The Best Movies of 2025: Larry's Top Ten and Much More

By Larry Lee

INTRODUCTION

2025 has come and gone and what a year it was.  Those of us who see a lot of movies know that studios hold back their Oscar-worthy movies until the late fall or even the Christmas season.  (This year, Marty Supreme was released on December 25, 2025.)  I suppose the theory is that releasing a movie so late in the year ensures the films are fresh in voters’ minds during the (January) awards nomination season.  But I wonder if that reasoning is valid, especially given today’s 24/7 media landscape.  Sometimes a movie takes a while to worm itself into my consciousness, and an early release can allow for word-of-mouth to spread the news of a good movie.  That was certainly the case for Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was released in April 2022 and went on to win the Best Picture Oscar 10 months later.  Ditto Nomadland, with a February 2021 release.  An earlier release date can allow people more time to catch up to a movie on streaming that they missed during the original theatrical run.  (It’s a dirty little secret that Motion Picture Academy voters often do not see all the potentially nominate-able films before casting their votes.)  

[Note: As with Nomadland, above, clicking on any similarly highlighted title will take to our         previous review of that film on NotesOn Films.]

This year saw these late-in-the-year releases:

• Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (Oct. 24)
• Begonia (Oct. 31)
• Frankenstein (Nov. 7)
• Die My Love (Nov. 7)
• Nouvelle Vague (Nov. 14
• Train Dreams (Nov. 21)
• Rental Family (Nov. 21)
• Jay Kelly (Dec. 5)
• Hamnet (Dec. 5)
• Ella McCay (Dec. 12)
• Marty Supreme (Dec. 25)
• The Housemaid (Dec. 25)
• Avatar: Fire and Ash (Dec. 25)

Although only one of these movies made my top ten (Marty Supreme), I can see why a studio might have believed these were Oscar-worthy.  There is certainly a lot of quality there, with past Oscar-winners and movie stars galore.  But here at the home of the Half-Oscars™, we can vividly recall the movies from the first half of the year!  For a look back, here is a reiteration of my 2025 Half-Oscars™ list, updated with their current streaming homes: 

10. The Friend  (rent on Prime for $4) 
9.  The Assessment  (Hulu, rent on Prime for $4)
8.  Companion  (Prime, HBOMax)
7.  Freaky Tales  (HBOMax, $5 rental on Prime)
6.  Quisling: The Final Days (Prime) 
5.  My Dead Friend Zoe  ($4 rental on Prime)
4.  The Penguin Lessons  (Netflix, $6 rental on Prime)
3.  The Life of Chuck (Hulu, $5 rental mom Prime) 
2.  The Ballad of Wallis Island  (Prime)
1.  There’s Still Tomorrow  ($4 rental on Prime)

Recommended Movies from 2025

To winnow the many available movies down to a Top Ten list is difficult and in some part admittedly due to personal prejudices and preferences.  In addition to those films appearing on my 2025 Half-Oscars™ list, here are some worthy movies from the latter half of 2025 that failed —narrowly— to make my Top Ten list.

•  Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight  ($6 Prime rental) (99 min.)  This one came and went from the theaters quickly and that’s a shame, for it tells a story that hasn’t been much told:  the life and fate of White Rhodesian landowners near the end of the Bush Wars in what is now Zimbabwe.  Told from the perspective of a young girl, who has amazing freedom to roam around the sprawling property, this was clearly a labor of love for Embeth Davidz (Schindler’s List, Mansfield Park, Bridget Jones’s Diary), who wrote, directed and stars in the movie, bringing Alexandra Fuller’s book to the screen.  Nuanced and beautiful. 

  Sinners  (Prime) (137 min.)  Momentum is building for this movie, which was justrecognized with a record 16 Oscar nominations.  That’s 2 more than Titanic, La La Land, and All About Eve (the latter of which, to be fair, achieved its total without a Best Song or Visual Effects nomination).  Only history will tell whether this movie is an important film or just a really fun one.  (Back in 1967, people probably wondered the same thing about The Graduate.)  But this mashup story combining elements of Southern Gothic, violent race revenge, and vampire horror movie in order to produce an allegory of race relations in America was certainly unique.  I felt the film tried to tell too many stories, however, with three different movies smushed together.  Are White people trying to take Black people’s power?  Or just their music and culture?  Or, more benignly, are they simply trying to achieve the neo-liberal goal of complete racial integration, albeit at the loss of racial independence?  I’m not at all sure but the movie is well worth seeing and talking about, as I am sure film students and scholars will be for years to come.

•  It Was Just an Accident  (in theaters, $10 Prime rental) (103 min.)  Appearing on many Top Ten lists and nominated for the International Feature Film Oscar, director Jafar Panahi’s latest movie, like some of his other films, was filmed in secret in Iran.  It was then smuggled out of the country with French financial backing, and became France’s submission to the foreign film Oscar competition.  It is also a worldwide hit, with several international honors, including the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.  Here is the set-up:  Years after he was imprisoned and tortured by an oppressive government, car mechanic Vahid believes he has crossed paths with his torturer in civilian life.  He kidnaps him and takes him to others who were similarly brutalized by the man to ask what he should do with him.  Should they take revenge and kill him, and thereby risk becoming that which they abhor?  Or just move on with their lives?  This is an intense movie that asks big questions.

•  Nouvelle Vague (Netflix) (106 min.) Director Richard Linklater’s loving and creative homage to the beginning of the French New Wave and it’s place in film history, with a terrific performance by Zooey Deutch as Jean Seeberg.  I previously reviewed the movie here. 

•  Eddington (HBOMax, $5 Prime rental)  (148 min.)  Director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) has given us a movie set in the early Covid-era that is so meaty, so chock-full of stuff to chew on, that one struggles to know where to start.  Immigrant rights, Black Lives Matter, religious cults, mask mandates, six feet buffer zones, conspiracy theories, corrupt government officials, liberal snowflakes protesting, police violence, corporate interests building data centers.  Oh, and a murder-revenge plot.  Some might complain the story is ultimately hollow because we cannot tell where Aster stands on any of this, but 20 years hence, I think we might see this movie somewhat differently:  as a prescient omen that our Covid-era society was rotting from the inside out.  Fascinating and entertaining. With Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.

