Posted in 2020-2029, Awards Season, Film Feature, Oscars

98th Academy Awards: Final Predictions

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

Here we are, at the end of another awards season, with Hollywood’s biggest night and all the stars come together for the ultimate celebration of film at the 98th Academy Awards. This year’s ceremony will be the usual glitzy and glamorous affair it always is, but it will also act as a welcome distraction from the absolute chaos of the world we live in right now, and I am sure returning host Conan O’Brien will have ripe material about that and more to allow audiences around the world to laugh, forget that chaos for several hours, and of course to hand out some Oscars and change lives forever.

With the exciting addition of a new category for Best Casting, there are 24 Oscars up for grabs. Who will be clutching one of those priceless golden status and write their name into the history books? Time to gaze into my crystal ball and predict who will emerge triumphant…

Best Supporting Actor

  • Benicio del Toro  – One Battle After Another 
  • Jacob Elordi  – Frankenstein
  • Delroy Lindo  – Sinners
  • Sean Penn – One Battle After Another 
  • Stellan Skarsgård  – Sentimental Value

We begin with the first acting category and a very interesting race as three of these nominees are first-time nominees, with Jacob Elordi picking up his first nomination at 28 years old and at the other end of the scale, Delroy Lindo and Stellan Skarsgård picking up their first nods at 73 and 74 years old respectively. Lindo’s nomination is particularly welcome, given that he was an absolute scene stealer in Sinners and was egregiously snubbed for his incredible work in Da 5 Bloods, while a prolific actor like Skarsgård receiving his first nomination is also kind of crazy but richly deserved.

However, the obstacle for all these gentlemen is the fact that they’re up against the two actors who star in the Best Picture frontrunner. Del Toro’s Sensei was definitely the calmer presence in One Battle After Another, alongside the evil, menacing Colonel Lockjaw. Skarsgard won the Golden Globe, while Elordi won the Critics’ Choice, Penn won BAFTA and the Actors Awards (formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards), which puts him in with a good chance of prevailing. It is a menacing performance, but given the current occupant of the White House and the fact that Penn may not even attend the ceremony, this is a prime opportunity to give the other nominees, especially Lindo or Skarsgård, the recognition they deserve for their performances across their careers.

Will Win: Sean Penn

Should Win: Delroy Lindo

Could have been nominated: Paul Mescal for Hamnet

Best Costume Design

  • Avatar: Fire and Ash – Deborah L. Scott
  • Frankenstein – Kate Hawley 
  • Hamnet – Malgosia Turzanska
  • Marty Supreme – Miyako Bellizzi
  • Sinners – Ruth E. Carter 

Given that a lot of the costumes seen in Avatar: Fire and Ash were presumably added in as part of the CGI, this nomination feels a little strange, as there were so many other worthy costume designs worthy of recognition. But alas, it wouldn’t have mattered, because the resplendent costumes in Frankenstein frankly blow the competition out of the water. Though if last year’s winner, Paul Tazewell, had been in contention here as he should have been, this could have been an interesting race.

Will Win: Frankenstein

Should Win: Frankenstein 

Should have been nominated: Paul Tazewell for Wicked For Good

Best Original Score

  • Bugonia  – Jerskin Fendrix 
  • Frankenstein  – Alexandre Desplat
  • Hamnet  – Max Richter
  • One Battle After Another  – Jonny Greenwood
  • Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

In 2019, Ludwig Göransson won his first Oscar for his score in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. After picking up his second in 2024 for Oppenheimer, how fitting it will be to see him claim his third Oscar in seven years for his incredible work on Sinners. Given how central music is to the premise of Sinners, despite excellent work from all the other nominees, this award is really a no-brainer.

Will Win: Ludwig Göransson

Should Win: Ludwig Göransson

Best Sound

  • F1  – Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, and Juan Peralta
  • Frankenstein  – Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian Cooke, and Brad Zoern
  • One Battle After Another – José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, and Tony Villaflor
  • Sinners – Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, and Steve Boeddeker
  • Sirat – Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, and Yasmina Praderas

Anytime a film features racing cars or thunderous modes of transport, it usually does very well in this category, as it is the flashiest work on display. So even though there is a chance the incredible work of the Sinners team could get recognition, given how integral sound is to the film, I back F1 to take the chequered flag.

Will Win: F1 

Should Win: Sinners

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

  • Frankenstein – Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey
  • Kokuho  – Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino, and Tadashi Nishimatsu
  • Sinners  – Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine, and Shunika Terry
  • The Smashing Machine – Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin, and Bjoern Rehbein
  • The Ugly Stepsister  – Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg

Given the extraordinary length of time that it took to turn the incredibly attractive Jacob Elordi into Frankenstein’s monster, this is another slam-dunk win for Frankenstein, though again, Wicked For Good being left out here is another head-scratching omission.

Will Win: Frankenstein 

Should Win: Frankenstein

Should have been nominated: Wicked For Good

Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Bugonia – Written by  Will Tracy
  • Frankenstein – Written by  Guillermo del Toro 
  • Hamnet – Written by  Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell 
  • One Battle After Another  – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Train Dreams – Written by  Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

Five Best Picture contenders, five very strong screenplays. However, with the other Best Picture frontrunner in the other writing category, there will only be one winner. There may be a hint of an overdue narrative at play, given his distinguished contributions to cinema over the years, but Paul Thomas Anderson has won every precursor going, so it would be a seismic shock if he doesn’t end his long wait for Oscar gold.

I would love to see Hamnet or Frankenstein pull off an upset, but I just don’t see it happening.

Will Win: One Battle After Another 

Should Win: Frankenstein

Should have been nominated: No Other Choice 

Best Original Screenplay

  • Blue Moon – Written by Richard Linklater 
  • It Was Just an Accident  – Written by  Jafar Panahi (in collaboration with Shadmehr Rastin, Nader Saïvar, and Mehdi Mahmoudian)  
  • Marty Supreme  – Written by  Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie  
  • Sentimental Value – Written by  Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier 
  • Sinners  – Written by Ryan Coogler 

Much like with the Adapted Screenplay category, this one is a sure bet for the other Best Picture frontrunner. Sinners is Ryan Coogler’s magnum opus, and given the likely way Best Picture and Best Director will turn out, this will be the Academy’s chance to richly reward him for his incredible screenplay.

Will Win: Ryan Coogler 

Should Win: Ryan Coogler

Best Supporting Actress

 

  • Elle Fanning  – Sentimental Value 
  • Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas  – Sentimental Value
  • Amy Madigan – Weapons 
  • Wunmi Mosaku  – Sinners
  • Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another 

To the other supporting category, and similarly, this one has the potential for a twist. With the exception of Amy Madigan, who makes Oscars history as the gap between her first nomination in 1985’s Twice in a Lifetime and her second sets a record for the longest gap between nominations for an actress, while the other four are all picking up their first nominations.

Between her work in Sentimental Value and a memorable turn in Predator Badlands, 2025 was a memorable year for Fanning, but her nomination did come as a bit of a welcome surprise but she won’t triumph here. Her Sentimental Value co-star Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas also has little chance, meaning it is a toss-up between the other three ladies.

Taylor gave a tour de force performance in OBAA, absolutely dominating the first 30 minutes to leave a lasting impression on the rest of the film, and is sorely missed for the rest of the runtime. Madigan’s performance as Aunt Gladys (I am seriously never trusting anyone I meet with that name ever again) was instantly memorable, and Wunmi Mosaku’s brilliant turn as Annie, the love interest of one of the Smokestack twins, enabled her to be vulnerable but fierce where necessary, especially in the film’s bloody third act.

Taylor had momentum early on following her Golden Globe win, but that momentum has stalled, allowing Mosaku to claim the BAFTA on home soil and Madigan to claim the Critics’ Choice and Actors awards, so the momentum is with the latter, which leads me to believe she might just triumph. But this is a very close call.

Will Win: Amy Madigan 

Should Win: Wunmi Mosaku

Could have been nominated: Ariana Grande for Wicked For Good

Best Original Song

  • “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless – Music and lyrics by Diane Warren
  • “Golden” from Kpop Demon Hunters  – Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, 24, Ido, Teddy, and Ian Eisendrath
  • “I Lied To You” from Sinners  – Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson
  • “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi! – Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike
  • “Train Dreams” from Train Dreams – Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave

Chalk up another nomination for Dianne Warren, as it is a given that she will feature in this category every year, 17 now and counting. Yet again, though, this is not going to be the year that ends her wait for Oscars gold, as the irresistibly catchy “Golden” from Kpop Demon Hunters and the song from that jaw-dropping past and future scene in Sinners are the competition standing in her way. Given how integral it is to the film’s plot, I would love to see Sinners triumph, but it’s hard to look past the fact that “Golden” has surpassed 1.5 billion streams on Spotify, a feat that will be fittingly rewarded with a golden Oscar statue.

