May 2025 Roundup
Graduation, no job, movies, Charleston. What a combo!
Hello!
I’m here with another monthly roundup of what turned out to be an odd grab bag of crap and bangers. I didn’t watch as many movies as I did this month because I had the privilege of doing a few things. First and foremost, I graduated from grad school.
Here’s me in a vain attempt to have the master’s cape on correctly.
Spoiler: it didn’t look fantastic. Also, I got to go on a wonderful trip to Vermont with my girlfriend and a graduate school capstone trip to Charleston. Busy times but fun times!
Anyway, we’ve had some major movies finally come out after some of the April successes like Sinners and A Minecraft Movie. Another Mission: Impossible, another The Weeknd (OK, maybe that’s not as exciting)! We’ll get into them down below, but let’s just say The Weeknd might need to stay in music permanently.
Here is the stuff I watched over the past month and change:
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, dir. Christopher McQuarrie (2025)
B+
I mean this mostly as a compliment. But HOLY SHIT! What a movie! To be clear, there was also just a lot of movie in this movie. What I mean by this is that Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise, collaborating for the fourth time in this franchise, wanted to stuff as much stuff in the movie as possible. The Final Reckoning is getting comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, which was a weird conclusion and split some critics, yet still has defenders. I feel this is where the supposed “final”1 entry of the Mission: Impossible franchise will end up. Definitely not the peak — Fallout and Rogue Nation — but still quite enjoyable.
There was so much in the final that made my jaw drop, like the stunts and the submarine crew led by Tramell Tillman of Severance fame and Katy O’Brian of Love Lies Bleeding. Additionally, The Final Reckoning possibly has some of the best cross-cutting in action cinema today. But there were also nearly as many things that made me scratch my head or felt underwritten. Tons of exposition and reveals that really lead to nowhere, making it a rewarding and frustrating experience simultaneously.
I’ll end on this question: Is Tom Cruise the son of god? He definitely sees himself that way. Is it wrong that I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not? There’s literally a shot of Ethan Hunt/Cruise (they’re the same person at this point) of him resurrecting in a fetal position. He’s really trying to convince us of the Jesus comparisons and it’s insane. Fucking wonderful madman.
Gran Torino, dir. Clint Eastwood (2008)
B+
“Late period Eastwood” is a funny phrase. Clint Eastwood starred and directed Unforgiven, a movie very much about the Western genre coming to an end, three decades ago. That was seen as a winding down for Eastwood and now he has made SO MANY MOVIES since then. In another attempt to reckon with age, Eastwood’s Gran Torino feels like the thing that solidified him as Grandpa Clint, where you think of him as wanting the damn kids off his lawn. The 2008 film is more complex than that, but Eastwood does little to assuage those suspicions. Honestly plays as a comedy now more than anything. Unlike the next Eastwood film I’ll talk about.
Sully, dir. Clint Eastwood (2016)
A-
Look, I have to be honest. I only watched Sully because of the Nathan Fielder show, The Rehearsal, whose latest season focuses on aviation safety. And since I’ve been interested in Clint Eastwood as a director, I gave it a shot.
Sure enough, I was totally floored by the economy, heart and humanism that lie in this picture. Only glimpses of Sully's life, and far more focus on those in and around this Miracle on the Hudson. You can see this as Grandpa Clint getting mad at those damn simulation nerds and the government and you may not be entirely wrong. But viewing this way only gives you a narrow view of what Clint is trying to do. He is trying to understand these systems and the people who call this their job. He'll always look for everyday people vaulted into extraordinary circumstances, and that's not just in regards to Sully, played incredibly by Tom Hanks. A truly remarkable movie.
Inland Empire, dir. David Lynch (2006)
A
I still don’t get it entirely but the film conjures some of the most genuinely terrifying images on screen. David Lynch was a true one of a kind. I feel like the ultimate testament to Inland Empire being the closest thing we’re gonna get to the subconscious on screen is in the Wikipedia description of the plot.
I mean, a literal section of the narrative/plot (there isn’t really any) is called “stream of consciousness.” That’s unbelievable! It’s truly unreal that Lynch is able to get to that level that people just understand that the narrative is nonexistent and truly can only come from his mind. I still think about this film and its Wikipedia page.
Superman, dir. Richard Donner (1978)
A-
Why didn't anybody tell me that this absolutely rocks? Seriously. I never watched this as a kid and this movie owns bones. Christopher Reeve, you’ll never be forgotten ❤️.
Mixed Nuts, dir. Nora Ephron (1994)
D+
I’ll try to explain this Nora Ephron film because it’s bonkers. So Steve Martin stars in this Christmas movie where he stars as the manager of a suicide-prevention hotline in Los Angeles. When he learns their office will be evicted, he has to scramble to find the money while dealing with a co-worker falling in love with him and a transvestite (in Liev Schreiber’s debut feature!) pulling up to the office. Oh yeah, this is also a comedy based on a French film.