•  Eleanor the Great  ($6 Prime rental)  (98 min.)  On its face, the story of a elderly gentile woman (June Squibb) pretending to be a Jewish Holocaust survivor is off-putting.  I mean, c’mon man!  I certainly prejudged this movie along these lines and initially didn’t give Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut a fair shot.  But on second viewing, I saw that the plot plausibly shows how a good woman could have done such as thing, and that the movie is not really about that big lie.  Instead, the movie is about the feeling of loss when a loved one dies, and how that grief can distort your life.  Indeed, how the grief can become your life.  The acting is uniformly superb, especially Erin Kellyman (who I think was better than One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti) and Ukranian-born actress Rita Zohar as Bessie, Eleanor’s best friend.  

•  Blue Moon (in theaters, $20 Prime rental)  (100 min.)  Director Richard Linklater (Hit Man, Boyhood, the Before Sunrise trilogy) has had a year, releasing two very different but high-quality films: Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon.  The latter is a showcase for Ethan Hawke, who plays famed lyricist Lorenz Hart.  The movie is set on the opening night of the now-classic musical, Oklahoma!.  But that massive Broadway triumph was created by Hart’s former writing partner Richard Rodgers with his new writing partner, Oscar Hammerstein III.  Having been cast aside by Rodgers, the evening is a professional nadir for Hart and he seems to know it, and although he’s trying to be a good sport about it, the bitterness can’t help bubbling up in sad and amusing ways.  Hawke was deservedly nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.  With Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley.  

•  Rental Family  (in theaters, $20 Prime rental)  (110 min.)  Brendan Fraser does his best work since his career renaissance in 2022’s The Whale (for which he won an Oscar), portraying an American actor working in Japan who finds work pretending to be a woman’s husband and the father of her young, mixed-race daughter.  The set-up seems preposterous—the fakery is intended to enhance the girl’s chances of being accepted into a prestigious school—until we learn that businesses proving such faux family members are a real thing in Japan.  And acting is just pretending anyway, isn’t it?  But the emotions aren’t real, are they?  Are they?!  With Mari Yamamoto (Pachinko) and Takahiro Hira (Shōgun).

•  If I Had Legs I’d Kick You  ($5 Prime rental)  (113 min.)  Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, Juliet Naked) gives a justly admired, Oscar-nominated performance as a psychiatrist whose life pushes her to the brink of sanity.  She has a husband away at work for weeks at a time (he’s a sea captain), a severely-disabled daughter, a newly flooded apartment, raging insomnia, and some crazy, crazy patients.  This is a portrayal of a woman’s extreme difficulty with work-life balance on atomic steroids.  With rapper A$AP Rocky (Highest 2 Lowest) and Conan O’Brien.

•  Jay Kelly  (Netflix) (132 min.)  George Clooney is the prototypical American movie star, having done some truly admirable work (The Descendants, The American, Up in the Air, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, Three Kings, Syriana), some Hollywood catnip (Oceans 11, Out of Sight, Intolerable Cruelty, Gravity, Ticket to Paradise, The Perfect Storm) and some pretty goofy yet entertaining stuff (Hail, Caesar!, Burn After Reading, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Men Who Stare at Goats).  So now we have him playing a Clooney-esque character in Jay Kelly, who is questioning his decision to prioritize his career over his family.  He’s quite good here, but probably not good enough to escape the criticism that he appears to just be playing himself.  But even if that’s true, they said the same thing about Cary Grant and how did that turn out?  

•  Train Dreams  (Netflix)  (102 min.)  This surprise nominee for the Best Picture Oscar is a beautiful, elegiac movie set in the Pacific Northwest in the early part of the 20th Century; that is, at the tail end of the Old West.  Robert Granier (Joel Edgerton) works as a logger and railroad worker.  But the world is changing fast, and life for Robert and his wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones) will prove vulnerable to the vagaries and brutalities inherent in their rural, once bucolic, life.  Smart and touching.  With William H. Macy (Fargo, The Cooler) in a small but key role.  

I recommend all the above movies.  But here are my Top Ten movies for 2025:

LARRY'S TOP TEN MOVIES FOR 2025

10.  Sorry, Baby  (HBOMax, $5 Prime rental)  (103 min.)  It’s difficult to compare a movie with a large
cast and historical scope (like One Battle After Another or Marty Supreme or Sinners) with this small, introspective movie.  But don’t let that fool you.  Sorry, Baby is a moving film about a modern concern:  sexual assault, and how to move past the trauma.  Sorry, Baby is about a young academic named Agnes at a small college who is assaulted by a colleague.  The film makes my list because of its honest emotions, sly, quirky humor, and terrific performances by writer/director Eva Victor as Agnes, Naomi Ackie as Agnes’s best friend, and Lucas Hedges as the neighbor.  John Carroll Lynch has a brief standout scene as a stranger who comforts Agnes.  Despite the subject matter, this one is not a depressing slog (for example, we never actually see the assault) but a nuanced, entertaining yet emotionally honest movie.

9.  The Penguin Lessons (Netflix, $6 rental on Prime) (111 min.)  A holdover from my 2025 Half-
Oscars™ list, memories of this movie keep popping up in my mind.  Don’t assume this is a clichéd story of a cute animal teaching life lessons to a stupid human.  (OK, there is a little of that.)  There’s much more to the movie.  Steven Coogan (Philomena, The Trip to Italy) is just right as the depressed, drifting British expat, teaching English at a fancy boy’s school in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1976.  His life is on a downward spiral and we get the feeling this is his last stop before personal oblivion.  But the military junta is oppressing the civilian populace, people are disappearing, and regular people must find a way through the terror to live their lives.  What can one do in the face of such injustice in society?  What can he do?  Based on a true story.  Recommended.

8.  No Other Choice  (in theaters)  (149 min.)  There was early buzz for this movie, and it was shortlisted for the International Feature Film Oscar.  Alas, it was not meant to be, for although consistently recognized at international film festivals, No Other Choice won no Oscar love.  That’s a shame, for this dark yet funny movie from legendary Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) was great fun and taps into today’s anxiety over job security in a changing, globalized world that we see here in America—tariffs, anyone?—and around the world.  (See, e.g., the Yellow Vest movement in France.)  Recently laid-off employee Man-Su, played by international superstar Lee Byun-hun (Squid Game, Terminator Genisys, RED 2) will do anything to regain his former income and the social standing that came with it.  And he has a good idea how to achieve that.  A fun, supercharged ride.   