Will Win: Kpop Demon Hunters 

Should Win: Kpop Demon Hunters

Best Film Editing

  • F1 – Stephen Mirrione
  • Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
  • One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
  • Sentimental Value – Olivier Bugge Coutté
  • Sinners – Michael Shawver

So often in the past, editing and sound have gone hand in hand. However, over the last three years, the winner of this award has correlated with the winner of the Best Picture, as Anora, Oppenheimer, and Everything Everywhere All at Once won this award to go with their hauls for the evening. My heart wants to see Sinners win, purely for the juke joint dance scene where the past and future collide, as that editing was masterful. But, with its status as the Best Picture frontrunner, I unfortunately think the trend of this award winner taking the Best Picture will continue.

Will Win: One Battle After Another 

Should Win: Sinners 

Best Production Design

  • Frankenstein  – Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
  • Hamnet  – Production Design: Fiona Crombie; Set Decoration: Alice Felton
  • Marty Supreme – Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis
  • One Battle After Another – Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
  • Sinners – Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Monique Champagne

What could have been another battle between the gothic era of Frankenstein and the fantastical world of Oz of Wicked For Good… 

Since that match-up didn’t transpire, this will be another richly deserved win for Frankenstein, though Sinners could potentially be a dark horse in this race.

Will Win: Frankenstein 

Should Win: Frankenstein

Best International Feature Film

  • It Was Just an Accident (France)  – directed by Jafar Pahani 
  • The Secret Agent (Brazil)  – directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
  • Sentimental Value (Norway)  – directed by Joachim Trier 
  • Sirat (Spain)  – directed by Oliver Laxe
  • The Voice of  Hind Rajab (Tunisia)  – directed by Kaouther Ben Hania

In a battle between the two Best Picture contenders, Brazil could make history by making it back-to-back wins, but given the Hollywood element of Sentimental Value and the fact it has more overall nominations than The Secret Agent, that will probably be enough to help it clinch the Oscar and ensure it doesn’t go home empty-handed.

However, the sheer power and devastating urgency of The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film that utterly broke me after seeing it at last year’s London Film Festival, makes me hope it pulls off an upset, as it is a film everyone must watch. Free Palestine.

Will Win: Sentimental Value

Should Win: The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best Animated Feature Film

  • Arco – Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas, and Natalie Portman
  • Elio – Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina, and Mary Alice Drumm
  • Kpop Demon Hunters – Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, and Michelle L.M. Wong
  • Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago, and Henri Magalon
  • Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Yvett Merino

Ever since this category was first awarded at the 74th Oscars in 2001, there have been only nine occasions when a film not released by Disney or its subsidiary Pixar emerged triumphant, including for the last three successive years, where Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, The Boy and the Heron, and Flow all usurped the House of Mouse. Disney has the fact that the second-highest-grossing film of 2025 in its favour, but with its likely win in Best Original Song, Kpop Demon Hunters will ensure that streak continues. It will be a golden night for Sony Pictures, Netflix, and the Huntrix ladies, who will be going up, up, up on that stage to collect that Oscar.

Will Win: Kpop Demon Hunters 

Should Win: Kpop Demon Hunters 

Best Visual Effects

  • Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett
  • F1 – Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington, and Keith Dawson
  • Jurassic World Rebirth – David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan, and Neil Corbould
  • The Lost Bus – Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, and Brandon K. McLaughlin
  • Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, and Donnie Dean

Every time an Avatar film is released, it’s like a cheat code for this category. The story in this latest entry in James Cameron’s box office behemoth might have left a bit to be desired, but the visual effects, even though we have seen them before, are still impressive enough to carry it to the win.

Will Win: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Should Win: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Should have been nominated: Fantastic Four: First Steps

 

Best Cinematography

  • Frankenstein – Dan Lausten 
  • Marty Supreme – Darius Khondji 
  • One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman 
  • Sinners  – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
  • Train Dreams  – Adolpho Veloso

In some years when this category has flattered to deceive, this is emphatically not the case this year, as each and every one of these nominees put in some truly stunning work, and any one of them would be a very worthy winner. However, Autumn Durald Arkapaw has some history on her side, as not only did she become the fourth woman to be nominated for this award, but she also became the first woman of colour to be nominated. It is looking likely that this will again come down to a battle between the two Best Picture frontrunners, but I am going to go with my gut and say the Academy will make history and make Arkapaw the first woman to win in this category. It is well past time that this particular glass ceiling was shattered.

Will Win: Sinners 

Should Win: Sinners

Best Casting

  • Hamnet – Nina Gold 
  • Marty Supreme – Jennifer Venditti 
  • One Battle After Another – Cassandra Kulukundis
  • The Secret Agent – Gabriel Domingues
  • Sinners – Francine Maisler 

This year’s brand new category, and a well overdue one at that. Casting is such an integral part of the filmmaking process, and if it doesn’t work out, an entire film can fall apart. This could really go in any direction, as there’s no precedent, so I’m going with my heart on this one and hoping this is another Oscar to add to Sinners‘ collection.

Will Win: Sinners 

Should Win: Sinners

Best Actor

  • Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme 
  • Leonardo DiCaprio  – One Battle After Another
  • Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
  • Michael B. Jordan – Sinners 
  • Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent

“In pursuit of greatness”, the words of Timothée Chalamet last year after winning Best Actor at last year’s Actors Awards, formerly SAG awards. With his nomination this year, Chalamet becomes the youngest actor to earn three acting nominations since a certain Marlon Brando. Having won the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice, it looked for all the world as though he would fulfil his goal of achieving greatness and take the Oscar. But a lot can happen over the course of an awards season, and since Chalamet unexpectedly lost the BAFTA to Robert Aramayo for I Swear and Michael B Jordan in the Actors Awards, the race has been turned on its head.

Has the momentum turned in Jordan’s favour? Had voting been open when Chalamet made his ill-advised comments denigrating two other art forms in ballet and opera, it is almost certain that they would have cost him dearly, but since voting was finished, it might not have an impact. As much as Chalamet turned in an excellent performance to make you root for a character who is so thoroughly unlikeable, Jordan put in twice the amount of work as he played two characters, and there were subtle nuances to his performances to distinguish the Smokestack twins besides the way they dressed. The whole film would have fallen apart if Jordan’s performances as both Smokestack twins hadn’t been extremely charismatic.

Given that the aforementioned comments are unlikely to have had an impact, my hunch is that, despite the late surge in momentum for Jordan, it will not be enough to deny Chalamet the Oscar, but it could come down to a coin flip. It would be very unlikely, but since DiCaprio remains a popular figure in the industry, and with his leading role in the Best Picture frontrunner, it could lead to him pipping both his competitors to the post, what absolute chaos that would be!

Will Win: Timothée Chalamet 

Should Win: Michael B. Jordan 

Best Director

  • Chloe Zhao – Hamnet
  • Josh Safdie –  Marty Supreme 
  • Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
  • Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value 
  • Ryan Coogler – Sinners  

Aside from being the only woman nominated, Chloe Zhao’s nomination also makes history as only the second female filmmaker to receive two nominations for Best Director, which is absolutely crazy and shows there is still a lot of work to be done. But yet again, this is a race that comes down to the two powerhouse filmmakers who, if my predictions are right, will have already won in their respective writing categories. Unfortunately, despite my heart wanting Coogler to win, PTA has dominated this awards season and, crucially, won at the Directors Guild Awards, so will likely add Best Director to his Best Adapted Screenplay win.

Will Win: Paul Thomas Anderson

Should Win: Ryan Coogler

Could have been nominated: Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein 

Best Actress

  • Jessie Buckley – Hamnet 
  • Rose Byrne– If I Had Legs I’d Kick You 
  • Kate Hudson – Song Song Blue 
  • Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
  • Emma Stone – Bugonia 

Unlike Best Actor, which feels like it could swing in one of two directions, there is no chance of this happening in the Best Actress race. With this, marking her seventh nomination in both acting and producing, Stone has become the youngest woman to reach this milestone, beating Meryl Streep of all people. Is Stone the new Streep? Having come just a few years after her win in Poor Things, Stone is not likely to join that exclusive club of winning three acting Oscars. But given the frequency with which she has been getting nominated, it is only a matter of time.

From the moment this awards race began, to sweep or not to sweep, that is the question? Jessie Buckley’s powerful and gut-wrenching performance in Zhao’s Shakespearean tragedy has swept throughout, and it would be an earth-shattering shock if she doesn’t complete the sweep and take home the Oscar. She has come a long way since finishing second in a BBC talent show in 2008 and has been delivering Oscar-calibre performances for years now, from I’m Thinking of Ending Things, to The Lost Daughter, Women Talking and now Hamnet.  This will be her richly deserved moment.

