The introduction of Disney+ broadened the worlds of various Disney properties from just the big screen, introducing such shows like the Mandalorian and Ahsoka from the Star Wars brand, or Monsters at Work from Pixar. One of the biggest franchises that took advantage of this was Marvel, which went from an interconnected set of films to a brand that released just as many television series, or even more series than films now. The problem came with the number of series being produced, and how many of them seemed like stretched-out scripts for films, that had been given the television treatment. Only some shows, namely She Hulk: Attorney at Law and WandaVision, felt like actual shows designed with the television format in mind. When in production of their revival for the Netflix series Daredevil, which would now be known as Daredevil: Born Again, and faced with the writer’s strike of 2023, Marvel Studios acted in overhauling their television productions. Shows would move away from focusing on major characters from the films, budgets would be saved and shows would now be helmed by creatives, led by a lead showrunner rather than a team led by a lead writer, which is more common for film. The first show to come out of this creative change, the Daredevil revival, would come out as a mixed bag, a Frankenstein-product of two different versions of the same show edited together.
Another show would be developed and slightly retooled during this era, and that is Wonder Man, Marvel’s newest streaming series. The show came to life when Daniel Deston Crettin, director of Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Marvel’s next Spider-Man feature, signed a deal to create television series for the streaming service. The show began filming before the writer’s strike, and when resuming production, Andrew Guest, who was previously a writer for the show, was named showrunner. Set as the second television series in Marvel’s refocused look at TV, the show follows aspiring actor Simon Williams, who is hiding his superpowers, as he attempts to get cast in the reboot of his childhood favourite film, Wonder Man. While fighting for the role, he gets involved with Trevor Slattery, a disgraced actor who is attempting to revitalize his image.
Ben Kingsley in Wonder-Man
The marketing for Wonder Man had been non-existent until a couple months ago, a show which Marvel looked like they were trying to keep secret, announced by the trades in 2022, but not formally announced by the studio until 2024. The show dropped all its episodes in one day, moving away from the one episode a week drop that formed the backbone of the service in the past. For a series that the studio seemed to want to drop and run from, it has come out as one of Marvel’s best projects in years. It is refreshingly low stakes for a franchise which deals with the end of the world in nearly every project, and the lack of action makes for a very different project. With the studio focused on the promise of the Multiverse and leading to another Avengers crossover, it’s when the franchise becomes grounded and human does it truly shine. It is a rare television series set in this brand that feels like it has been designed for this medium, each episode serves the goal of having a three-act structure and feeling standalone in scope, not just only a part of a larger story. The connections to the wider universe also feel like window dressing rather than a necessity, with the brand’s interconnected homework problem becoming a major issue lately. Existing as a meta-fiction in the world of Hollywood and television, industry references to actors, television series and films exist as the main so-called easter eggs in the show, with the franchise’s connective tissue with its other properties existing as an actual backdrop from the show, and not just for the use of setting up various other stories.
The heart of the show comes from the dynamic between Simon and Trevor, a budding bromance which fills the show with a sense of direction and a true grounding. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is not a stranger to the superhero genre, previously playing the villain Black Manta in the two Aquaman features, and Doctor Manhattan on HBO’s Watchmen adaptation, but here he really plays something different. Simon is a character dripping with insecurities, rooted in his hidden powers that could stop him from achieving his dream, a plot point paid off in the fourth episode, featuring the Doorman character from the comics. He is driven, but filled with anger and sadness, but his love of the arts and his passion for Wonder Man shines through, and the moment with his family really shines through and makes him a character to root for.
Ben Kingsley and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Wonder-Man
Trevor is another broken man, who serves as the connection to the wider Marvel universe, still reeling from bombing his career by becoming the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, and then being broken out of prison by the time Shang Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings rolls around. He brings in the Department of Damage Control into the project, a group introduced in Marvel’s Spider-Man films, and have become the main threat in trying to imprison superpowered threats. This group serves to embolden the superpowers as metaphor for minorities that is prevalent across the show, which will be more prevalent when the franchise finally introduces the X-Men. Ben Kingsley just remains a highlight of every MCU project he is in, and he seems to be having a blast playing Trevor again, and the show’s attempt to humanise him and make him more of a character outside of the joke also just works wonders. There is a deep need for redemption, to do anything to make it big and make up for the things he done wrong, which bonds him to Simon. Yahya and Ben share wonderful chemistry throughout the season, and the show gives them the chance to just riff off each other and show their acting abilities, and those moments are the pure highlight.
