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Materialists (USA, 2025. Dir: Celine Song): Full disclosure. Remember when the world was singing writer/director Celine Song’s praises following her feature debut Past Lives? I didn’t care for it. I didn’t buy the passivity of the husband character (John Magaro) as his wife embarks on an emotional affair with a man she considered her soulmate. Would you like to know more?
Oh, Hi! (USA, 2025. Dir: Sophie Brooks): Indie films’ path to the big screen has never been more treacherous. It’s not just the challenge of finding distribution or getting attention in a profoundly fragmented market. They can also get scooped up by streamers and end up lost in a never-ending menu — unheralded and unseen. Would you like to know more?
Cloud (Japan, 2024. Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa): One of Japan’s most interesting yet low-key filmmakers, one could place Kiyoshi Kurosawa next to Kitano and Miike. I would argue he’s even more gifted. While almost as prolific, Kurosawa’s hit/miss ratio is much higher. His horror output is strong (Cure, Pulse, Creepy) and his dramas have teeth (Tokyo Sonata, Serpent’s Path). His formula is simple: take a social malaise, turn it into a genre movie. Would you like to know more?
Predator: Killer of Killers (USA, 2025. Dir: Dan Trachtenberg, Joshua Wassung): First thing you need to know before reading this review: I’m not the biggest Predator fan. I find the character one-dimensional and his ethos doesn’t resist analysis. Are you going to tell me in the world of Predator nobody does anything besides hunting? What happens if I’m a predator and I prefer, I don’t know, alien chess? Do I become prey? Also, who develops all that funky technology? It can’t be the meathead dwellers of this planet. Would you like to know more?
(Rust. USA, 2024. Dir: Joel Souza): There’s one thing I wasn’t expecting from Rust, the infamous western in which cinematographer Halyna Hutchins lost her life when a prop gun loaded with live ammunition went off: a good movie.
Yet that’s exactly what I got. Would you like to know more?
It was a reasonable next step, yet it felt unexpected.
Two days after the President of the United States slapped tariffs on dozens of countries reportedly to bring manufacturing jobs back into the country, Industrial Light and Magic (the VFX giant initially created by George Lucas to support his Star Wars efforts) officially opened new studio space in Vancouver, BC, the largest of the five hubs ILM has around the world. Would you like to know more?
The Penguin Lessons (UK, 2024. Dir: Peter Cattaneo): Steve Coogan is the ultimate acquired taste. Casual observers might dismiss him as a self-absorbed jerk. People who have followed his career a bit are aware Coogan can be extremely funny (see Alan Partridge in any of his incarnations). Avid Coogan fans know there’s an undercurrent of melancholy that runs deep in his work and he’s capable of greatness (The Trip saga, Philomena). Would you like to know more?
Misericordia (France, 2024. Dir: Alain Guiraudie): As America continues going through something and their movies reflect it, it’s a good time to remember there’s provocative and nuanced cinema to be found, if you know where to look. Would you like to know more?
The Substance (USA, 2024. Dir: Coralie Fargeat): Following a relatively muted response at the North American box office (US$16 million, compared to 29 million abroad), The Substance hits streaming and on-demand services. It still packs a punch and seems designed to send your in-laws running during the holidays (“what about this movie, The Substance? Nothing says middlebrow like Demi Moore.”) Would you like to know more?
Blitz (UK, 2024. Dir: Steve McQueen): There’s one advantage that Blitz has over most “Battle of England”-inspired films: it has Steve McQueen at the helm. Not only the filmmaker can create poignant tableaux about the black experience (most notably Twelve Years a Slave) and urban malaise (Shame). He also makes them look good. Would you like to know more?