7.  The Life of Chuck  (Hulu, $5 rental on Prime) (111 min.)  Another holdover from my 2025 Half-Oscars™ list, this is one of the best cinematic adaptations of a Stephen King story since, possibly, Stand By Me in 1986.  Unlike most Stephen King stories, however, this is no horror story but is what might be called speculative fiction or sci-fi adjacent.  The title does not lie, for this movie is indeed a story about the life of someone named Chuck, although the viewer might be slightly befuddled by the goings-on at first.  But stick with it and you will be rewarded with a satisfying story and an emotionally powerful finale.  As I said in a previous post:  “[I]n the end, you will ponder a life well-lived, however short, and perhaps consider all the people who have populated your life through the years.” 

6.  The Ballad of Wallis Island  (Prime) (99 mins.)  The third of four movies from my 2025 Half-Oscars™ list to make my Top Ten, this movie is the type of quirky dramedy the British do so well.  I loved the premise:  What would you do, and how would you feel, if the pinnacle of your professional and emotional life converged in your 20s and then suddenly disappeared?  What would the rest of your life look like?  Would you spend your remaining days chasing the same high?  And then what if, after years of predictable disappointment, you had a chance to recapture that high point, if only for a moment?  Tom Basden (After Life) plays Herb McGwyer, a folk singer and songwriter who enjoyed fame and fortune years ago as part of a performing duo with Nell Mortimer, played by Carey Mulligan (Maestro, Saltburn, Promising Young Woman, An Education).  After awhile they split up, she quit the music business and moved on.  But Herb, alone with his memories, is still chasing fame and fortune.  A goofy millionaire might give them a second chance, but is that even possible?  Tender and melancholic, with plenty of odd comedic moments to propel this unusual story along.

5.  The Secret Agent  (in theaters)  (161 min.)  It feels like Brazil is having a moment.  Last year, I’m Still Here was one of the best, and most honored, movies of the year.  This year, Apocalypse in the Tropics was shortlisted for the feature-length documentary Oscar, and 2002’s City of God (stream on Paramount+ or Kanopy, $4 rental on Prime) was #15 on the New York Time’s Top 100 movies of the quarter century.  I have previously touted 2021’s 7 Prisoners (on Netflix) and the 2023 documentary Skin of Glass, both of which were shot in Brazil.  In The Secret Agent, a regular guy, played by Walter Moura (Narcos, Civil War) is being persecuted by the powers that be.  Is it the military junta?  Corrupt politicians?  Ruthless corporate interests?  It is not initially clear, but he has to run and hide.  Fortunately, it is the 1970s, there is no internet, and Brazil is a very big place, so he is not initially discovered.  By the time he is, we have been treated to several wonderful set pieces—the opening scene is fantastic—and really get a sense of what life was like back then in Brazil.    

4.  Marty Supreme  (in theaters) (149 min.)  Timothée Chalamet has quietly become one of America’s greatest actors.  Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Little Women, Dune: Part One, Wonka, Dune: Part Two, A Complete Unknown.  It’s an impressive resumé, we can now add Marty Supreme to the list.  We should take a moment to admire the faith and audacity of director Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems), who saw the story of a fast-talking Jewish New York ping pong hustler in the 1950s had the potential to be such a compelling movie.  But it is compelling, as Marty Mauser (based on true-life table tennis champion Marty Reisman) wheedles and cajoles his way to Japan with the aim of competing in the table tennis world championship.  Watching his journey is like riding a roller coaster through a world of hustlers, gangsters, condescending corporate types, and implacable Asian table tennis players, and reminds us there are other stories of the American Jewish diaspora that are largely unrelated to the Holocaust.  Watching the movie, I was reminded that the mid-20th Century was a time when American Jews took pride in the many athletic heroes who were shared their faith, from Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, to Dolph Schayes, Sid Luckman, and Ron Mix.  Marty Mauser (Reisman) fits comfortably within this universe, albeit in a fringe sport.  Be that as it may, Marty Supreme is immensely entertaining and boasts terrific performances by Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Tyler the Creator, and Kevin O’Leary.  Blink and you’ll miss author Pico Iyer and director Abel Ferrara in small roles, and former NBA pros Kemba Walker and Tracey McGrady as members of the Harlem Globetrotters.

3.  Sentimental Value  (in theaters, $15 Prime rental) (133 min.)  Possibly the most impressive movie I’ve seen this year, this one has no sweeping panorama like Marty Supreme or historical scope like One Battle After Another.  The sweep here is emotional, for this is a smaller, more introspective movie about a creative family (they work in the theater) with some rather significant interpersonal, familial issues to work through.  Stellan Skarsgård is great as the brilliant, professionally- and publicly-lauded father who successfully pursued his art and career at the expense of his role as a husband and father.  Following up on The Worst Person in the World, her 2021 collaboration with director Joachim Trier, Renate Reinsve plays Skarsgård’s actress daughter and continues her admirable professional upward arc; she was justly rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Actress this time around.  (In between, she appeared in two quietly disturbing movies in 2024:  Armand and A Different Person, both of which are worth a viewing.)  Sentimental Value, a Norwegian movie, was nominated for a whopping nine Oscars:  Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas were also nominated for acting Oscars along with Skarsgård and Reinsve.  (Oddly, the movie was not nominated for the new Oscar for Best Casting.)  This is an incredibly well-acted movie in which the grievances feel familiar and the emotions real.  

2.  There’s Still Tomorrow  ($4 rental on Prime) (118 min.)  It’s odd how some foreign language movies somehow catch the interest of American audiences and critics, while others fall by the wayside.  This year’s international darlings are Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value from Norway, and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent from Brazil, both Oscar-nominated for Best Picture (and both on this Top Ten list).  In addition, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, from France but in Farsi, won many international awards.  There’s Still Tomorrow, from Italy, is predictably missing from the Oscar hype-machine, probably because it was made in 2023 but released here with little fanfare in early 2025.  But that you will see a more satisfying and original movie this year is unlikely.  Filmed in beautiful black-and-white with just a few touches of magical realism, the film tells the story of a poor Italian family in the immediate post-WWII period, a time when American soldiers are still posted in their city.  Paola Cortellisi impressively co-wrote, directed, and stars as Delia, the nearly illiterate, put-upon wife and mother holding the family together despite a physically abusive, hard-drinking and philandering husband, a verbally abusive invalided father-in-law, and three unappreciative children.  We follow Delia as she proceeds through her daily life, cobbling small jobs together and quietly suffering one indignity after another while holding her family together.  Is there hope for Delia?  Well, as the title says: There’s Still Tomorrow. 