Will Win: Jessie Buckley

Should Win:  Jessie Buckley

Could have been nominated: Chase Inifiniti for One Battle After Another

Best Picture

  • Bugonia  – Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, and Lars Knudsen
  • F1  – Chad Oman, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski, and Jerry Bruckheimer
  • Frankenstein  – Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, and Scott Stuber, producers
  • Hamnet  – Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Steven Spielberg, and Sam Mendes
  • Marty Supreme  – Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, and Timothée Chalamet
  • One Battle After Another  – Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, and Paul Thomas Anderson
  • The Secret Agent  – Émilie Lesclaux
  • Sentimental Value  – Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
  • Sinners  – Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Ryan Coogler
  • Train Dreams – Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, and Michael Heimler

Click here to see my ranking of the Best Picture contenders.

It is quite fitting, in a year that has seen Warner Bros. become the subject of a fierce battle between two rival studios to acquire it, that two of its films have been the frontrunners for the top prize all awards season long. I hope Paramount is watching, because if they are to succeed in their quest to acquire WB, they should pay attention to what the studio is currently doing, allow filmmakers like Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson to do their thing, and not interfere.

I think it is pretty clear that I have nailed my colours to the mast with my preference for Sinners to win here. It was my favourite film of 2025, and I believe it is the better of the two frontrunners; its record-breaking haul of 16 Oscar nominations attests to its beloved status in the industry. Though I fully understand that no film released in 2025 tapped into the cultural zeitgeist and the state the United States of America is in as a country, more so than One Battle After Another. I’m hoping Sinners can pull off an upset, but regardless of who wins or loses, both films have left a lasting impression on audiences and will be remembered for generations to come.

Will Win: One Battle After Another

Should Win: Sinners

Should have been nominated: No Other Choice 

————————————————–

Final counts

Will win:

  • One Battle After Another- 5 (Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay  and Editing) 
  • Sinners – 4 (Original Screenplay, Score, Cinematography  and Casting)  
  • Frankenstein – 3 (Costumes, Makeup and Hairstyling,  and Production Design)  
  • Kpop Demon Hunters – 2 (Animated and Original Song)  
  • Avatar: Fire and Ash – 1 (Visual Effects) 
  • F1 – 1 (Sound) 
  • Hamnet – 1 (Leading Actress) 
  • Marty Supreme – 1 (Leading Actor) 
  • Sentimental Value – 1 (International) 
  • Weapons – 1 (Supporting Actress) 

Should win:

  • Sinners – 11 (Picture, Director, Leading Actor, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Score, Sound, Cinematography, Editing, and Casting)  
  • Frankenstein – 4 (Adapted Screenplay, Costumes, Makeup and Hairstyling,  and Production Design)  
  • Kpop Demon Hunters – 2 (Animated and Original Song)
  • Avatar: Fire and Ash – 1 (Visual Effects) 
  • Hamnet – 1 (Leading Actress) 
  • The Voice of Hind Rajab – 1 (International)
Posted in 2020-2029, Awards Season, Oscars, Ranking

98th Academy Awards: Best Picture Nominees ranked

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

It is time once again for Hollywood to mark its biggest night and bring this year’s awards season to a close with the 98th Academy Awards. In what was another wide-ranging and entertaining year for cinema, ten films are battling it out for the biggest prize of the night and to etch their name onto one of those golden trophies and into the history books. We have a moving family drama, a politically charged thriller, a moving and powerful drama based on the life of the greatest writer who ever lived, a wonderful interpretation of a classic novel, and a genre-defying supernatural horror.

Without further ado, here is my ranking of these films from worst to best, starting with…

10. The Secret Agent

Whenever I begin compiling this list, I am always on the lookout for a film that stands out as one that should not be in contention for the top prize. While no film in this year’s crop stands out as truly awful, this slow-burning political thriller from Kleber Mendonça Filho is comfortably the one I enjoyed least. It stands as an interesting companion piece to last year’s Oscar-winning I’m Still Here, focusing on a time when Brazil was being ruled by a military dictatorship, as a former professor (played by Wagner Moura) finds himself with a target on his back.

You might think that with a title like The Secret Agent, the film would channel the spirit of a certain British secret agent, but the film eschews that in favour of patiently exploring the brutality of what can happen when a country is being ruled with an iron fist, and when you get on the wrong side of certain people. Undeniably topical given the world we live in, and while Moura gives an excellent performance, the film takes a long time before the plot really gets into motion, and with a 2-hour and 40-minute run-time, the pacing suffers as a result.

9. Train Dreams

In 2024, Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar co-wrote the brilliant Sing Sing, a powerful and thought-provoking look at life inside prison and the power of the arts that prisoners used to find new purpose. For their follow-up, with Bentley taking Kwedar’s place in the director’s chair, he takes us back to the late 19th/early 20th century for an equally contemplative and moving story of one man’s journey through the world as he tries to make a living as a logger, while taking care of his wife (Felicity Jones) and young child.

Filled with absolutely gorgeous cinematography, the film’s pacing is a little too leisurely, but it’s a showcase for Joel Edgerton, who turns in what might be the performance of his career. He can consider himself mighty unlucky that he wasn’t recognised with a nomination for Best Actor.

 

8. F1

review

By far, this is the film in this year’s line-up that will have definitely raised the most eyebrows. The Academy tends to include a film that has seen box-office success here, if for no other reason than to coax general audiences to watch the ceremony. Of all those box office juggernauts, this was the one to stand on the podium and leave the likes of Avatar: Fire and Ash to (deservedly) fall by the wayside.

After wowing critics and audiences alike and going a long way toward preserving the theatrical experience as we know it with Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski shifted gears, swapping jet planes for high-powered F1 cars and trading one A-lister for another. His commitment to practical filmmaking by attaching cameras to these high-powered cars is commendable, and the film is undeniably pulsating and thrilling to watch, even if you’ve never seen an F1 race in your life or have not the slightest interest in the sport. It could do very well in some of the below-the-line craft categories, but it is ultimately a bit too by-the-numbers and formulaic to truly rise above its competitors to be in pole position to win that coveted Best Picture statue.

 

7. Bugonia

If there is one thing you can be guaranteed of before going into any film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, it’s that the film you’re about to watch is unabashedly eccentric and weird. Very few filmmakers in Hollywood are making films like him, and all the better for it. These concepts and ideas could easily turn into catastrophic misfires were they to fall into the wrong hands. Yet, the Greek auteur makes these wacky concepts work and has enjoyed a very fruitful and productive collaborative relationship with Emma Stone, with this marking their fourth project together, as the film delves into the minds of two conspiracy theorists who become convinced that the CEO (another incredible performance by Stone) of a major corporation is secretly an alien and hatch a plan to abduct her.

An English-language remake of 2003’s Save the Green Planet, the film offers a fascinating examination of how one can get lost in the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, while also rebuking the catastrophic impact that capitalist society, humanity, and rampant consumerism have on the environment of the planet we live on, with an absolutely wild ending that will have your jaw on the floor. One only knows what kind of off-the-wall, insane concept Lanthimos will turn his attention to next.

 

6. One Battle After Another

review

Of all the films that came out in 2025, perhaps no other film tapped into the zeitgeist and showcased the politically charged world we inhabit more than the latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson, which is likely to be the one that ends his long wait for Oscar glory in several categories, as it is the clear frontrunner for the Best Picture trophy.

A film that truly lives up to its name, it expertly walks the fine line between a politically-charged thriller which excoriates some of those most poisonous ideologies we see in the world today, while also balancing an unexpected amount of humour, in the form of Leo DiCaprio’s stoner/revolutionary, desperately trying to save his daughter (an outstanding Chase Infiniti) from the vile Colonel Lockjaw. PTA films have often been very hit or miss for me, and while this is certainly a step up from Licorice Pizza, to my mind, it’s not quite the masterpiece some people are hailing it as, though given how much it speaks to the time we’re living through, it is easy to see why it is odds on to win the biggest prize of the night.

 

5. Sentimental Value

After scoring two richly deserved Oscar nominations (Original Screenplay and International Feature) for the concluding chapter in his Oslo trilogy, The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier did not rest on his laurels, and his latest film has deservedly received wider recognition than his previous films. While not a direct sequel to Worst Person, Sentimental Value very much continues in the same vein, not least since it reunited him with Renate Reinsve to tell the moving story of an actress and her sister who, amid their father’s efforts to reconcile with them, offer Reinsve’s Nora a chance to star in his big comeback film.

A deeply resonant exploration of those complicated family dynamics and the generational trauma of familal struggle that can have a lasting impact on one’s life well into adulthood, and of the sometimes complicated relationships we have with them. Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgard are both exceptional as the father and daughter grappling with their choices in life, with excellent supporting work from Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, all of whom have received deserved Oscar nominations for their performances.

 

4. Marty Supreme

review

When working in collaboration with his brother Benny, Josh Safdie knew a thing or two about putting audiences’ anxiety through the wringer, with their films Good Time and Uncut Gems. After striking out on his own, Josh’s first film as a solo director very much picks up where he left off with this enthralling, fast-paced story of one young man with big dreams and an ambition to be the best American professional table tennis player to have ever lived.