The lack of action allows the character moments to shine and allows the drama to take more of the focus. It also allows the show to be incredibly more creative than the rest of the Marvel television projects, feeling alive in the editing suite and forming its own distinct style. Sequences invoke the feeling of old Flash Gordon-type films, showcasing the magic of cinema and how rooted the love of arts is in the modern American dream, grounding the story by various flashbacks between Simon and his father. A long problem of the Marvel franchise is how grey they look visually, and how similar they look visually because of so. Choices like this however allows Wonder Man to stand on its own away from that standard lack-of-visual flair. Episode 4, mentioned earlier, shows this visual uniqueness, a bottle episode focusing on the explanation of the Doorman Clause, which stops superpowered actors from working in Hollywood. Portrayed in black-and-white, the episode showcases the true creativity that could come from these television series embracing the television format and not relying on being overly long movies.
Yahya Abudl-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley in Wonder-Man
At current time of writing, a second season of this show is in a limbo state, awaiting to see how this show fares. With minimal marketing and essentially going under the radar, it can only be hoped that the positive reception will convince the studio to continue this unique series. Superhero fatigue is a real thing that has faced the Marvel brand moving into the 2020s, with an oversaturation of superhero content making it so that all their major film releases in 2025 underperformed. In a time where the brand is failing, projects like Wonder Man are what they really need, something unique, fresh and something that stands out from the crowd. Led by two superb performances, and dealing with a refreshingly low stakes journey, which swaps out the super powers and high stakes action for a drama which takes the pursuit of the Hollywood dream as seriously as an end-of-the-world threat, Wonder Man is bound to be a Marvel project that will be remembered for a long time afterwards.
With the New Year, another year of films has come and gone, and below we will focus on the films that I want to highlight as the best films of the year. They all share a very simple quirk, as they all deal with very serious themes and focus commonly on sadness snd despair, marking a connection between the films we have consumed this year and the actual year we have had to deal with in the real world. Escapism is a part of cinema, but also is confronting the truth through works of art, and that’s been a true highlight of this year, so here goes nothing:
25) 2000 Metres to Andriivka
Directed by Mstyslav Chernov
The work of Mstyslav Chernov has been incredibly important in crafting an authentic look at the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, in a time where conflicts like such feel like they are hiding in the news because of everything else that is happening so frequently. The director’s prior documentary feature, 20 Days in Mariupol won the award for best documentary feature at the 2024 Oscars, and his newest feature could easily stand alongside that in quality. This film captures a true boots-on-the-ground look at the conflict going on, as Chernov travels with the Ukrainian platoon to liberate the Russian-occupied village named in the title. The film is haunting and does not leave anything to the imagination, as the viewer comes to know these members of the platoon and feel the pain of losing them alongside Chernov. It is authentically a look at the sadness and meaningless of war, as these men lose their lives in hopes of one day being free, and shows the true power of a documentary fear, well deserving film that should have been nominated for the Oscar this year
24) The Life of Chuck
Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck
Directed by Mike Flanagan
In the past, the best Stephen King adaptations came from directors like Rob Reiner and Frank Darabont, who commonly adapted the more human King novels, ones which focused less on the horror and supernatural, and more on the drama. In the modern day, no director has been more synonymous with the author than Mike Flanagan, a director who has delivered excellent adaptations of some of King’s most supernatural stories, from Doctor Sleep to Gerald’s Game. This year came his attempt to focus on the human aspect of King’s works, adapting the short story, The Life of Chuck. Told in reverse chronological order, the film tells the life of its title character and all the people that come in and out of his life, making his small world feel even bigger.