1.  One Battle After Another  (in theaters, HBOMax, $7 Prime rental)  (161 min.)  This one tops many end-of-year lists and does so for me as well.  Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza, There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights) has crafted a wild, farcical journey through America’s recent history, freely adapting Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland and updating it, moving it forward in time from the Nixon Era to the more recent past.  Like Ari Aster in Eddington, Thomas uses satire and dark humor to mine the current dissatisfaction with the direction of America under the present administration, showing us a band of dissidents fighting a guerrilla war against an oppressive government.  Leonardo DiCaprio is terrific as Bob, a not-wholly-committed cadre member in love with an intense true-believer named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor).  But when things go sideways, he is forced to go underground with his infant daughter, Willa.  Time passes and Bob eventually loses his way in a cloud of cannabis.  Years later, Bob and the now almost-grown Willa (Chase Infiniti) have become the focus of Colonel Steven Lockjaw (a fantastic Sean Penn) who, like Inspector Javert, will stop at nothing to capture them.  I know many will be confused (or offended) by the weird sexual relationship between Perfidia Beverly Hills and her pursuer, Lockjaw, even more so following a key betrayal.  But she is taking his power as much as the other way around.  Moreover, consider her name:  “Perfidy” means deceitfulness, untrustworthiness, and Beverly Hills represents the epitome of superficiality.  But these two characters, like all of those in the movie, are unusual yet sharply drawn, and the acting is uniformly excellent.  I especially liked Benicio del Toro as Sensei Sergio and the whole secret White supremacist Christmas Adventurer’s Club thing (“Hail, St. Nick!”)  This movie is a thrilling, funny, rollicking good time, with just enough weirdness to keep it interesting.

…AND FINALLY, A FEW YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

And finally, two small movies that came and went with little fanfare, and one that came with a full-court media press but inexplicable dropped like a stone:

•  A Little Prayer  ($6 Prime rental) (91 min.)  Sometimes a small movie about not much sticks with you long after the credits have rolled.  Here is one.  San Francisco native David Strathairn (Lincoln, L.A. Confidential, Goodnight, and Good Luck) plays Bill, the patriarch and owner of a family business in North Carolina that he runs with his son.  Bill is close to his daughter-in-law Tammy, played by Jane Levy (an alumnus of Drake High School in San Anselmo).  Bill loses his moorings when he discovers his son is cheating on Tammy.  This is the rare movie showing a genuine and touching emotional relationship between a father-in-law and a daughter-in-law.  Careful movie watchers will not be surprised to find the movie reminiscent of 2005s Junebug, which gave Amy Adams her first big break.  Director Angus MacLachlan made both movies.

•  Twinless  (Hulu, $6 Prime rental) (100 min.)  This one had a unique setup.  Two young men meet in a support group for twinless twins; that is, people who have had a twin brother or sister pass away.  They hit it off and begin hanging out, comfortable in their unique grief.  But all is not as it seems and (warning) the movie gets very dark when secrets are told.  With Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney.

•  Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere  (Hulu, $20 Prime rental) (119 min.)  This one received a huge promotion but went nowhere in the theaters and in retrospect, it's is not difficult to see why.  This is not your typical rockstar biopic where we see a humble beginning, a meteoric rise later undermined by the vicissitudes of fame, wealth, and drugs, followed by ultimate redemption.  (See Elvis, Bohemian Rhapsody, Back to Black, Rocketman, Ray, The Doors).  There isn’t much in the way of triumphant concert footage in this movie.  We are instead treated to an angst-filled phase of Bruce Springsteen’s life when he was questioning his musical and career trajectory before releasing his acoustic, low fidelity album, Nebraska - a career marker and album of intense interest of Springsteen fans but probably of little interest to most movie fans.  But Jeremy Allen White is fantastic as Bruce (he even bears a strange resemblance to him), and the re-creation of life on the Jersey Shore in the early 1980s seems authentic.  Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice, The Trial of the Chicago 7) continues his fine work playing Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager. 

Song Sung Blue (2025) - What I’ve Been Watching Lately, Part 2

 By Len Weiler

As I’ve been out of town a lot and/or otherwise engaged for several weeks, I haven’t gone out to the movies. But there are a bunch of films I meant to write about earlier that are worth telling you about, some of which I’ve seen again in the interim. Some have been nominated for Oscars or have already received othet awards.  All are now available for home viewing, so I think they’ll be of interest. This is the second of a series of several posts about such movies. To see Part 1, about Sentimental Value, click here. 

Three keys to why the new film Song Sung Blue is such a winning movie to watch are (a) the romantic, melodramatic  story, (b) the assured direction by Craig Brewer [Hustle and Flow (2005)] and especially (c) the strong, lovely acting of its two lead actors Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. They play a middle aged  Milwaukee couple in the 1990s - Mike, an auto mechanic and recovering alcoholic, and Claire, a single mom  - musicians both, who gig around in various oldies shows (her specialty being a swell Patsy Cline impression). When they meet cute, fall for each other and pair up to form their own act, Lightning and Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute band, they become -  eventually (and surprisingly) - a local sensation.  

It seems a rather sappy proposition but it works!  Partly because we know it’s a poignant true story and partly because it’s done so exceptionally well. What really puts the story and the movie across is terrific acting: the two leads, Hudson in particular, are great; in fact, Hudson has been nominated for the best actress Oscar for her performance here.  Also terrific are the quirky but likeable ensemble around them.  There is also the palpable chemistry between the Jackman and Hudson, so realistic that  it reportedly created tension between Jackman and his wife. I was also surprised by the story arc in Song Sung Blue  especially the ups and downs of Mike and Claire’s life together which is  by turns uplifting and tragic, verging on the melodramatic except for the fact that, as I’ve said, it’s a true story.   

Neil Diamond was known initially as a prolific songwriter, having composed a number of tunes for  The Monkees [“I’m A Believer”] and others. His commercial success as a solo act came in the late 60’s and early 1970s, with songs like Sweet Caroline, Song Sung Blue, I Am…I Said, and Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon – material which was not at all “cool”, but got a lot of radio airplay in an era where top-40 radio was a big deal. His music was  “great, pretentious, goofy pop”, according to Rolling Stone’s Lester Bangs. His audience may not have been hip, but he sold an awful lot of records.     