Setting aside some of his recent and extremely distasteful comments about ballet and opera, the fact that the film surpassed Everything Everywhere All at Once to become A24’s highest-grossing film of all time says a lot about Chalamet’s popularity as an actor, though that will have taken a hit since he made those comments. But credit where credit is due, as he once again turns in an extraordinary performance. By all accounts, Marty is a man so narcissistic, rude, and condescending that he gives us Martins a very bad name. He is so unlikeable, it would make you wish someone on screen would hurl several of those table tennis balls at him. Yet, despite these dreadful qualities, you want to root for him as he tries to hustle his way to the very top, and the film leaves you breathless after its 150-minute run time. Whoever knew table tennis could be so exhilarating?

3. Hamnet 

review

After winning multiple Oscars in 2021 for Nomadland, you could hardly blame Chloé Zhao for wanting to try her hand in the big and vast sandpit that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the under-appreciated Eternals. Even when in the confines of the MCU, her films have had a distinct feel to them, with the exploration of the humanity of those on the fringes of society. She continues this trajectory in a moving and devastating fashion in this fictionalised story of how the greatest writer to have ever lived used the most unimaginably harrowing circumstances to write his magnum opus.

Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley are a powerhouse pair on screen with sublime chemistry. Their love blazes like a wildfire, but is then severely tested when tragedy strikes. The film also serves as a powerful reminder of art’s power and how we, as humans, can use it to overcome our grief when someone we love has departed this world. Mescal was mighty unlucky to not get a nomination, but the film belongs to Buckley, and her (soon-to-be Oscar-winning) performance will snap your heart into a thousand pieces.

 

2. Frankenstein

 

review

The mere mention of the name Frankenstein undoubtedly brings to mind the image of an unnatural creation brought to life by a mad scientist who believes he has the power over life and death. It should come as no surprise that, since the 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel had a significant influence on Guillermo del Toro during his childhood in Mexico, the visionary director has been trying to bring his own version of this story to the screen since 2007. Fortunately, after his successful collaboration with Netflix, which earned him another Oscar for his remarkable reimagining of “Pinocchio,” he received backing from the streaming service to realise his vision for Frankenstein, with immaculate results.

Del Toro harbours the utmost respect for the source material, but puts his own stamp on it, proving that there aren’t many directors better equipped to tackle stories about finding humanity in creatures of the monstrous variety. A cast firing on all cylinders, with an Oscar-worthy performance by Jacob Elordi as the misunderstood creature, and filled to the brim with beautiful cinematography, incredible production design and immaculate costumes, this is one of the Mexican auteur’s finest accomplishments. No easy feat when you consider his distinguished filmography.

 

1. Sinners 

review

Even with the additional category of Casting being added to this year’s ceremony for the first time, the fact that Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying magnum opus (which released last April let’s not forget) has surpassed the nominations record jointly held by La La Land, Titanic and All About Eve (14 each) to become the most nominated film of all time with 16 nominations speaks volumes to the extraordinary brilliance of Ryan Coogler’s magnum opus and how much it resonated with the Academy members and the wider public alike.

Coogler deserves immense credit not only for the significant deal he struck with Warner Bros. to get the film made, but also for making a wholly unique and original film, unconnected to any existing franchise or IP. It combines supernatural horror with a pointed examination of the racist history of the Deep South and a joyous celebration of blues music that blurs the lines between past, present, and future, all of which just so happen to feature vampires. Irrespective of whether it wins the top prize at the Oscars, wins a bunch of awards, or goes home empty-handed (which it will not), Coogler has created a film that reminds us why we go to the cinema to watch films on the biggest screen we can. I sincerely hope that if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros goes through, they take note of films like this. This art form needs films like this to be made, and visionaries like Coogler to make them.

 

Could/should have been nominated…

And there you have it! That completes my ranking of the ten films competing for this year’s Best Picture awards. Though as always, I like to imagine what could have been to make this year’s crop even more of a stronger line-up of films. So with that in mind, if I had a ballot, I would remove The Secret Agent and Train Dreams and in their place I would nominate:

No Other Choice – For over 20 years, Park Chan-wook has made an indelible contribution to cinema and never is this more apparent than with his latest film, a deliciously black comedy about one man’s increasingly desperate attempts to find work after he is let go by his long-time employer. In this increasingly cutthroat capitalist society we live in, its omission in this year’s awards race across the board is truly head-scratching.

Weapons – Horror usually has a tough time getting a look-in at the Oscars due to the Academy’s genre bias. Yet there are signs this could be changing, with The Substance last year and now Sinners this year. We saw Zach Creggar’s sophomore feature get a deserved nomination for Amy Madigan’s unforgettable performance, but such was the impact this film had, grossing $270m on a $38m budget and becoming a hugely talked about film, I would have liked to have seen it get more love at the Academy in some of the above the line categories like Original Screenplay, and especially in some of the below the line categories, not least Hair and Makeup.

Posted in 2020-2029, Film Review

Mercy (2026)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
© Amazon MGM Studios, Atlas Entertainment, and Sony Pictures

Mercy – Film Review

Cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers

Director:  Timur Bekmambetov

Synopsis: After being accused of murdering his wife, an LAPD detective must stand trial before a judge and prove his innocence or face execution…

Review: It would not be an exaggeration to say that artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most discussed buzzwords in recent years, and for good reason. This technology has increasingly integrated into our daily lives in various ways. However, a pressing question continues to be to what extent this technology will advance further, and could it really lead to the eradication or replacement of certain jobs that one would assume could only be done by humans, such as judges? A futuristic hellscape where a system that has been in place for centuries is made obsolete and the fate of human lives is entrusted to a machine. After sitting through over 100 minutes of this sci-fi “thriller” from Timur Bekmambetov, the dystopia we’ve seen in countless media where machines have taken over and conquered humanity might just sound a little bit more appealing.

With a futuristic Los Angeles in the grip of an increasingly worsening crime wave, the government establishes the Mercy Capital Court, where defendants go before AI judges and are given all the resources they need to prove their innocence. If they can put their probability of guilt below 92% within 90 minutes, they will be spared. LAPD officer Chris Raven (Pratt), who helped to develop the concept of the Mercy court, wakes up and finds himself strapped to a chair before Judge Maddox (Ferguson), accused of murdering his wife Nicole (Wallis). With any and all of the evidence he has at his disposal, including CCTV footage and police footage, Chris must establish the chain of events that led to his wife’s death and to find the evidence that will ensure he is not executed and leave his daughter, Britt (Rogers), an orphan.

In this day and age, it would be nearly impossible to find a more relevant film. With the AI genie well and truly out of the bottle, deeply troubling scenes of police and, more recently, immigration officers using brutally excessive force against whoever they please, combined with the widening wealth gap to fuel societal inequalities. All these potent themes would surely be ripe and fertile ground for a story that weaves together all these potent and pressing issues in our society, to raise the question as to whether we could really trust the justice system and the fate of human lives to AI?

Unfortunately, Marco van Belle’s screenplay spectacularly squanders this potential. The first mistake is to limit his leading man to being strapped to a chair for the majority of the runtime, a crime in and of itself, given he has proven to be more than capable to lead an action movie both on Earth and in the outer reaches of the galaxy. But far more egregiously than wasting Pratt’s potential, the film’s approach to the thorny issue of AI and the access the defendants have to any piece of technology that has a camera on it is extremely sloppy and lazy. It leaves so many unanswered questions around the whole concept of the Mercy Court, its jurisdiction and its function that will make you wonder why on earth you’re putting yourself through watching it.

As if that wasn’t enough, the ensuing mystery is just unbelievably dull and Raven is not nearly given the development needed to make the audience care for his plight, rendering the majority of the 100 minutes of its runtime exceedingly dull in both concept and execution. Ironically, it reads as though someone asked a chatbot to come up with a generic sci-fi thriller about the dangers of technology, and as an addendum, asked it to make some strange and bizarre choices with some characters’ motivations along the way. It amounts to little more than a poor and hollow reinterpretation of a certain Steven Spielberg film released nearly a quarter of a century ago.

The third act (or more specifically, the final 20 minutes) does perk up a little bit by offering audiences a set that is not just some empty courtroom, if you can really call it that, with a humanoid AI judge watching over you. Imagine it as though HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey became human, only instead of that red light ominously glaring at you, you would have the steely and unflinching gaze of Rebecca Ferguson. Ferguson, perfectly cast for the role of a judge though she may be, her performance amounts to just a spectacular waste of her incredible talent. Someone get this woman a gavel so she can play a judge for real! The threadbare excitement offered up is ultimately too little, too late to make it redeemable. It is an act of relief, or indeed, you could say mercy, for everyone when the credits finally begin to roll.

A premise that offers so much potential and intrigue around a topic which is only going to become more prevalent as the years progress, is instead frittered away into a hollow and insipid thriller that doesn’t have an ounce of personality in its hardware.

Verdict: guilty. Sentence: banished to the doldrums of the internet for eternity. 