It has the pure possibility of standing up alongside those classic King adaptations, from the Shawshank Redemption to Stand By Me, it feels like a warm hug of a film which is aiming to make you cry and smile. A star-studded cast fills the screen, with each actor getting one scene at least to touch at the heart strings, and the reveals the film throws at you only makes those scenes hit harder. Flanagan has been contained to the TV world for the last couple of years, crafting long-formed horror television for Netflix, which have become well known for their excellent dialogue, and their lengthy sequences of back-and-forth conversations, and this film holds up to that level of writing for sure
23) The Mastermind
Josh O’Connor in The Mastermind
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
Josh O’Connor has become a breakout star in the last couple of years, ever since he hit it big in Challengers. Ever since then, it has been wonderful to see the actor pick such interesting scripts and films, it almost becomes law at this point, that if you see Josh O’Connor in a film, you are bound to be in for a treat. The same year he starred in the third Knives Out film, he starred in what director Kelly Reichardt calls the anti-heist film. The Mastermind follows a family man who takes part in various heists to steal art while the US remains in turmoil over the Vietnam War. The film focuses more on the fallout of the heist, the unravelling of the plans and the danger that comes from his way of life clashing with the family life he has built alongside it. The film is very slow-paced, deliberately so to set itself apart from films like Ocean’s Eleven and paired with another wonderful performance from the leading man, it draws the line perfectly from paced thriller to family drama. It becomes a narrative of the draw between individualism, fighting for themselves, while attempting to be part of something better, keeping a status quo when the word is so fragmented
22) The Perfect Neighbour
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir
There is a reason this film has nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, it is a perfectly crafted documentary that conveys such a soul-crushing real story. The documentary follows the events surrounding the death of Ajike Owens, a shooting incident which took place in 2023 where her neighbour shot and killed her when Owens was banging on her door. The film has an incredibly sombre display of the events, relying less on voice-over and more on the actual recorded events, namely the bodycams from the police officers present, as it slowly tells the events that lead from a woman being angered by her neighbour’s children playing in front of her home, to that same woman shooting someone dead. There is something so sinister about Susan Louise Lorincz, the woman who killed Owens, as the film uses her and this story to critique Florida’s stand-your-ground laws, which seem to only be used as an excuse to kill unarmed black men and women when white people feel threatened. Watching a father tell their children that their mother will not come home is a harrowing thing to watch, and the film showcases it all authentically, and makes you truly wonder if America is still as institutionally racist as ever
21) Eddington
Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in Eddington
Directed by Ari Aster
For a director who has been commonly associated with the horror genre, crafting features like Hereditary and Midsommar, his most frightening story comes from one which is attempting to hold a mirror to our lifestyles in the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been many films that have attempted to try and recreate the isolation, the distrust and the paranoia that came from 2020 and the pandemic, but Aster’s film is the closest a film has managed to capture that feeling. It feels at times like a checklist, capturing every moment from that eventful year. From the mask mandate, the death of George Floyd, the demands to defund the police, the overwhelming number of social media influencers using that outrage to become popular, to the rich and famous profiting over our dissolution with each other and from the distance we have put between each other.
Aster has made his second film with Joaquin Phoenix, and they seem to be a perfect match, it is easily one of his best performances lately, matched with a equally strong one from Pedro Pascal. The film does not hold its punches, it is criticising and mocking everyone, clearly not picking sides in its narrative, the only thing it truly hits home is that the rich have benefitted from all of this. When things flip in the second half, it becomes a fantastically paced thriller, with characters that are easy to hate but understandable because of our own experiences
20) Bugonia
Emma Stone in Bugonia
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
A remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save The Green Planet, Bugonia tells the story of two conspiracy theorists who kidnap a powerful CEO, believing her to be an alien who seeks to control and destroy the planet. The two central performances make this film, as Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone bounce off each other perfectly here, feeling like a film where they are trying to one-up each other in the acting department. The film manages to keep the audience guessing, with no idea who is reliable, playing with the types of characters these actors play consistently. Plemons plays a villain well, commonly playing a character who is both creepy and nefarious at the same time, and the film draws the line perfectly from making you see this common archetype, and then the possibility of the opposite being true. Emma Stone has a natural charisma that always plays through, and she uses the natural charisma to make you trust her character earnestly, as the cat and mouse game delivers one of the most chilling thrillers of the year