Important note #1: You definitely do not have to love Neil Diamond’s music to enjoy this film. Myself, I’ve never been a fan, even though (or maybe because) Diamond rose to prominence in the mid-60s and early 1970s, when I was in my late teens and early twenties, and deeply into the heady countercultural music scene of those days. Definitely not Diamond’s milieu. But somehow the story and even the music sucked me in. 

Important note #2: The movie is not about Neil Diamond; in fact, he is not even a character in the movie. His music is featured less because of its merit than because of its nostalgic allure to his fans. So the performance of  his hit songs by Lightning and Thunder winds up being both adoring and campy. Jackman and Hudson perform both aspects well.

All in all, Song Sung Blue turns out to be a very beguiling, entertaining movie. And a heartwarming,  engaging one as well.

2 hours 12 minutes

Grade: B+

Now rentable at premium prices  ($19.99) on Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, and a few other pay-per-view platforms; it’s expected to start streaming on Peacock in mid-February.

Sentimental Value (2025) What I’ve Been Watching Lately, Part 1

by Len Weiler

As I’ve been out of town a lot and/or otherwise engaged over the last several weeks, I haven’t been out to the movies. But there are a bunch of films I meant to write about earlier that are worth telling you about, some of which I’ve seen again in the interim. Some have even been nominated for Oscars and all of them are now available for home viewing, so I think they’ll be of interest. This is the first of a series of several posts about such movies.

The Norwegian movie Sentimental Value is a “small” but excellent family drama with  an intricately woven story. It is ostensibly centered on a house that’s been in the Borg family for four generations; but while the intended  “story-about-a house” theme does not hold up all that well dramatically, the house is definitely a character in the film.  Essentially, the story is of three generations of the Borg family who have lived in the house,  told through the lives and emotional connections (broken and otherwise) among and between the surviving adult Borgs:  the  talented, emotionally troubled stage actress Nora (Renate Reinsve); her august, aging movie director father, Gustav ( Stellan Skarsgård); and Nora’s younger sister (and best friend), Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). 

Nora’ s point of view is the starting point. Onstage she is brilliant - once she overcomes her paralyzing stage fright. Offstage, she’s something of a mess. Nora wonders how it is that she’s so fucked-up (her words) - suffering from crippling anxiety and depression, unable to sustain a romantic relationship - while her sister Agnes has such a normal, relatively unfraught life as a wife and mother with a satisfying career (she’s  a historian). Nora blames her dad for the deep hole she feels in her life.

When she and Agnes were kids, Gustaf divorced their mom, Sissel, freeing himself to pursue his directorial career in the wider world outside Norway. Nora and Agnes experienced this as being abandoned by their father, which was pretty much the case. (As a young girl, Agnes actually acted  in one of Gustav’s films, not out of ambition, but just to get his attention. After filming, however that attention evaporated.) Nora and Agnes remained in the family house (still owned by Gustav) raised exclusively by Sissel, who has died recently. 

Now, with his illustrious career in decline,  Gustav shows up unexpectedly with a newly written screenplay, which he sees as his crowning masterpiece (if he can get it produced). It's  based on the experiences of  his mother (Nora’s and Agnes’s grandmother) during Norway’s occupation by the Nazis and her subsequent suicide (in the Borg house) when he was a young boy. He has come to offer Nora the lead in his movie, which he pitches as a career defining opportunity which, in fact, he wrote especially for her. However, unwilling to forgive Gustav for his abandonment, she declines. They can’t work together, she says. They’ve never even been able to talk to one another.  Disappointed but undaunted, Gustav offers the role to up-and-coming American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who is thrilled to be able to work with a European auteur on such a project. Based on Rachel’s celebrity, Netflix agrees to finance the project. Gustav says he wants to shoot the film not on a soundstage but actually in the family home. 

None of this easy for anyone. Rachel struggles to fit into a deeply personal Norwegian story.  Gustav turns himself inside out to make it work for her, to work with the Netflix suits,  and to somehow reconcile with his estranged daughters.  Nora tries to pull her life together while pushing away complicated feelings about her father and his new movie project. Agnes is initially conciliatory but becomes outraged when Gustav wants to cast her son in the movie playing himself as a child, not least because, in a typical Gustav move, he pitches the idea to the boy before mentioning it to Agnes.  

The story is both interesting and engaging, as are the multiple, interesecting themes explored by director (and co-writer) Joachim Trier, among them memory, grief, the Nazi occupation, aging, the creative process, family and, yes, sentimentality.  

By and large, critics rank Sentimental Value among very best movies of 2025, as evidenced by its high scores on review aggregation sites like Metacritic ("Metascore" of 86 – “Universal Acclaim”) and Rotten Tomatoes (“Tomatometer” score: 97% favorable ). It is also a fan favorite – with a high IMDB score of 7.9 and a Rotten Tomatoes “Popcornmeter” rating  of 94%.  It has been nominated for nine Oscars , including Best Picture of the Year, Best International Feature, Best Director, Best Actress (Reinsve), Best Supporting Actor (Skarsgård),  and two (!) nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Lilleaas and Fanning) .  At the 2026 European Film Awards a few weeks back, the movie picked up six prestigious prizes, including  European Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor,  and Best Screenplay.  

As you’d surmise from the above, Sentimental Value features phenomenal acting. Renate Reinsve is spot-on fabulous as Nora. She first came to international prominence playing the lead in Trier’s The Worst Person in the World (2021) for which she received the best actress award at Cannes. Here, playing off the formidable Stellan Skarsgård on the one hand and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas  on the other (both of which are nominated for Oscars themselves), you can’t take your eyes off her - as she walks the tightrope between Nora’s work as an actress working from scripts (at which she is excels) and her life offstage as a person, at which she feels she is failing. 

Skarsgård is one of the great actors of his generation, and his Gustav is a marvelous piece of work. Although Gustav has no doubt been a terrible father, Skarsgård gives us a sympathetic portrait of his other side as well - an aging auteur striving to remain relevant, to maintain his dignity and, age notwithstanding, to create something meaningful. As Agnes,  Lilleaas is a wonderful counterpoint to Reinsve’s Nora, soulful, inciteful, comforting, solid. Together, the two of them have perhaps the most intimate, touching moment in the movie: just the two them lounging in a bedroom talking about their lives, their relationship with Gustav and what they have meant to each other  And Fanning, as the American outsider, believably shows Rachel to be  more than just a pretty face, but a genuinely committed actress in a fish-out-of-water situation, trying to get it right for her director, but acknowledging not only her discomfort, but his as well.