Posted in 2020-2029, Ranking

Best Films of 2025

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

Another 12 months of cinema have come and gone, and it was undeniably a captivating year for cinema. There was the usual mix of superheroes, live-action remakes, reboots, and sequels. However, there were also plenty of original films with the potential to contend for awards in 2026. Before we dive into the madness of awards season, let’s take a look at the best films of 2025, in my opinion.

For a film to be eligible for inclusion on this list, I must have seen it within the calendar year of 2025. While I always strive to include films listed as 2025 releases on IMDb, some don’t receive a UK-wide release until well into the year. Furthermore, some films don’t get a wide release until 2026, but since I caught these at the London Film Festival, they are eligible for inclusion. Additionally, I haven’t watched every single film released in 2025, so if there’s a film you think should be included here, please let me know.

One more disclaimer. I haven’t reviewed every film here, but grades do not determine the rankings. This is my chance to celebrate the films that resonated with me the most over the last year. As usual, before we get into the main list, I do have some honourable mentions, films that I enjoyed but didn’t make the top 10:

Roofman (review). Every once in a while comes a film based on a true story, which seems completely implausible, that it couldn’t possibly be true. Yet, Derek Ciafrance’s hilarious film about the most polite criminal ever, who robs stores by cutting a hole in the roof to steal cash, and then evades police by hiding in a Toys R Us store, really has to be seen to be believed.

Kpop Demon Hunters. As a complete stranger to the K-pop genre, I had no idea what to expect with this. Coming from the same studio as the makers of the incredible Spider-Verse films piqued my curiosity. With its brilliant animation, innovative story (a trio of badass demon hunters who moonlight as a girl group!) and certified banger of a soundtrack, what is not to love?

F1 (review). A fundamental job for any sports film is to pull the viewer in, regardless of whether they’re a devout follower or have never watched said sport before. After blowing audiences away with Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski swaps fighter jets for F1 cars to deliver another electrifying and pulsating spectacle that hits the chequered flag with flying colours.

The Brutalist (review). Filmed in glorious VistaVision, with one of the most impactful opening scenes of the entire year, Brady Corbet’s 215-minute epic is a towering, ambitious and timely story about the struggles of the immigrant experience looking to fulfil the promise of the American Dream, with an incredible Oscar-winning performance by Adrien Brody.

I Swear. A film as British as they come, but I defy anyone who fails to be uplifted by this truly inspiring story of John Davidson, who, after being diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a youngster in 1980s Scotland, grew up to become a campaigner and activist to raise awareness of the disorder, with around 300,000 children and adults in the UK estimated to live with the condition. In what could have come across as a caricature, Robert Aramayo’s performance as Davidson is anything but, capturing the man with warm sincerity as well as a great deal of humour.

Honourable mentions honoured. Now, here comes the top 10…

 

10. The Voice of Hind Rajab

Ever since the Israel-Palestine conflict broke out with the appalling attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7 2023, it has been impossible to ignore the horrors that the Palestinian people have endured over the last two years, with the UN declaring in September that a genocide is being committed by Israel in Gaza, after famine was declared in August. This powerful dramatisation tells the true story of Red Crescent volunteers who, in January 2024, received an emergency phone call from a young girl in Gaza trapped in a car under fire. This is a film I haven’t stopped thinking about since I saw it at the 2025 London Film Festival. A harrowing and deeply upsetting, but vitally necessary watch. Free Palestine.

9. The Long Walk

review

In a year that saw numerous Stephen King adaptations, both on the big and small screen, Francis Lawrence’s adaptation of the first novel the legendary author wrote powered its way to taking the crown as the best King adaptation of the year and one of the best ever made. To say this film, about the struggles and enduring financial hardship in an authoritarian United States, is timely would be an understatement. Lawrence leans into his experience of crafting a film centred on a competition where only one person shall emerge victorious to craft a gripping and intense thriller, with incredible performances from Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson that will have you on the edge of your seat.

 

8. Thunderbolts*

review

Multiversal shenanigans have been in plentiful supply in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years, with decidedly mixed results, but not the death of the MCU as some would have had you believe. Nevertheless, Thunderbolts* proved to be a refreshing and welcome change of pace to close out Phase Five, as it brought the franchise back down to earth with the fascinating story of a ragtag group of antiheroes forced to put aside their differences and work together to fight their common enemy. The film brought humour in the form of its central team of protagonists/antagonists (delete where appropriate), with personalities clashing just from being in the same room as one another, and was reminiscent of the gritty and grounded spy thriller found in the Captain America films. Not only that, but it also took the brave step of openly discussing mental health and the lasting impact that trauma can have on people forced to do bad things at some points in their lives.

7. Flow

Dialogue, a staple of the majority of films we see nowadays. However, it is not always necessary to tell a touching or powerful story about the devastation caused by a biblical-like apocalypse and the will to survive. Case in point, Gilts Zilbalodis’s beautiful film, made on a shoestring budget ($3.5million), defied expectations to win Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards, gazumping the likes of Disney and Dreamworks in the process. The little cat film that could, and did indeed, swim its way into the hearts of audiences everywhere.

 

6. Predator: Badlands

Since taking the reins of the franchise with 2022’s Prey, Dan Trachtenberg has breathed new life into a franchise that seemed to have been hunted down and put out of its misery following Predator (2018). We have seen Predators hunting humans for sport numerous times, so Trachtenberg makes a refreshing switch-up by framing it from the perspective of a young Yautja warrior, who, after being scorned and dismissed by his father due to being a runt, travels to an extremely hostile planet to embark on a hunt to defeat a deadly creature on an incredibly perilous planet to prove himself, while striking up an unlikely alliance with a severely damaged Weyland-Yutani android (Elle Fanning). Please keep these movies coming!

5. Weapons

review

I will be the first one to tell you I am not a horror fan. So, when a film in this genre really gets people talking, it compels me to go out of my comfort zone, and I am so glad I did because Zach Creggar’s sophomore feature more than lived up to the expectations I had set based on the chatter. The central and disturbing mystery hooks you in from the off, masterfully maintains the suspense and tension throughout, and builds to a crescendo in a third act that I will not be forgetting in a hurry. All the cast were firing on all cylinders, but the standouts were by far Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys (you will be inherently suspicious of anyone you meet called Gladys ever again) and Julia Garner as Justine Gandy, the poor teacher caught in the middle of this nightmare. Between this and the next film on this list, 2025 was an incredible year for Garner.

4. Fantastic Four: First Steps

review

Marvel’s First Family have had numerous attempts to do them justice on the big screen, yet every time an adaptation has been attempted, it has either been majorly flawed or just an outright disaster of gargantuanly Galactus-sized proportions. Yet, finally, with the team now back with their rightful owners at Marvel, fans got a film truly befitting of the team’s name. Impeccable chemistry between the team, a fun retro-futuristic setting away from the main MCU timeline, and a formidable threat in the shape of the planet-eating entity Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer (another excellent Julia Garner performance). Fantastic by name, fantastic by nature.

3. Hamnet 

review

Ever since the COVID pandemic hit, we have seen no shortage of films about the power of the arts, and indeed cinema, to act as a healing process in the face of adversity or devastating tragedy. Yet, what none of those other films did was to do so through the lens of Shakespeare and to explore the tragic backstory of his personal life that led him to write the play many consider to be his masterpiece, Hamlet. After dabbling with the machine of the MCU, Chloé Zhao once again proves that she is a master at finding the humanity of those who find themselves isolated from society, with brilliant and emotionally devastating performances from Paul Mescal and especially Jessie Buckley. A film that captures the unimaginable heartache no parents should have to endure, yet is simultaneously positively life-affirming at the timeless power of the arts as a mechanism to process our grief. To be or not to be, that is the question, indeed.

2. Frankenstein

review

Films about monsters and Guillermo del Toro have so often been a match made in cinematic heaven throughout the distinguished Mexican auteur’s career. It should therefore come as no surprise that an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel has long been a passion project for him, and it is easy to see why, as the source material could not be more aligned with del Toro’s skills as a filmmaker. Del Toro magnificently channels his passion for Shelley’s work, while imprinting his own unique style on the dangers of hubris by humanity in the pursuit of scientific discovery and the perils of what can happen when people try to play God. Some of the most beautiful cinematography of the year, immaculate costumes and production design, and incredible performances from Oscar Isaac and a career-best from Jacob Elordi as the misunderstood Creature. The legend of Frankenstein is reborn for a brand new generation.

 

Drumroll, my favourite film of 2025 is..

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1. Sinners 

review

What is there to say about Ryan Coogler’s magnum opus that hasn’t already been said? The praise this movie has received ever since its release in April is fully justified, and for a film not based on any existing franchise or IP to have grossed $367m at the worldwide box office is an incredible achievement and speaks volumes to what can happen when filmmakers such as Coogler are given the space to realise their vision and to craft something truly special.

This is not just a vampire movie; it is so, so much more than that. It is a wondrous blend of genres, a celebration of blues music, the power of music to connect the past and the future (that scene is hands down the coolest scene of the entire year). As soon as I saw it in April, I knew right then and there that not only would it feature in this list, but that it would top the lot, and so it proved. Films like this are why we go to the cinema, and why it is imperative to see films on the big screen where they belong.

