind me why I love cinema so much. 

The Long Walk

Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang,  Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill 

Director: Francis Lawrence

Writer: TJ Mollner

Universal Monsters - Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)

The Creature from the Black Lagoon was the final Universal Monster introduced during the classic age, and he came along almost two decades after things got rolling with Dracula. It is a very different movie from the others, inspired by the sci fi trend of the 50s, yet still featuring the tropes of the classic movies (a monster who becomes fascinated with a central woman who needs to be saved by the dashing, and somewhat sympathetic, hero). The story here is as flimsy as they come and even its 80 minutes runtime feels like a stretch. But it manages to capture the series' magic and remains one of the more popular. 

Creature is sun-drenched and full of beefcake. Unlike its predecessors, which were shot is shadow and moonlight, this is very much shot in the daytime under a burning sun. Its message seems to be a warning against going where you don't belong. Are there anti-colonialist sentiments here? Perhaps that's stretching. But the Gill-Man's motives appear mostly to be about protecting his lagoon from shirtless interlopers. The film's messaging feels muted compared to some of the other films in this series and feels more interested in showcase the simmers bodies of the cast and the monster action. 

Still there isn't much there there. The action is stunted by what they could do underwater at the time and there are long swimming sequences which slow things down. The film never quite manages to be scary. It often milks the idea of the creature's hand slowly reaching from the depths but this doesn't evoke much fear. The film was famously shot in 3D so perhaps that craze moved audiences to fear but there are few moments of real terror. 

Creature was followed by two sequels which see him taken into custody and then "terrorizing" the locals as opposed to here where he is in his element. It has inspired many other monster movies including Guillermo del Toro's Oscar winning The Shape of Water, a film which began as a potential remake of this film. As his series ran out, so did the Universal Monsters original run. Despite the film's shortcomings, the creature himself is iconic and leaves a huge legacy along with his fellow monsters. 

Creature From the Black Lagoon

Starring: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Ben Chapman

Director: Jack Arnold

Writers: Harry Essex, Arthur Ross

Lurker (2025)

Lurker is marketed as an All About Eve kind of drama or Single White Female style thriller but it ends up being something quite different. The film dares us to hate our central figure, Matthew, as some sort of interloper, social climber. But in the end we see the target of his obsession, rising pop star Oliver, come to need Matthew as much as Matthew needs him. The bold underlying thread in Lurker is the transactional needs of relationships and social connections, that perhaps there is reciprocity in obsession, and asks us to see these dynamics in the relationships around us. 

So yeah, in light of this Lurker becomes quite nihilistic. We are presented with moments of connection which are consistently reduced to elements of exchange, of trade. They are based on different sorts of fear, of loss. It is a rather bleak outlook on friendship. 

The film plays with queer-coding in interesting ways. This is a common trope in stories like this and the film layers in moments of suggestive homoeroticism yet in the end dismisses the idea of gay attraction for something else, something quite heterosexual. It explores the idea of the heterosexual male need for the love and affection of other men, especially men they admire, and desire, perhaps to be or to be loved by. This is a subversion of the typical sort of play with queer themes and is refreshing if quite challenging. 

Much of what makes this work are the central performances of Pellerin and Madekwe who bring complicated ranges to their characters and build a requisite desperation to their relationship. There were moments the energy between them felt so compelling and other times so bruised. Alex Russell visuals are stripped down and raw and his script is tight, leaving so much between the lines to communicate. Together the three are an exciting group with so much potential to do more great things.  

Lurker

Starring: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic 

Writer/Director: Alex Russell

HIghest 2 Lowest (2025)

I appreciate it when a remake doesn't simply attempt to retell the movie it is remaking, following its beats and regurgitating its themes. That is what it felt like when Lee remade Oldboy, but with Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of Kurosawa's High and Low, Lee appears to be taking only the basic premise and using it to tell a very different story. While Kurosawa's narrative deconstructed a class divide and exposed how the interests of the upper classes almost necessarily come at the cost of the lower classes, Highest 2 Lowest is more interested in exploring the rediscovery of ones priorities. So while I appreciate that Lee isn't attempting to go over Kurosawa's old ground, I may not have found Lee's thesis as interesting overall despite the fact that Highest 2 Lowest is a collab between two modern legends of cinema who remain amongst the best in their fields. 

Highest 2 Lowest is the story of David King (sure it is an on-the-nose reference but I'm here for it), a record mogul who is not only a self-made man but is presented as being almost single handed in building New York's black music scene. When his son is kidnapped, but then he discovers the kidnappers mistakenly took the son of King's driver instead, he is faced with a moral dilemma complicated by the fact his own financial success has been stretched and he's in the process of rebuilding. This is where the two films diverge. Where Kurosawa explored the moral questions of how the central character should use his power, Lee choses to look at how this experience changes King, or refocuses him. I think this is where I found the film less interesting. The idea of a rich and powerful man shaken to reevaluate his priorities is such worn ground and I'm not sure I found Lee offered much new here. I can see why maybe he didn't want this to be about indicting King for his use of power and more on a personal journey but I found that personal journey just less engaging, especially due to how many times we've seen that story play out. 

The switch in tone feels a bit of a let down in light of casting of one of my all time favourite actors, Jeffrey Wright who is underused here. He gets some good scenes in the first half but since the film isn't focused on the tensions arising from the two men's positions, his character fades into the background which is a loss truly. Washington is doing good work here though and carrying the film. He hasn't lost his touch and he gives a complicated yet subtle performance that I appreciated. 

I have mixed feelings about other aspects of the films as well. The music was confounding to me. The "in world "music" was wonderful. The music contributed by artists that populated this world of a record mogul was easily one of the highlights of the film. At the end there is a powerful performance by singer Aiyana-Lee playing a young, emerging singer which is a show stopper. But the score felt very anachronistic and kept pulling me out of the film. Drossin's score feels like it was pulled from a Marvel movie and never quite fits with the tone of this film. I couldn't quite make sense of what was going on there. 

My biggest plus for this film is the way it highlights its location. New York feels like a living, breathing character in this film and Lee's obvious love for the city shines through. It feels lived in and real, not a cinematic version of NYC. So while overall my experience of Highest 2 Lowest was mixed, there was a lot about it that rang true for me. 

Highest 2 Lowest 

Starring: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, Ice Spice, Frederick Weller, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, Anthony Ramos, Rosie Perez

Director: Spike Lee

Writer: Alan Fox