Sentimental Value is the whole package: a solid drama; with memorable acting and seemingly spontaneous dialogue (like the best Linklater films); a tight, deeply involving story; and top-rank (unshowy) cinematography.  There are some misty-eyes moments and, for me at least, a quite satisfying ending.   In short, it’s a real gem.  Highly recommended.

2 hours 13 minutes In Norwegian (subtitled) and English

Grade:  A-

While Sentimental Value  is still showing theatrically in some locations, (which is a lovely way to see it), it’s now also available to purchase or rent digitally on multiple platforms including Prime Video, AppleTV, and Fandango At Home (formerly Vudu). 

Year End Round-up 2025: Films Now Streaming for Home Viewing

By Len Weiler

    Many of the 2025 movies reviewed on this site over the past year were only available theatrically when the reviews first appeared here. I know many of our readers are not inclined any more to get out to the cinema  for any number of reasons: kids, cost, covid, infirmities, traffic, or whatever. The good news is that all of these movies are now available digitally – to purchase, to rent or, in some cases to watch for “free” with a subscription to certain streaming sites. So, this update is intended to remind you of those movies and let you know how to watch them at home. 

    Here are the titles we are recapping today:

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

F1

Materialists

It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley

The Naked Gun

Superman

Blue Moon

Nouvelle Vague (aka New Wave)

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

It Was Just An Accident

    In addition, let me remind you of Larry Lee’s piece from July discussing his selection of the best films from the first half of the year: The 2025 Half Oscars™… and more good stuff, featuring not only his top-10 list, but recommendations for a dozen other films that didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. Here’s a LINK.

(To read our complete review of any movie listed here, click on the film title below.)

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2025)  Now available on Netflix (free with subscription), and rentable on Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, and other platforms

From our 5/21/25 review: “Formerly a Hollywood mainstay, romantic comedies have become a rarity – their consistent decline evident since at least the turn of the 21st century. Take 2024 for instance. Of the 100 top-grossing motion pictures last year, just two were rom-coms: Anyone But You in 35th place and Fly Me to the Moon in 67th place. … But that does not mean we consumers wouldn’t enjoy more quality rom-coms. I sure would! Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a step in the right direction. … [It] is a sweet, witty, charming little movie. … This one will not win any awards for best motion picture of the year, but it will certainly be on my list for most appealing. It is a little gem.”

F1  (2025)  Now available on AppleTV (free with a subscription), and to purchase (or rent at premium pricing) on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube and other platforms.

        From our 7/2/25 review: F1 (the movie), by the talented director Joseph Kosinski [Top Gun Maverick (2022)], "stars the inimitable Brad Pitt as the central character. It’s about a seemingly washed up auto-racer, Sonny Hayes, trying to make a comeback. Most of it takes place in the highest level of racing: international Formula One (F1) competition. Please don’t quit reading just because you don’t give a shit about auto-racing. Neither do I. But F1 is one of the most thrilling cinematic experiences I’ve had in years, and it’s likely to feel the same for you.”   I admit that I saw this one at a sonically enhanced movie theater, and it might be less thrilling at home, but according to a few friends who have watched F1 on their TVs, it’s still quite excellent in that environment. Turn up the volume for the racing scenes or listen on headphones.

Materialists (2025)  Now rentable on Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, and other platforms.

From our 7/21/25 review: “Materialists is the new movie written and directed by Celine Song, whose debut feature film Past Lives (2023) was a critical smash - nominated for two Oscars (including Best Picture) winner of numerous other film festival awards. … Billed as a romantic comedy, Materialists’ aim is closer to social satire: a take-down of current conceptions and attitudes about dating and mating. … Here's the set-up: Lucy (Dakota Johnson) works as a matchmaker for a high-end dating agency.  Lucy herself is single and is resigned she’ll remain in that condition. Once upon a time, she was in love with John (Chris Evans). Although still fond of him, she - like many of her clients - could never settle for someone  (like John) who is not financially secure. Then one day Lucy meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a guy who IS wealthy as well as charming, sophisticated and sincere. Are we headed into a love triangle here? Johnson, Evans and Pascal are called stars because they shine.” 

It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley (2025)   Now available on HBOMax (free with subscription), and rentable on Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, and other platforms.

From our 8/4/25 review:  “[This] is a new documentary film by Amy Berg about the musician Jeff Buckley. Buckley, who died in 1997, was admired as a remarkably gifted singer, as well as for his lyrically imaginative, emotionally evocative songwriting. He is, however, best known today for his terrific rendition of the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah, included on his album Grace in 1994. While this did not become a megahit during Buckley’s lifetime, it is now generally considered the benchmark rendition of Hallelujah and frequently cited as one of the greatest recorded tracks of all time. …  Meanwhile, the album Grace, initially a modest seller, went on to sell over two million copies.  Those who knew Buckley and many who saw or heard him in the mid-90s thought he was going to be a superstar. He was in the process of recording a second album at the time of his premature death. He was just thirty years old.”  Despite some quibbles with the filmmaking style, It’s Never Over earned an overall Notes On Films grade of B+.

The Naked Gun (2025)  Now available free with a subscription to Amazon’s PrimeVideo; and rentable on Amazon, AppleTV and multiple other platforms.

From our 8/9/25 review:  “In case you were wondering whatever happened to the zany, madcap, laugh-a-minute comedies made popular in the 1980s by movies like Airplane! (1980), you need wonder no more. They are back – or perhaps I should say one of them is back.  I am referring, of course, to the reboot of the original police spoof The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! which appeared in 1988 and spawned two sequels. Playing against type as Frank Drebin, Jr. in the new The Naked Gun, Liam Neeson, not known for comedy - and certainly not for silly, turns out to be great at it.” Moreover, “over the course of this 85-minute mini-masterpiece, Neeson is such a good actor that he brings to what could have been a purely cardboard caricature a bit of humanity. A little bit, but still.”   Also starring Pamela Anderson as the beautiful sister of a man whose recent death is treated as suicide, but which she claims is a homicide. She and Drebin hit it off, comically of course. 

Superman (2025) Now available on HBOMax (free with subscription), and rentable on Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, and other platforms.