19) Twinless
Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney in Twinless
Directed by James Sweeney
No film has featured more controlled marketing this year than Twinless, director James Sweeney’s sophomore feature markets itself as a moving indie drama about two men who are trying to overcome the deaths of their identical twins. What the real film has about come in a middle act twist and is way too spoilery to talk about in this list here, but it crafts a film that still manages to be what the trailers promised but adds a dimension of cringe and tension to each scene. The pain and sorrow are still hidden in each scene however, with Dylan O’Brien delivering a phenomenal performance, and a dual performance in that. Director James Sweeney even gives the cringe role to himself, delivering a very meaningful but creepy performance, which gives across the beginnings of such a remarkably perfect dynamic between two under-the-radar actors
18) Bring Her Back
Sally Hawkins and Jonah Wren Phillips in Bring Her Back
Directed by Michael and Danny Phillippou
Grief has been a consistent factor in the A24 era of horror, with films like Hereditary and Midsommar, building some of their core backdrops over the grief the characters feel for their lost loved ones. The Youtube duo that once was known as RackaRacka delivered an exceptional debut feature with Talk To Me, which delivered a film about grief in the modern day of cell phones and modernised teenagers, and their follow-up film feels like a continuation of those themes. Sally Hawkins’ lead role as a depressed and wanting mother who wants to fill a hole in her life after the death of her daughter, by trying to bring her back any means necessary. Hawkins’ performance is on the same level as performances like Toni Colette in Hereditary, easily standing among some of the best performances from the horror genre in the last decade. What really stands the film apart is how depressing it is, it has some humorous moments and some gore sequences for horror fans, but its deep down a sad story about a mother who has lost her child, and the child abuse that can come from that grief. It holds a promise for even better films to come from these promising directors
17) Homebound
Ishaan Katter and Vishal Jethwa in Homebound
Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan
Setting itself in the COVID-19 pandemic and the film feeling depressive in conclusion comes hand in hand at this point, as Homebound focuses on two friends and how their friendship strengthens and hits certain woes during the pandemic and while they are faced off each other when attempting to pursue police jobs. Ishaan Katter and Vishal Jethwa share remarkable chemistry as the best of friends, as the movie feels complete when these two are on screen together. The film could not go the directions it does in the emotion department if it was not for these two being so capable as performers. It acts as a flip of the paranoia that came from the pandemic, as strengthened relationships remind us of what life was like beforehand, and how life can be now that those times are over. This year has been a incredibly strong year for international features, and it is a true shame that this one faced no praise from the academy this award season, when it more than earns that praise
16) 28 Years Later
Aaron Taylor Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
Directed by Danny Boyle
It has been a long time since director Danny Boyle revitalized the zombie sub-genre, with the release of the initial 28 Days Later. The sub-genre has only continued to become more prevalent since the release of the film, from The Walking Dead television series to Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead, and the potential for the zombie sub-genre has become tight and limited once again. Here, we have Boyle’s return to the franchise and the start of a trilogy of 28 Years Later features. Boyle crafts a welcome new version of a zombie feature, one that embraces humanity and the importance of death, in a beautiful and moving way. In a world where the rage virus has caused the collapse of Britain entirely and led to it being blocked off from the rest of the world, the film sees itself as a criticism of isolationism, and specifically a metaphor for Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boyle mixes in enough zombie action into the film to satisfy anyone who is there for the guts and gore but also fills it with enough drama and humanity throughout, feeling like a film that has more in common with the coming-of-age genre at times than a horror feature. The film feels in line with 28 Days Later in how it mixes humour, horror and hope, and its worldbuilding feels second to none in the blockbuster genre this year. There is enough creativity behind the camera, with excellent use of shaky cam and phone cinematography for kill sequences, showing enough creativity that hopes for a brighter future for this near-dead sub-genre
15) Superman
David Corenswet as Superman
Directed by James Gunn
In a year that has been characterised heavily by some of the most harrowing stories put to the screen in a long time, as the world revels in negativity that reflects the current state of the world, it was important that a certain blockbuster released that felt so earnest and true. James Gunn took the job as the shepherd of the DC Universe nearly two years ago, and this would be the most important film of his career, if this did not hit then there would be no more films in this still developing universe. All the cards were in his hands, and Gunn did not disappoint, crafting a superhero film which lived up to the legacy of the original Christoper Reeve movies, and one that embraced the silliness of the comic book universe in a way that Zack Snyder’s previous attempts could never truly stick with.