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And that brings the curtain down on my list of the best the big screen had to offer in 2025. Thank you for reading, especially if you read all the way through! What were your favourite films of 2025? Let me know in the comments below, or you can find me on the following platforms: Bluesky, Facebook or Letterbox’d.

Posted in 2020-2029, Film Review, London Film Festival 2025

Hamnet (2025)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
© Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Neal Street Productions and Amblin Entertainment

Hamnet – Film Review

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Bodhi Rae Breathnach

Director: Chloé Zhao

Synopsis: A fictional account of the tragic circumstances which led William Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece “Hamlet”…

Review: “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” It is one of the most instantly recognisable quotes from among the nearly 40 plays that make up the works of the great William Shakespeare. A line delivered in the third act, when the play’s protagonist is deeply contemplative, pondering whether to end his own life. A line so powerful that it has taken on a life of its own over the centuries since it was first written on parchment. What may have inspired one of the greatest writers in history to craft this line and, indeed, one of his most significant works? Enter Academy Award-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao with an equally compelling and tragically heart-wrenching interpretation of how one of the greatest writers who ever lived channelled his grief into creating a masterpiece.

After a prologue revealing that the names Hamnet and Hamlet were interchangeable, we meet a young William Shakespeare (Mescal) working as a Latin tutor at a local school, long before he became the renowned playwright history remembers him as. On one fateful day, he catches sight of Agnes (Buckley) practising falconry and quickly falls head over heels in love with her. Despite protests from their respective parents, they wed and swiftly consummate their union, with Agnes first giving birth to a daughter, Susanna, followed by twins Judith and Hamnet. As the children grow up, the bonds within the family strengthen, even as William begins to find success in London and is forced to spend time away from his family, making the moments he shares with his children, particularly Hamnet (remember the name Jacobi Jupe), all the more precious. This makes it all the more harrowing when tragedy strikes.

From a moving (and Oscar-winning) story about a woman who chooses to live as a modern-day nomad to the all-encompassing Marvel Cinematic Universe, to tell the (underappreciated) story of a group of all-powerful, immortal Marvel deities, to Shakespeare, Chloe Zhao’s filmography is undoubtedly eclectic. Yet there is a common theme that beats at the heart of all these films, exploring the humanity and spirit of people who, for one reason or another, find themselves cut adrift and/or isolated from society. Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell’s script (based on O’Farrell’s book of the same name) leans into this and patiently explores the loving and tender romance that develops between Will and Agnes. With one having the gift of the written word and the other a deep connection to the forest, they are isolated from their families, and their relationship feels wholly incompatible. It wouldst appear that opposites doth attracteth, and though their love and the love they have for their children blaze like wildfire, it is severely put to the test in a way that no parents should have to go through.

Grief is a shared experience, something we will all go through at some points in our lives, though it affects us in different ways. Zhao’s masterful and measured direction empowers her actors to deliver performances that are both subtle and profoundly moving. For a film that focuses on the life and one particular work of Shakespeare, he doesn’t have the most substantial amount of screen time. Nevertheless, Mescal delivers another captivating performance, capturing the emotion and humanity of the man and the wordsmith. With her husband out of the picture and away on business for a considerable portion of the film, it falls on Agnes to be the glue that binds the family together. Jessie Buckley is nothing short of sensational here and gives maybe her career-best performance. She captures the fierce maternal instinct of a mother who will stop at nothing to protect those closest to her. Yet, when something as potent as a deadly illness comes, she is completely powerless to stop it from claiming her child’s life. The emotion is raw, guttural, and she will split the audience’s hearts into a thousand pieces.

Such an unfathomable and devastating loss would severely test the most resolute and unbreakable bonds that hold a family together. How would one even begin to comprehend, make sense of their life and purpose, and process their sorrow? Despite her own unbearable pain, Agnes knows she must endure and be strong, if not for her own sake, then for the sake of her other children, even more so with her husband more distant than ever and lost in his own grief. Such grief serves as the inspiration for the creation of his ultimate tragedy, his timeless magnum opus, which forms the basis for the film’s poignant third act as the play is performed for the very first time, with Agnes in the audience.

With Fiona Crombie’s incredible production design to faithfully recreate the Globe Theatre, we see through Agnes’ eyes the anguish of the loss she has felt since his death, being released as fury and confusion as to why this latest play bears her son’s name. Yet, this dissipates when she begins to understand the play’s meaning, allowing for a moment of emotional release felt not just by Agnes, but by the whole crowd in the Elizabethan England theatre and the audience themselves. Max Richter’s emotionally resonant score features Elizabethan instruments to wonderful effect throughout, but it is the use of the composer’s most well-known piece that you will have heard in previous films that will have the tears flowing, unless thou art a robot. It is fitting that in the same way the Bard’s grief inspired him to create a literary masterpiece, the creation of that play has enabled another team of artists centuries later to create a masterpiece of the cinematic variety.

A deeply moving and human portrayal of the universal experience of grief and the everlasting power of art to help us understand and come to terms with our heartache and sorrow. A film destined to be as timeless as the works of the Bard himself. 

a

Posted in Film Review, London Film Festival 2025

No Other Choice (2025)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
© Neon and CJ Entertainment

No Other Choice – Film Review

Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won

Director: Park Chan-wook

Synopsis: After being laid off from his long-term job, one man takes matters into his own hands to land a new one…

Review: A beautiful sunny day with a family meal, capped off with a group hug in the garden of their beautiful family home. At this moment, the family patriarch Yoo Man-Su confidently proclaims “I’ve got everything”. It is hard to argue with his assessment: a loving wife, two children, two beautiful pet dogs, a stable long-term job and an idyllic house. This is a man who has it made. Yet, in this fierce and uncompromising satire from Park Chan-wook, such is the unpredictable nature of the workforce as we know it that in the modern day and age, all that serenity and blissful happiness can be obliterated in the blink of an eye, bringing you crashing back down to earth with an almighty thud.

After working for 25 years as a senior employee at the paper manufacturer Solar Paper, Man-Su (Lee Byung-hun) is one of many workers who have been made redundant after an American takeover of the company led to a brutal cut in its workforce. Initially confident that he would find a new job within a few months, he begins to lose confidence as the weeks turn into months, with no prospect of being hired again. With several other candidates in the exact same boat as him, Man-su is left with little alternative, or indeed, no other choice, but to take matters into his own hands to ensure that it is he who gets the role should another job opportunity come knocking.

As Dolly Parton famously once sang, “Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living”. Such is the nature of the harsh and unforgiving capitalist system that demands everyone in society must find a job to contribute, which will, in turn, help to pay for life’s essentials. Sometimes it can lead people to find and prosper in their dream job, but it can also leave people trapped in a job they hate, or as Man-Su discovers, can be so utterly heartless as to cut someone adrift even after many years of service. Adapted from the novel “The Ax” by Donald Westlake, the script by Chan-wook and co-writers Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar and Lee Ja-hye, is a blisteringly sharp critique of this economic system and the pressures it puts upon people, where the loss of income necessary to survive can cause any sane individual to do things they otherwise wouldn’t. But, as the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Furthermore, the film excoriates the culture of toxic masculinity, as such culture demands that the man of the house must be the one to be the provider or the breadwinner for his family, a concept that deserves to be left in the past where it belongs. Given his dire predicament and the fact that Man-Su is literally resorting to crime to provide for his family, it would seem unlikely to be fertile ground for humour, but master filmmakers find a way, and Chan-Wook does exactly that. For a man who’s worked in the paper industry for decades, perpetrating acts of violence is, well, something he is not exactly experienced at. It makes it all the more amusing to watch as Man-Su goes from a veteran of the paper industry to a hitman not-for-hire. Absolute chaos ensues, and thanks to some extremely brisk editing, the pacing never lags to allow the audience to revel in the extremely pitch-black humour of Man-Su’s mission to literally eliminate the competition.

To have lost one’s gainful employment, especially due to factors beyond their control, is never a pleasant experience. Byung-hun’s outstanding performance evokes sympathy for Man Su’s situation, although such sympathy quickly dissipates when the severity of his plight leads him to use violent methods to improve his employment prospects. Nevertheless, it remains endlessly compelling and entertaining, from how he chooses to pick off his targets to the manner in which he ensures that there is not a trace of suspicion that could tie him to the murders when the police inevitably begin to investigate. This puts his family, especially his wife Lee Mi-ri (Ye-jin), in a tricky situation when she begins to suspect what her husband may be up to.

Combined with some truly brilliant and innovative cinematography from Kim Woo-hyung, who effectively deploys the camera in a variety of innovative ways, including at the bottom of a glass, Chan-Wook’s direction is some of the finest you will see all year, keeping the audience in suspense. Filmmakers of recent years have often focused on the disparity of wealth between the 1% and the majority whose hard graft usually leads to the 1% acquiring such wealth. Chan-wook builds on this and in so doing, delivers a scathing and timely rebuke of a system where you can work for many years at a particular company, and yet, that company would likely have no hesitation in dumping you without a second thought. A paper cut of the most brutal and unforgiving variety, who knew such an industry could be so cutthroat and brutal?