From our 8/28/25 review:  “The new reboot of the Superman franchise – called, simply enough, Superman – is a pretty doggone good movie in the context of superhero films:  fun to watch, action packed, with high technical production values, excellent cinematography, and – increasingly unusual for the genre - an uplifting emphasis on positive values and the common good. Truth, Justice and the American Way indeed! 32-year-old David Corenswet (in his first big starring role) looks good in cape and costume and does a fine job as Superman. The villain of the piece, Superman’s arch enemy, Lex Luthor, has been played by many notables in the past, but Nicolas Hoult here might just be the best of the lot. … When compared to the cynical superhero fare of recent years, a movie about a superhero with heart, whose goal in life is to fight crime and save lives is a good thing, it seems to me." 

Blue Moon (2025) Now available to rent - at premium prices (~$19.99) on Amazon, AppleTV and many other platforms. When more ordinary pricing will begin or when the movie will appear on subscription services is not yet known.

        From our 10/17/25 review: "Blue Moon is a wonderful new film, both melancholy and brightly witty, about the last days of the brilliant lyricist, Lorenz Hart.  It’s a chamber piece, taking place over one evening, almost entirely at the fabled New York theater district hangout Sardi’s. It’s beautifully directed by the great Richard Linklater … and stars the inimitable Ethan Hawke in a brilliant performance, along with a terrific supporting cast including Bobby Cannavale, Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott and Patrick Kennedy. I can’t say enough good things about Ethan Hawke’s performance as Hart. I’ve never seen him better, and I’ve seen a LOT of his work. But this is Hawke as you’ve never seen him before.  This small movie is one of the best of the year. A real gem.  

Nouvelle Vague [aka New Wave] (2025)  Available free on Netflix (with subscription)

From our 10/24/25 review: “If you are reading this, you probably love the movies.  And if you love the movies, I’ll bet you love watching movies about the movies. …  Nouvelle Vague [the 2nd new feature of the season by director Richard Linklater] - about the creation and filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s ground-breaking French New Wave movie Breathless - is a filmic confection for film lovers, taking us back to an exciting moment in film history when, by some accounts, everything changed. … The movie not only teaches about the New Wave but itself mimics many aspects of New Wave filmmaking:  filmed in black-and-white, the movie contains jump cuts, quick editing, naturalistic acting and location shooting. … This was clearly a labor of love for the director.  That Linklater, who is from Texas, made a movie largely in French, is all the more amazing.”

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)   Now available to rent - at premium prices (~$19.99) on Amazon, AppleTV and many other platforms. When more ordinary pricing will begin or when the movie will appear on subscription services is not yet known.

From our 10/28/25 review:  “I really enjoyed the movie. [But] this is not – I repeat, not – a concert film. Yes, there are depictions of Springsteen singing Springsteen songs in the picture - all of which are performed by the actor playing him, Jeremy Allen White. Most of these are … contemplative moments with Springsteen in his bedroom, composing. There IS a little rock’n’roll though. For example, the film opens at the conclusion of Springsteen’s The River tour, as Bruce [White] belts out Born to Run to an appreciative audience. But the movie is primarily about a major depressive period in Springsteen’s life - the “nowhere” of the film’s title - just as he was becoming a big star. [This] turns out to be an engaging, intriguing, thought-provoking, well-made saga featuring some excellent performances, notably from Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s manager/friend. [And] a remarkable performance – musically and dramatically - by Jeremy Allen White, who transforms himself to look and sound quite like 35-year-old Bruce Springsteen, an accomplishment that reminds me of Timothee Chalamet’s take as young Bob Dylan in last year’s A Complete Unknown."

It Was Just An Accident (2025)   Now rentable on Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, and other platforms.

From our 11/5/25 review: “The much-anticipated new movie by Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi is a dramatic thriller. It seems a simple film at first: a small cast, lots of closeups, relatively few locations, no elaborate action sequences, etc. – but soon the narrative gathers momentum, becoming increasingly complex and engaging as the story escalates, gripping us with its emotional force and the moral quandary it poses. Set in current day Iran, Panahi’s Iran, the question the movie confronts is whether it is ever morally justifiable for a victim to treat his oppressor – in this case a sadistic prison guard - with the same disregard for human rights - brutality, torture or murder, for example – as was applied to him and other prisoners? This question is one grappled with by four former dissidents all of whom were brutally treated in an Iranian prison; and, although fictional, the movie works because it rings absolutely true.  As to the realism, it’s partly based on Panhi’s own experiences. This is a movie that is more than compelling. It’s provocative – in the best, most literal way: it makes you think, and it stays with you.” Winner of the top prize, the Palme d’Or, at the 2025 Cannes film Festival in May 2025. 

Hamnet (2025): Best Picture and Performance of the Year?

By Len Weiler

The long-awaited theatrical release of Hamnet is finally upon us. Based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell - a best-seller as well as a critical favorite, winner of the coveted National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction that year - Hamnet is a prestige film, helmed by director Chloé Zhao, whose Nomadland won three major Oscars in 2021: best picture, best director and best actress. With a screenplay cowritten by Zhou and O’Farrell, the movie also features powerful acting from an esteemed cast, and particularly by the two leads: Jessie Buckley as Agnes (Anne) Hathaway and Paul Mescal as Will Shakespeare. Also excellent are Joe Alwyn as Agnes’s brother, Bartholomew, and Emily Watson as Will’s mother, Mary. The production is complemented by the rich, often moody cinematography by Lukasz Zal, a two-time Oscar nominee [for Ida in 2015 and Cold War in 2019) and a lovely score by composer Max Richter [Arrival (2016)].

 Hamnet has frequently been projected as a probable nominee and prize winner during the upcoming awards season. It has already been nominated in numerous categories - best dramatic film, best director, best actress, best supporting actor, and more for the upcoming Golden Globes in early January. 

The film is currently in wide release. 

So, what’s it about? And is this picture worth seeing? 

As you’ve probably heard, and as the title suggests, Hamnet has to do with William Shakespeare, the death of his beloved son Hamnet at age 11, and the profound effect that tragic event had on the creation of Shakespeare’s masterwork, Hamlet. But as depicted by Zhou and company, the story portrayed in the movie is much larger and more profound than that scanty description suggests. Indeed, the historical record about Shakespeare’s family life, about Hamnet and about the sources of the play Hamlet is just about as scanty, maybe even more so, than that summary. 