The film was colourful, bright, filled with personality and humour in all the way a Summer blockbuster should be, crafting some of the most iconic depictions of these characters in decades. Rachel Brosnahan, David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult lead a massive cast of fantastic actors delivering memorable performances, in a film that captures the fundamental aspects of the superhero. He is a metaphor for the immigrant experience, he is the social justice warrior who is fighting for every life and fighting the evil rich, he is stopping wars and he is kindness in a world which feels that is old fashioned
14) It Was Just An Accident
Directed by Jafar Panahi
The Iranian regime is a common thread through director Jafar Panahi’s works, commonly critiquing the policies of the regime. After being arrested in 2022, after being sentenced for a 6-year prison stint in 2010 and a 20-year ban on filming, the director had to create his next features with limited casts and production to avert eyes away from his rule breaking. This is one of his boldest films yet, a thriller focusing on a group of former political prisoners who must decide if they will take revenge on the man who they believe was the one who tortured them during their imprisonment. The film is soul-crushing, an incredibly tense thriller which feels depressing in nature, and a bold political statement against a nation that has turned away from its filmmaker. One of the boldest parts of the film is the fact that the female performers do not always wear their hijabs, a compulsory part of their lives in Iran. A rebellious film for sure, It Was Just An Accident acts as a critique of authoritarian way of life, and a look at the need to stand up against this sort of government, but also the all-consuming notion of revenge, is it just to lose yourself in such a way?
13) Sirat
Directed by Oliver Laxe
Sound comes as the centre piece of Oliver Laxe’s horrifying story of a man trying to find his daughter against the backdrop of the rave scene in southern Morocco. Part road-movie, part-character drama, and with a dash of unsettling sequences, the film is hard to hone down to a specific genre, a specific classification to describe a film that just needs to be seen to be understood. The vast desert serves as a terrifying backdrop, that feels so vast but so empty in the pursuit of family, in the pursuit of connection in a backdrop that feels so empty and alone. The film certainly features the best sound design of the year, and one of the best scores all year, as the music soars and fills your ears in a booming way, almost making you feel as lost as the main character. The music does not feel like the villain however, it is connection in the pursuit of finding the daughter, music you can get lost in and forget about your cares and feel whole again. The film goes so many surprising places in its story, and leaves in a truly depressing way, one typical of this depressing year in film
12) If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Directed by Mary Bronstein
Mary Bronstein’s direction is very controlled and deliberate in this film, placing the audience right into the character’s head, focused on a struggling mother dealing with being essentially a single parent while her husband is away and feeling a large resentment for her lost youth and against her own daughter. Bronstein chooses to shy away from focusing on the daughter, shooting each shot of the character from the body, never showing her face, representing the dehumanisation going on in the mother’s head. Rose Byrne has been an actor who has had characterized by a career in comedy, but is incredibly capable in deadpan delivery, and has a very expressive face that feels at home in a more sombre and painful role, and she works incredible here as a struggling mother.
Described similarly to a film like Uncut Gems, the movie works as a tension-filled attack on the senses that will leave you feeling tense and uneasy from just stepping in the shoes of a mother who seeks freedom, from dealing with the annoyance of her child. The supporting cast make up the deeper elements of the film, as Conan O’Brien represents the promise of love outside of marriage, the uncertainty of finding new love, while ASAP Rocky represents the freedom of youth, enjoying your free time with friends and experimenting, all parts of Bryne’s character’s life that has been stripped from her. Certainly however, this is one of those films which is going to be hard to view a second time, returning to that tension is a choice
11) Frankenstein
Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
An adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel has been a long passion project of Guillermo Del Toro, a project which has finally seen the light of day when he signed a contract to create films for streaming giant Netflix. His adaptation of the novel is far from accurate to the source, making clear changes but is its own powerful beast that drives new meaning from an incredible story. Del Toro transforms the story into a discussion around what makes a monster, and how generational trauma can birth a monster. The father who was very understanding in the original novel becomes an abuser, who shapes a version of Victor Frankenstein who is more of a villain than the monster he creates, a man who is consumed by his need to control life and death but becomes lost in becoming like his father. Jacob Elordi delivers the best performance of his career, as he gets lost behind the makeup of Frankenstein’s monster, balancing the animalistic nature of the character with the movie’s choice to make him sympathetic, a being that is consumed by being the creation of his father and how that generational trauma can shape someone into such a monster.
