Hi Readers,
2025 has been a great year for cinema thus far. I have been to see a wide range of films in just the six weeks since the year began and rather than cherry pick one to review, I thought I would combine them all into this post. I am not including A Complete Unknown as I have already dedicated a post to the music biopic.
I try not to read too much into a film before watching which may be ironic considering where you are reading this but I like to form my own opinions and then sometimes share them here. I have picked films that I have heard good things about; I am interested in the story, cast or general vibe or I liked the trailer/teaser.
I was late to the party watching Queer (2023) starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey. I saw it at a small chain in London at a popular cinema for those who enjoy art films. Discussing with a friend afterwards, we both agreed that the beginning was the stronger half and when the plot began to get more abstract, it started to lose us as audience members. Daniel Craig gave a lifetime best performance as William Lee. For me, it was more in tune with his performances pre-James Bond, gathering what I can from reviews but I plan to dive more into his roles in a future post. I saw Drew Starkey in his breakout role as Rafe Cameron in Outer Banks on Netflix and it was a real change of character for his role in Queer. As the younger character, I related to him more and he seemed the more grounded of the two male leads.
Changing the genre to a pacy, suspense film, September 5 (2024), set during the Olympics in Munich where a hostage situation quickly developed in the village. The quick thinking of the ABC crew nearby ensured that this was the first terrorist act broadcast live on television. It gathered more viewers than the moon landing did. I thought that the film fit really well with its time period, 1970s as there were a lot of analogue noises from the old technology such as switchboards, rotary phones and camera film cases.
I liked that the cast were not as well known. There were a few heavy hitters like Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro among the lesser known cast. A standout for me was the actress playing Marianne (Leonie Benesch) as her role in the film developed quickly culminating in going to the scene of the hostage taking when it migrated to the airport. The events of the film are told over a single day and most of the cast spend their time at the television centre so it feels like a bottle episode. This could be as we are focusing on the TV crew but I think could also be because large areas would have to be dressed to look like 1970s Munich and there were already many extras used in the scenes at the village. It really added to the film as it kept you focused on the characters and dialled into the action.
The weakest film of all for me so far was Saturday Night. I went in thinking it would be something else and felt almost disappointed with the result. I think the filming and camera work was done well but the acting and humour could have been stronger and there were sections that didn’t quite hit for me. I have been a huge fan of SNL sketches for a long time and I think I expected the film to be more in that vein rather than a more dramatic take of real events. I thought the ensemble worked well together and Gabriel LaBelle was a good choice for showrunner Lorne Michaels but I think more could have been done with it.
A good new slasher film arrived in the form of Companion. This had a great young rising cast; Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén and Lukas Gage. It was cleverly done but I already knew some information about the plot so it tainted some of the reveals. However, I did not know everything so there were still plot twists. Jack Quaid was the stronger lead for me and I don’t know if this was just the script or the fact that she is playing a submissive robot but I felt that Thatcher’s performance was not as strong. I enjoy a tame thriller so the light gore did not bother me and it was not very graphic in other areas.
I was behind the times on Academy Award nominated, The Apprentice but it certainly did not disappoint. I have to start by saying to enjoy this film you have to separate the character that Sebastian Stan portrays on screen from his real life persona. The trajectory shows a relatively normal guy from Queens who does anything it takes to get ahead in business and life by breaking the law and becoming a monster. I am talking about Donald Trump, who was known for his ruthlessness in the boardroom and courtroom before becoming President of America. Setting aside the real world version of the protagonist, I really enjoyed the pace and setting of the film. It had a cool 1970s New York atmosphere with a lot of cut-throat characters and surprising diverseness in the people Trump chose to surround himself with. Jeremy Strong gave a good performance as Roy Cohen who shapes Donald into the person he became but did not understand the error of his ways until it was too late.
It goes without saying that I am not a fan of Trump or any of his policies/ideas but the character he was portrayed as in the film seemed normal at first with a tolerance for a range of people and a level of dorkiness that one would definitely not associate with him today. By the end of the film, he has morphed both physically and mentally into the person he is now but it was strange seeing him as almost normal. Whether these characteristics were exaggerated to give the plot somewhere to go, I couldn’t say but I believe there was a lot of artistic license used. This however worked to their favour to give you an interesting film.
Since starting this post, I have added a couple more films to my list so perhaps they will be coming in a future post.
Happy Watching,
Robyn