None of this works comedically and while I respect Ephron’s attempt to not be pigeon-holed into romantic comedies, her attempt at dark humor totally falls flat. I do love it when Jon Stewart and Parker Posey show up as annoying roller-bladers, though.
Johnny Dangerously, dir. Amy Heckerling (1984)
B-
A comedic ode to the gangster pictures of the 1930s, Johnny Dangerously stars as a young Michael Keaton coming off Night Shift and Mr. Mom. It’s nearly impossible to find this film,2 but if you do, I will say it’s worth your time. Not all the jokes landed for me, but Keaton and former SNL player Joe Piscopo delighted me.
Turning Red, dir. Domee Shi (2022)
B+
I definitely liked this more than I thought I would and was genuinely surprised by how beautiful the film was. It’s truly a shame that Pixar will most likely move away from depicting these personal experiences and move into broader (and probably boring) movies.
Lightyear, dir. Angus MacLane (2022)
C-
Now this, this makes me worry for Pixar. The Buzz Lightyear film was a totally dud and Chris Evans sucked as the titular space ranger. The story was poorly constructed and essentially inserted Zurg at the last minute. It felt like the writers had way too many general ideas for the script and stuffed them all in there. The result is a total, ugly mess. Hard pass.
Hurry Up Tomorrow, dir. Trey Edward Shults (2025)
D
I was going to write a longer review about this movie. Trey Edward Shults did make the 2017 horror film It Comes at Night and I liked it! I did not expect this movie to be a flaming fucking dogturd. I went to this screening on a Sunday night and the only other people in the theater were a group of three high school boys who went to see this film for this clip and this clip alone. They told me, after a near two hours of laughing at how bad this movie was, that they needed to understand the context.
Fair warning, people considered this acting.
The Weeknd should never act again.
Thirteen Lives, dir. Ron Howard (2022)
B+
Boy oh boy, Ron Howard. He has one of the more insane filmographies for a director and oh by the way, he has a friggin Best Directing Oscar for a A Beautiful Mind. But in his follow up to Hillbilly Elegy, the adaptation of the J.D. Vance memoir, Howard made a strong procedural about the 2018 rescue mission of the Thai junior boys soccer team. Thirteen Lives may run for two and a half hours, but its tight focus on the mission and the mission alone makes it more than worth it. Some people might foolishly clamor for this movie to be shorter, but I think Howard giving time for all the procedural details makes the movie far more rewarding. Now, does it strike at anything deeper? No, that’s never really Howard’s style (if he even has one). But I would definitely recommend this.
The Lost City of Z, dir. James Gray (2016)
A-
I rewatched this while on a trip with my girlfriend. While she felt the film was off-putting (a very similar reaction to my first watch of the film), I found James Gray’s epic to be much bleaker and beautifully staged than I ever gave it credit for. Gray might understand the journey into the soul better than any other director with this and Ad Astra. Now I need to rewatch Armageddon Time and The Immigrant.
National Lampoon’s European Vacation, dir. Amy Heckerling (1985)
D+
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a movie my family has watched every Christmas. It’s our tradition. I don’t think we’ll ever watch European Vacation. Mostly forgettable aside from the “Big Ben, Parliament” joke, the second Vacation film feels mean and painfully unfunny. I really do not care.
Spiderhead, dir. Joseph Kosinski (2022)
C
Joseph Kosinski still feels like an anonymous director. Does anyone think of Top Gun: Maverick as a Kosinski movie? Fuck no. They think of it as a Cruise movie. My further suspicions of Kosinski’s lack of auteurist talent are through the other film he made in 2022. Chock full of cliches, stupid humor and a so-so performance from Miles Teller, Spiderhead tells a dystopian tale where prisoners serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs. The only redeeming quality of this picture is Chris Hemsworth’s role as the villainous scientist.
Other than that, you can tell this movie was shot during COVID through its few locations and small number of actors sharing the screen. Maybe that’s a strike against the film that's unfair because it seems like a total pain in the ass to shoot a movie during a pandemic, but the clear restrictions feel like a drag.
The Cathedral, dir. Ricky D’Ambrose, dir. (2021)
A-
I love this depiction of Long Island! Sure, it’s totally depressing but it’s a perfect example of using the camera from the perspective of a child. So many storylines never get fully explained and that’s truly part of the magic. Like a child, we never know or understand the context of our parents’ issues, and Ricky D’Ambrose is trying to fully examine that idea.
Death on the Nile, dir. Kenneth Branagh (2022)
D+
Look these Kenneth Branagh-Hercule Poirot mysteries might suck total ass. But I would totally watch 10 more of these dumb Agatha Christie mysteries. Who cares if Christie actually wrote them? Also, this cast list has a trio from hell, including Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer and Russell Brand (remember that psycho?).