It is commonly posited that Hamlet’s poignant expressions of grief and his musings about mortality - for a famous example, in his “To be or not to be” speech - and, as well, the agonized brooding on death by his ghostly father are so deeply affecting that they must be the result of the Shakespeare’s recent personal experience, i.e. Hamnet’s untimely death. Yet, there is no direct evidence that this is so. In a lovely article in The Atlantic dated December 1, 2025, Columbia English professor James Shapiro writes 

“That mourning has been restored to its central place in Shakespeare's inspiration is perhaps a good thing, though not necessarily a true one. We just don't know. What effects the death of his son - or other losses and loves - had upon his plays are secrets that Shakespeare carried with him to the grave.”

In fact, as Shapiro points out, we know virtually nothing about Hamnet’s death or the bard’s reaction to it and surprisingly little about Shakespeare’s family life in general. The cause of Hamnet death, for example, has long been ascribed to plague (referred to as “the pestilence” in the film Hamnet), but his cause of death was not recorded, and statistical evidence indicates no local uptick in deaths generally at the time Hamnet died, which would be expected if an epidemic was about. Nor is there any evidence that Shakespeare came rushing home at the news that his children were ill, as depicted in the film. We just don’t know.    

It seems to me that as we consider the current movie, the paucity of historical facts matters not. It is not, after all, meant to be a documentary. Rather, one of the cool things I like about  about Hamnet is that it is almost entirely a product of the creative and ingenious imaginings of O’Farrell and Zhou. The result is a beautiful, affecting, soul-stirring, provocative and glorious film. And what’s wrong with that? 

What follows is a brief synopsis of the plot of Hamnet which, because of its brevity, may seem very flat - which the film most certainly is not. The excellence of the film is in the expressive rendering of the story and its frankly stunning portrayal of the emotional response of the characters - not in the bare facts of the story.  But if you want to avoid any plot ‘spoilers’ feel free to skip the three indented paragraphs that follow.

            Hamnet covers a lot of ground in just over two hours - eighteen or nineteen years in the lives of Shakespeare and his wife Agnes (pronounced An-yes) from 1582 until approximately 1600 or 1601, when Will Shakespeare wrote and mounted the first production of Hamlet. Over the course of that time, Will and Agnes meet, fall in love, and marry, and within six months of marriage start their family with the birth of their first child, Susanna. Two years later, Agnes is pregnant again. By mutual agreement, Will moves to London to pursue his writing aspirations; and in his absence, Agnes gives birth to twins, Judith and Hamnet. 

            It takes years for Shakespeare to get on his feet in London, but the film stays with Agnes and the kids in Stratford and does not follow Will to the city. He does return home occasionally, where he clearly enjoys being with the kids, although there are increasing tensions in the marriage due to his long absences. A major family tragedy descends in 1596, as Judith contracts plague and appears near death despite Agnes’ desperate ministrations. Will races to get home - a long arduous journey. Judith miraculously survives, but the disease has passed to Hamnet, who tragically succumbs.  Agnes is beside herself with grief and furious that Will is not present to lend support.  He arrives the next day, too late. He is devastated too, but his anguish is outwardly quieter, more reserved than his wife’s. 

            We jump forward a few years when Agnes, still in Stratford, learns that Shakespeare is readying a new play entitled Hamlet. At the time, the names 'Hamlet' and 'Hamnet' were interchangeable and, curious about what her husband has to say in a play she assumes to be about her dead son, Agnes goes to London with her brother to see it. She has never been to see a stage play in her life.  The film ends with a phenomenal extended scene at the theater in which the play is performed and Agnes experiences an epiphany.

   *  *  * 

Hamnet is a film that shows us much about small town life in late 16th century England, and much more
about the human condition both then and now: about about overcoming family expectations and finding one’s own way in the world, about love and marriage, about parents’ love for their children. Chiefly however, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamnet is about grief and how we deal with it. This is depicted so well, it packs quite an emotional wallop. Some of this is quite raw – and the riveting performances may be a bit discomfiting to watch (albeit in a good way!).  At the same time, the film celebrates the wonder of a creative process through which the desolate, agonizing emotions of heartbreak and loss can be transfigured into a deeply moving, transformative work of art.

It's doubtful that the movie would work without actors who are likable, credible and have great dynamic and emotional range - characteristics that surely fit 35-year-old Jessie Buckley. From Wild Rose (2015) to The Lost Daughter (2021) to Women Talking (2022) and Wicked Little Letters (2023), she’s established herself of one of the most talented, adaptable and formidable actresses of her generation.  I should add watchable to that list, a quality which really comes to the fore in Hamnet – which features lots of screen-filling closeups, most dramatically in the moving final moments of the film as Agnes  watches her husband’s masterwork unfold on the stage - first with rage, then confusion, then wonder and then I guess you could call it enlightenment.  It's quite a moment, her best scene in a picture loaded with great ones. Her role as Agnes taken altogether may also be most bravura performance of her career.

This is not to downplay the lovely performance by Paul Mescal as Will Shakespeare, which is, as the work requires, more subdued. Mescal's work is special, too - again most particularly in the film’s closing moments. 

As noted at the outset, Hamnet has been very well received by critics and the theater-going public. The film has received a critics score of 83 on MetaCritic.com indicating "near universal acclaim", as well as a high critical rating of 87% on RottenTomatoes. Audience reactions have been similar: the RottenTomatoes “Popcornmeter” score is 92% favorable, and IMDB readers give it a solid 8.1 (out of ten). Given the wide media coverage of Hamnet, I can’t do better in describing the response of most viewers of the film than to quote from other reviewers: 

    “What Hamnet leaves you with isn't sadness, but joy - at the human capacity to reckon with deaths implacability through art, or love, or just the basic act of carrying on. It blows you back onto the street on a gust of pure exhilaration.” - Robbie Collin [The Telegraph]

    “Buckley’s performance is ferocious and astounding, starting off strong and somehow picking up power
as the movie goes along. … Mescal also knocked me flat.” - Alissa Wilkinson [NY Times] 

    “Chloe Zhao’s new film landmark … bring[s] a raw, present-tense immediacy to a tale of love and grievous loss. Jessie Buckley is guttural, defiant and untamable in the performance of the year.” - Peter Travers 

If you can see Hamnet in a theater, I recommend that you do. The movie is so powerful it deserves that big screen, stay-in-your-seat experience. If you watch at home – and that option might not be available for awhile – set aside the two hours, so you don’t need to leave the room, turn down the lights a bit and allow yourself to be enveloped. Oh, and have some tissues handy.

 

2 hours 5 minutes MPA rating: PG-13

Grade: A

In wide release