An extremely powerful and pertinent satire on the ruthless nature of the capitalist society, all seen from the perspective of one unfortunate and desperate man driven to his limits, anchored by an absolutely killer performance from Lee Byung-hun.

 

Posted in Film Review, London Film Festival 2025

Roofman (2025)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
© Paramount Pictures and FilmNation

 

Roofman – Film Review

Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Ben Mendelsohn

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Synopsis: After breaking out of prison, a former soldier and professional criminal on the run from the police seeks to avoid detection from the police by hiding in a branch of Toys ‘R’ Us…

Review: Upon hearing a film entitled Roofman, you might well think that without any prior knowledge, it would be the latest attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the superhero genre, especially one of the more obscure variety. Yet, this actually does not draw inspiration from the pages of a comic book and is emphatically not about a hero of any description. Incredulously, it is based on the bizarre true story of the escapades of a former soldier turned criminal and a rather ingenious plan he devises to avoid being caught.

It is the late 1990s, and Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum) is a divorced US Army veteran struggling to provide for his three young children. Acting on the advice of his army colleague Steve (an underutilised Stanfield), he uses his powers of observation and ability to take advantage of routines to break into more than three dozen McDonald’s restaurants to steal cash from the safe, giving the morning shift employees the fright of their lives. Earning the nickname of “The Roofman” via the media, he is eventually caught and sent to prison. While locked up, he uses his meticulous eye for routines to escape prison and to avoid detection by the law, choosing to lay low by hiding in a Toys R Us store for months, completely unbeknownst to the store’s employees.

Derek Cianfrance is no stranger to finding humanity in the life of someone who is forced to turn to crime as a means to support individuals he so dearly loves, albeit from a distance. Therefore, Cianfrance and Gunn’s screenplay has a deft balancing act to find a way to sympathise with Manchester, in spite of his criminal antics. Fortunately, when you have an actor as charismatic and as likeable as Tatum is, that is certainly going to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Yet, it is evident that though he resorts to stealing to financially provide for his children, he is not the sort of ruthless criminal who would enter a store all guns blazing with no care for who could get hurt, quite the opposite as he goes out of his way to ensure the employees he encounters are safe and comfortable, shortly before locking them in a walk-in freezer.

The film is certainly at its most enjoyable and gleefully silly when depicting Manchester’s antics in the store. He uses an ingenious way to keep a watchful eye over the store and its employees to ensure that the coast is clear. Furthermore, when he knows he has the entire store all to himself, the antics he gets up to with all the toys in the world at his disposal to play with and living off candy, essentially living any child’s dream. He really is one big kid, and those who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s will certainly get a great big dose of Toys R Us nostalgia.

Never is Jeffrey’s kind heart more evident than when he escapes the confines of his hideout in the store and makes his way into the local community, where he meets and quickly falls in love with Leigh (Dunst). Leight is a working mum with two daughters who recently went through a divorce, and also happens to work at the very same store Manchester is hiding in, and has to deal with an unforgiving boss in Peter Dinklage’s Mitch. Having gotten into his criminal life out of a desire to take care of his kids, it is easy to want to root for him as he tries to make a positive impression on Leigh’s daughters, and the chemistry between Tatum and Dunst is sincere and delightful to watch. Given his status as a wanted fugitive, you know it is not going to be a lasting relationship, but it is easy to root for them and, against all odds, find a way to make it work.

Despite being someone whose heart is in the right place and who strives to be the perfect family man, unfortunately, he is not that. As endearing as Tatum’s performance is, the film is a little too kind to him and completely overlooks the fact that he got himself into his current predicament for a reason. The phrase “don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time” comes to mind. Despite this mishap, Cianfrance brings plenty of humanity, humour and heart to this stranger-than-fiction tale that will make you laugh, smile and also make you wish you could transport yourself back to the 2000s, or back to being a kid again and having that wide-eyed look of wonder on your face when you walk into a toy store. Simpler times.

 It could have certainly been much more critical of its leading man’s misdeeds, but thanks to Tatum’s witty and sincere performance and the hilarious shenanigans that ensue, this witty comedy crime caper will cut a hole in the roof of your heart and win you over. 

Posted in Film Review, London Film Festival 2025

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
© Netflix and T-Street Productions

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – Film Review

Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church

Director: Rian Johnson

Synopsis: In a parish church in Upstate New York, renowned detective Benoit Blanc takes on his darkest case to date…

Review: In terms of the most memorable and wholly original characters to have emerged on the big screen in the last ten years or so, there can surely be no doubt of the inclusion of gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc in the conversation. When audiences were first introduced to him in Massachusetts to investigate the death of a wealthy, renowned crime novelist in 2019’s Knives Out, with his sharp suit, keen detective eye, eccentric mannerisms, and last but by no means least, that iconic Southern accent, it was a match made in cinematic heaven. A new icon of the great detective genre was born.

It is true that not everything that comes out of Hollywood indeed warrants or needs a sequel and/or a cinematic universe. It would have been a crying shame if audiences never got another chance to join Detective Blanc as he puts his skills to the test to solve another case. Thankfully, a bumper deal with Netflix allowed Johnson to craft two further sequels. After joining a bunch of self-described “shitheads” on a private Greek island for a murder-mystery party in the equally brilliant Glass Onion, the master detective is back once more for his darkest case to date.

As with the previous two films in the franchise, when it comes to plot details, the less you know, the better. We’ve moved away from the private island of a vainglorious billionaire and back to the United States to an Upstate New York parish where Jud (O’Connor) has been recently reassigned after he let his temper get the better of him towards a fellow priest. He becomes the assistant to the pious Monsignor Wicks (Brolin), and they do not see eye to eye at all. The firebrand manner with which he delivers sermons doesn’t go down well with many of the congregation (including Jud), leaving only a select few loyal and devout regulars. During one such sermon, when the Monsignor goes off to a locked pulpit, he is stabbed to death. The “impossible crime” has been committed, with suspicions immediately falling on Jud, and it soon becomes clear there is only one detective in the world who can solve it.

After two fantastic previous instalments that breathed new life into the murder mystery genre, the pressure would have been on for Johnson to maintain his impressive streak and satisfactorily complete the trilogy. Therefore, it would have been easy for him to deliver a similar follow-up to what came before and put down the magnifying glass. Yet, the writer/director is having none of it and really challenges himself by leaning into much darker and bordering on horror material. As one would suspect, given that the scene of the crime is in a church, religious imagery is present in abundance, with the power of one’s faith in their religion and their beliefs being thoroughly put to the test. Though, this merely scratches the surface, with global politics being the way they are in the year of our Lord 2025, the screenplay has much to say about how Christianity, particularly in the US, is used by lunatic and dangerous demagogues whose who use poisonous and hateful rhetoric to simultaneously solidify their rabid base of supporters and attempt to convert those who don’t believe to their cause. Johnson’s writing has lost none of its sharpness.

In his third outing as Blanc, this time with a lush and voluminous head of hair and a very sharp suit, Craig once again shines as the master detective. Even though it takes a while for him to arrive on the scene, Johnson perfectly sets the stage and establishes the events that lead to Blanc’s arrival. Ultimately, this means that the film takes its time to get going until Blanc makes his grand entrance and immediately has at least a couple of pages of dialogue, and that is a conservative estimate. Like with previous films where Blanc had his key accomplices in Marta Cabrera and Helen Brand, Jud is the centre of this mystery, and O’Connor runs away with the film and delivers the best performance, outshining even Blanc, which is no easy feat. It wouldn’t be a Knives Out film without a stacked and glittery ensemble cast. While they’re all enjoyable to watch and play a part in the centre of this mystifying murder, some have significantly larger roles than others, with one particularly devout follower being the scene-stealer.

The location and the ensemble may change, but Johnson keeps the faith with his familiar crew. Rick Heinrichs’ production design fully leans into the gothic vibes, while Steve Yedlin’s cinematography masterfully uses striking lighting and shadows to illustrate the dark and shadowy secrets at the centre of this particular church. Both help to create the rather troubling illusion that the church building itself is almost a living organism, with wickedness, corruption and unholiness at its centre. It might not reach the highs set by its predecessors, but the murder mystery genre continues to be in rude health thanks to Monsieur Johnson. Blessed be to him and to Monsieur Blanc for providing audiences with a modern trilogy of marvellous murder mysteries, and let us hope that their sleuthing adventures will continue for many more years to come.

Leaning heavily into darker themes about faith in religion and the power of individuals, as well as the dangers of their influence on vulnerable individuals, a sublime scene-stealing performance from Josh O’Connor ensures Rian Johnson completes his trilogy of murder mystery sleuthing in excellent style. 

