I totally slacked this week and didn’t find the time to review any of the movies I watched in the week/weekend leading up to the Oscars, so here you get twice the films!
The Bride! – Good grief. This movie was a drag to get through. We are introduced into the mind of Mary Shelley to learn about the Frankenstein’s bride, had she been around to bring her to the page. What could have been a neat treatment ended up being both confusing and annoying. Shelley herself was inhabiting the mind and voice of the Bride, but it was done so in such a jarring way that it really took a lot out of it for me. But whenever the Bride comes to life, she doesn’t remember any of her former life, where apparently she was loved and abused by many men. The thing is, she’s still getting lied to in this second life, though at the end of the day her romance is very Romeo and Juliet in nature. It’s a shame such a good cast was wasted on this mess.
One Battle After Another – With only a week before the Oscars, I realized I was extremely behind on watching all of the best picture nominees. Which is totally unlike me! One Battle After Another is one I desparately wanted to see in theaters, but life interferred with any showtime that could possibly work. With that being said, I was glad I got to finally watch it! For as long as this film was, it never felt like it was going on longer than it should have. We are first treated to the chaotic romance of revolutionaires Pat and Perfidia. She gets herself into hot water after the birth of her child, so Pat is put under a new identity with his daughter for the next fifteen years. Things take a turn when an old, corrupt military officer gets the chance to join an exclusive white supremacists club and Pat’s life is expsoed for destruction. This was actually a lot of fun with some stellar performances. Did I think it was the best film of 2025? No. But I’m not mad at its many Oscar wins.
Hamnet – This drama was something I actively put off because of a few reasons. I don’t really like or care about Shakespere, it seemed like this drama was going to be Slow with a capital S, and also Sad with a capital S. Though I still don’t like Shakespere, there was nothing painfully slow about this deeply sad film. William and Agnes have a bit of an unconventional love, but it does give them the gift of three children over time. The emphasis is on the boy-girl twins, Judith and Hamnet, who both suffer from the plague. Unfortunately, Hamnet passes from it, leaving them all incredibly grief-stricken. William seems to abandon his family for London where he is working on a play that ultimately honors his late son. If I didn’t emphasize it enough before, this film is really freaking sad, but it was so, so good.
The Secret Agent – The name makes this film sound a little more intense than it ended up being, but what a unique piece of work! Armando, aka Marcelo, is a political refugee during the Brazilian military dictatorship in the late 70s, where is just focused on getting him and his young son out of all the turmoil. It’s a slow process, but the network of people trying to help him and others is really admirable. While he tries to stay lowkey, he gets in the crosshairs of a corrupt Police Chief and some thugs who are trying to get rid of a leg that was found in a beached shark. If that sentace sounded crazy, I can assure you it was even crazier to see on screen for the first time. It took a while for me to figure out how everything was related, but there were certainly thrills in this slow burn. The style of this film was really, really appealing to me – it was honestly perfect. Definitely worth checking out!
Dust Bunny – At long last I have finally seen Bryan Fuller and Mads Mikkelsen’s latest collaboration. Is it related to Hannibal? Sadly, no. But this ended up being a fun, creative, and clever action film that managed to weave in a bit of fantasy. Aurora lives in a gorgeously ornate appartment complex in constant fear of the murderous dust bunny that lives under her bed. After her latest foster parents get eaten, she attempts to hire her neighbor who she witnessed slaying a dragon. He’s actually a hitman, but he seems to have a soft spot for Aurora, knowing that she’s in a bit of danger being associated with him. There were a few parts that made me laugh out loud, intentionally so, but the action scenes were cool and fun, and overall this thing was just visually stunning. It’s a shame this didn’t get proper time in theaters.
Project Hail Mary – Having absolutely no knowlodge of the popular book this film was based on, I went into this completely blind and extremely skeptical. I don’t love a space movie. And while I enjoyed The Martian, it’s not also something I find myself wanting to revisit as the years have passed. But what a great watch! Ryan Gosling plays Dr. Ryland Grace, a high school science teacher and former molecular biologist. Earth is dealing with the fact that the sun is being eaten and dimming, which does not bode well for the future. In many calculated moves, he gets involved with the mission aiming to stop it, so we initially meet him in space and learn a lot along the way. Could I have told you that I would get emotionally invested in the life of a rock while watching this film? Nope. But I did, and you definitely will, too. It’s got me really interested in reading the book, so I hope to get my hands on a copy in the near future.
Sentimental Value – Winner of Best International Feature at the Oscars this year, it totally deserved it! This is my kind of drama. A little bit dry, slow, but also totally grounded in reality with bits of humor sprinkled throughout. We meet sisters Nora and Agnes just after their mother passes. Their filmmaker father shows up after being absent from their lives since their childhood, looking to use his family’s home for his next film. He wants Nora in the lead, but her crippling stage fright and hatred of him leads her to continuously turn him down. Agnes is a little less resentful of their father, though he tows the line with her fully crafted life. Their interactions are all wonderfully Norweigan, but each scene, quiet or humming, was a real joy to watch.