Havoc, dir. Gareth Evans (2025)
C+
When was the last time we saw Tom Hardy in a Good movie? Seriously? We're now going on eight years since Dunkirk and that's the last one I can think of. I don’t really count his stupid end-credits scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It's starting to become a bummer and Havoc, a by-the-numbers action movie from The Raid director Gareth Evans, is definitely a part of that!
Look Who’s Talking, dir. Amy Heckerling (1989)
B-
There’s a good chance anyone under the age of 30 has never heard of this movie. Hell, I didn’t know it existed until, like, a month ago. Look Who’s Talking features John Travolta and Kirstie Alley (of Cheers fame) falling in love after the latter gets pregnant and the father of the child walks out on her. Oh by the way, the baby can talk and the baby is voiced by Bruce Willis. What?!?!? All told, it’s fine. It at least gave director Amy Heckerling the cache to make Clueless.
Look Who’s Talking Too, dir. Amy Heckerling (1989)
C-
I had very little fun watching this. Forgettable comedy sequel. Pass.
The Woman King, dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood (2022)
B+
Viola Davis is a fucking remarkable movie star. Leading this film about a general who trains the next generation of warriors to fight the enemies of the Kingdom of Dahomey, Davis commands the screen and plays her character with a wonderful depth and pathos. On top of this, director Gina Prince-Bythewood, famously of Love & Basketball, crafts truly entertaining and tactile battle sequences that are as entertaining as any other action movie from 2022.
Fresh, dir. Mimi Cave (2022)
C+
Thank god Sebastian Stan had such a big year in 2024 with A Different Man and The Apprentice. Yes, he’s only appearing in Marvel movies this year and possibly next year. But it’ll give him a chance to work with interesting directors and stories. Fresh, from 2022, is not that. Stan and co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones are quite good, but the story feels like a nothing burger even with Stan as a cannibal.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, dir. Dean Fleischer Camp (2021)
B+
A cute movie! I’ll leave it at that mostly because, unlike plenty of millennials and Gen Zers, I never had any connection to the Marcel the Shell with Shoes On YouTube videos from the early 2010s. Still, I loved that 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl showed up!
Benediction, dir. Terence Davies (2021)
A-
Definitely not as poetic as A Quiet Passion, but such a devastating and stately drama. Terence Davies might be the ultimate British master.
Catherine Called Birdy, dir. Lena Dunham (2022)
B+
While on my Charleston trip, a friend of mine showed me clips of the Lena Dunham show Girls. Those few clips made me laugh, including this beauty with Adam Driver and Gillian Jacobs. I mean, these characters seem so insufferable that I kinda love them.
This got me interested in Dunham’s films like Catherine Called Birdy. A fun coming-of-age comedy about a girl growing up in the Middle Ages, Dunham transmogrifies her experience of moving to London into a lovely little picture. Bella Ramsey, the star of The Last of Us, shines as Catherine and there are plenty of solid gags.
Uncharted, dir. Ruben Fleischer 2022
D+
For being a film adaptation of the video game series that essentially was the Indiana Jones of video games in both storytelling and quality, this movie was truly disappointing. Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg were both poor, and the MacGuffin treasure felt so unimportant. Yawn.
One Fine Morning, dir. Mia Hansen-Løve (2022)
A-
I didn’t like Mia Hansen-Løve’s 2021 film Bergman Island that much (though I probably owe it a rewatch). But her French language follow-up about the nature of relationships was simple yet effective. Not much happens that you haven’t seen before in other romantic dramas, but Hansen-Løve imbues One Fine Morning with enough of her personal history and a larger philosophical view of love that it becomes interesting. Plus, you can never go wrong with Lea Seydoux.
No Bears, dir. Jafar Panahi (2022)
A-
Watched this after Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or for It Was Just an Accident, and I'm kicking myself that I haven't watched his films sooner. For being one of the major Iranian filmmakers, Panahi really dissected his place within his home country culturally. The reflexivity stands out and the bleak nature of the final 30 minutes or so isn't just a hard look at the dangers a filmmaker can create, but also how a country can restrict its own culture and people. Powerful stuff.
Ticket to Paradise, dir. Ol Parker (2022)
C
George Clooney and Julia Roberts are movie stars. Period. Full stop. A romcom with them should feel more fun. But with boy actors in middle age, Ticket to Paradise feels so low energy and lacking any excitement or fun aside from the supposed shots of Bali. At least Kaitlyn Dever, who is also killing it on The Last of Us, was fun in it!
Return to Seoul, dir. Davy Chou (2022)
A-
I liked this movie! I think Past Lives did this general concept better and I think the familial dynamics weren’t as strong. I also was expecting to love this so I might’ve been a little disappointed. Still, Return to Seoul captures something powerful about being a drifter in life.
That’ll be all for today!
Cheers!
It’s marketed as “The Final Reckoning,” but is it? I don’t know if Cruise wants it to be the end even though he said it would be the end.
I found a VHS version of the film on the Internet Archive.