Posted in 2020-2029, Film Review

One Battle After Another (2025)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
  © Warner Bros. Pictures and Ghoulardi Film Company

One Battle After Another – Film Review

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, Alana Haim

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Synopsis: A washed-up former revolutionary is forced to confront his past when both he and his daughter are hunted by a former foe…

Review: You’d have to be living under a rock to be unaware that the political climate in the United States in 2025 is as fraught and bitterly divided as it has been at any point over the past decade. In such politically charged times, it takes a brave filmmaker to hold nothing back and go for the jugular with a thorough, uncompromising look at the land of the free and what the country actually stands for. Enter Paul Thomas Anderson, with a film two decades in the making, where the revolution will very much be televised.

In one of, if not the, most frenzied first acts of the year, Pat (DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Taylor) are two members of the far-left revolutionary group the French 75. The group have gathered outside an immigrant detention centre to storm the facility and release the migrants detained, while also perpetrating attacks against other key targets against the country’s infrastructure. These attacks capture the attention of Colonel Steven J Lockjaw (Penn), who makes it his personal mission to hunt down and eliminate the group’s members at any cost. Pat and Perfidia soon fall in love and have a child, whom they name Charlene. After their daughter’s birth, Pat is determined to lay low and leave his revolutionary days behind, but Perfidia isn’t one to give up the fight so easily, which lands her on Lockjaw’s radar. After 16 years of lying low, now going under the aliases of Bob and Willa (Infiniti), the duo find themselves on the run again when they realise they are once more in Lockjaw’s crosshairs.

After an adrenaline-charged first act that throws you headfirst into the heat of the action, Anderson briefly gives the audience a moment to catch their breath, but don’t get too comfortable. One Battle After Another truly lives up to its title; while the characters may have claimed an initial victory, the war is far from over. Loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, Anderson’s screenplay is sharp and scathing in its criticism of modern-day America, and the parallels between the revolutionaries and the pushback against the US government’s callous and inhumane treatment of migrants are all too relevant in the absurdity of this timeline. Yet, this is a film with a lot more on its mind as it also scathingly rebukes the hatred and oppression that marginalised groups, especially immigrants, face and a society which allows this contempt to filter into society through truly poisonous ideologies such as white supremacy. Such hatred, while those at the top perpetrate rampant corruption. It is all too relevant to the absolute authoritarian hellscape that is the US in 2025, which ensures the film hits like a sledgehammer, with a powerful and furious urgency.

Having come very close to working with Anderson on 1997’s Boogie Nights, Leonardo DiCaprio can finally add Anderson’s name to the distinguished list of filmmakers he has worked with across his career. DiCaprio rarely disappoints, even when the film around him is an absolute dumpster fire (looking at you Don’t Look Up). Unlike that film’s pitiful attempts at humour, Anderson combines the tense political themes with a surprising amount of humour. Not least because in those 16 years, he has developed a penchant for anxiety-reducing drugs to ease his paranoia, which is understandable given his revolutionary past. Consequently, he spends a not insignificant part of the film stoned out of his mind, while wearing a knitwear bathrobe that could give Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski a serious run for his money. Taylor makes her presence felt with what little screentime she has, but it is to the film’s detriment that she only appears in those explosive first 30 minutes and disappears thereafter.

Going toe to toe with such a titan of the industry would be a daunting task for anyone, especially a newcomer, but Chase Infiniti goes toe to toe with her more experienced counterpart and more than holds her own with a fierce and spirited performance. Even in the midst of a society that is seemingly crumbling before her very eyes, there is fire in her belly, especially when it comes to the threat posed by Lockjaw and her determination to find and be reunited with her father. Penn gives a fiendishly frightening turn as a bigoted and loathsome human being (those individuals being well represented in the current US administration) who thrives on the cruelty and mistreatment of others and will stop at nothing with almost robotic-like efficiency until he finds his target.

Shot in stunning VistaVision, Michael Bauman’s cinematography is nothing short of breathtaking, pulling the audience into a vividly chaotic world on the brink of collapse, yet still managing to find beauty amidst the turmoil. Jonny Greenwood continues his collaboration with Anderson with a score that pulses with intensity, driving the film’s 162-minute runtime with an electrifying energy that ensures the pacing never lags, culminating in a pulsating, edge-of-your-seat action sequence in the third act. The fires of revolution have been lit, and it is up to all of us to ensure they never go out, especially in the face of fascism, bigotry and tyranny from power-hungry madmen. Viva La Revolución!

Combining comedy with high-intense and serious drama in a society on the brink doesn’t always fully mesh. However, with the power of its performances, especially newcomer Chase Infinity, and its furiously urgent messages ensures Paul Thomas Anderson has made the most important film of his career to date. 

Posted in 2020-2029, Film Review

The Long Walk (2025)

Posted on by Martin: Through the Silver Screen
© Lionsgate and Vertigo Entertainment

The Long Walk – Film Review

Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Joshua Odjick, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill

Director: Francis Lawrence

Synopsis: In a dystopian United States, 50 teenage boys must walk until only one is left standing…

Review: Throughout the long history of the United States, the notion of the country descending into a nightmarish hellscape ruled by an authoritarian regime should not feel relevant in modern times. Yet, given its current leader and the state of the world in general, it remains an all-too-familiar reality. A 1979 novel written by the one and only Stephen King (under the pseudonym Richard Bachman) feels more pertinent than ever, given the hellish state of the country today. In Francis Lawrence, a director who knows a thing or two about helming multiple films set in a dystopian US devastated by civil war, having directed all but one of the films in The Hunger Games franchise. A franchise which also featured brutal contests where participants fought for survival until only one remained, there couldn’t be a more apt director to translate a depressingly relevant visualisation of the US to the big screen.

Set in an alternate 20th century, in an attempt to inspire patriotism and imbue a work ethic among its citizens amid a severe economic downturn, the brutal totalitarian military regime in charge of the country set up an annual competition known as The Long Walk. 50 teenage boys, one from each state, are selected to compete. The rules are simple: they must walk for hundreds of miles across an open road at a pace of three miles per hour until there is only one competitor left standing. Any competitor who falls below that pace is given three warnings to get back up to speed. If they fail to do so after the third warning, they will have their “ticket punched” by the armed soldiers patrolling the route, with a bullet.

Four dozen impoverished souls walking for miles across nothing but flat terrain, occasionally breaking through the sparse pockets of civilisation, could quickly become tedious and monotonous. However, over 108 utterly absorbing and tense minutes, JT Mollner’s screenplay keeps the proceedings moving swiftly and remains intensely gripping by focusing on these young men, pushed into this dangerous and gruelling trek, as they cling to the hope of being the victor. In a contest where the winner will claim a substantial cash prize and the chance to have one wish granted, it seems unlikely that any bonds will form among the walkers. Yet, this is precisely what makes the film so compelling. Some choose to form alliances, while others resort to antagonistic tactics. As the miles pass and day turns into night, then into the next day, the sound of gunfire as numerous competitors are eliminated shocks those remaining into continuing to put one foot in front of the other. It never once loses momentum.

Such is the strong brotherhood that forms between a handful of these young men, it wouldn’t nearly be as impactful if it were not for excellent performances across the board. As the central protagonist, Cooper Hoffman’s Ray Garraty is motivated to partake in the walk due to deeply personal circumstances. The bond he forms, particularly with David Jonsson’s Peter McVries, is the relationship that drives the film forward. Jonsson, once again proving what a phenomenal talent he is, exudes charisma and determination even in the face of such gruelling and unforgiving circumstances that the other boys, including Ben Wang’s Hank, Charlie Plummer’s Gary and Garrett Wareing’s Billy, rally around him. The boys are also united by their burning hatred for the callous Major, an extremely effective villainous performance by Mark Hamill, channelling the ruthlessness and gruffness of Full Metal Jacket’s Sergeant Hartman.

Having been somewhat held back by the constraints of The Hunger Games franchise in portraying the violence of the games, Lawrence faces no such restrictions here. The manner in which those who fall behind and, for whatever reason, be it injury, a need to relieve themselves, or just plain exhaustion, do not get back up to speed is unflinching and brutally violent. It is uncompromising in the depiction of a regime which will not hesitate to use military violence and intimidation to keep people in line, an ominous parallel to the 21st-century America, where the so-called leader of the free world has demonstrated his desire to deploy military force against his own people.

While the film could have offered more context about the war that led to the fall of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism, it also could have done without such an abrupt and rushed ending. Nevertheless, the relevance of this story, first written by King nearly 50 years ago, strikes a powerful chord in today’s political climate. It serves as a vital reminder that, even in the face of brutal authoritarian rule, humanity must persist, continue, and fight on, even if you have walked for hundreds of miles, and the temptation to give up may be overwhelming.

Bolstered by a pair of gripping performances from Hoffman and Jonsson, The Long Walk is a tense and powerful tale of the human spirit and the necessary struggle to take a stand in the fight against oppression and authoritarianism.