There is a gentle nature to the monster, separating the monster from the horror genre and placing him more into a drama, dwelling still in the gothic sensibilities that make up Del Toro’s filmography. Del Toro loves to humanise his monsters, from The Shape of Water to his newest Pinocchio feature, the human being the villain is a typical convention of his work, and it continues to craft amazing features because of so
10) The Voice of Hind Rajab
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
There is something to talk about when a film uses a real-life tragedy as a crux of its narrative and using real audio from that victim to tug at the heartstrings, it could be seen as manipulative or exploitive. However, The Voice of Hind Rajab uses this real-world death as a tool to show real pain in your face, to stop people from ignoring the real pain happening in the war in Gaza, when most news media has moved on to the next tragedy, or to superficial drama in a filmed drama. Hind Rajab died in 2024 at the age of five in the Gaza strip by the hands of Israeli Forces, and the film using these real phone conversations helps the film deliver its message of painful truths and expresses the pain that this conflict is still escalating. Through its 90-minute runtime, the docudrama explores a real-world topic with perfection, delivering one of the most emotionally reeling films of the year, with none of the emotional over-the-top sensibilities that would come from a Hollywood feature
9) Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor and John Carroll Lynch in Sorry, Baby
Directed by Eva Victor
Every year there is a promising and surprising debut feature from a new voice that transcends the ‘first director’ atmosphere, Aftersun and Past Lives are some of those prime examples. Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby is one of the most tender movies of the year, a movie focused on Victor’s own performance as a bad thing happens to her character. This bad thing is very clear from the trailer and from watching the beginning of the film, but Victor pays specific focus to what happens after, paying attention to how that bad experience will not define the victim, they can move on from that experience as life moves on. The film has a strong sense of humour, with enough tear-jerking moments as well but never dwells on the sadness, the world keeps spinning outside of our character, her friend moves on with her life, and so shall she. It shows it is important to think on that event, but there is hope and promise of a better tomorrow. There is major promise for Eva Victor’s future after this amazing debut
8) Weapons
Josh Brolin in Weapons
Directed by Zach Cregger
No one has been more confident in their sophomore feature than Zach Cregger when releasing Weapons, his follow-up to his breakout hit Barbarian. The director has defined himself by making his own horror features that stand out in his style, blending genres and breaking typical conventions. Weapons were marketed as a creepy mystery, children have went missing and there is something supernatural and horrifying at play, but when the movie came out, it is more of a drama. It has long been talked about how the film very clearly feels like a metaphor for a school shooting, children are gone, the school and the parents are looking for answers, and someone as innocent as the teacher could be blamed just because people want someone to blame.
Grief fills each section of the film, as the film splits itself into chapters based on each character, feeling like the horror version of Melancholia. Josh Brolin and Julia Garner deliver some remarkable performances, but the film also balances the comedy aspects well, before becoming a pure horror-comedy in its closing minutes. Amy Madigan walked out of this film with the Oscar nomination for best supporting actor as the villain Gladys, a performance which you won’t forget after watching, a character who is both sinister and unnerving but also deeply humorous and easy to hate. Cregger is attached to a new Resident Evil film next, and a rumoured prequel to this very film, but we can only hope he returns to an original feature like this soon
7) Marty Supreme
Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme
Directed by Josh Safdie
The movie that took the world by storm when released in the Christmas season, Marty Supreme is one of the most engrossing and fun films of the year. The Safdie brothers splitting up has created some interesting films, with Benny creating the Dwayne Johnson vehicle The Smashing Machine this year, and Josh creating a film that feels the most in line with their previous features. There is a chaotic-ness to Marty Supreme that was present in films like Uncut Gems and Good Time, a fast-paced editing that makes the film pop but also jumps up the tension. The Safdie’s have a way of casting the most unlikely actors into perfect roles, as they mine the most out of their supporting cast to be memorable and as natural as possible. Marty himself, Timothee Chalamet, is one of the most memorable performances of the year, and a character you cannot help but feel engrossed in, a deeply flawed character who is doing everything to make it famous, to get to the top. There has been a long discussion about Chalamet’s body of work and how he truly deserves the Oscar at this point, and surely this is the one which will get him to that award
6) Sinners
Michael B.Jordan and Miles Canton in Sinners
Directed by Ryan Coogler
16 Oscar nominations have proven the power of this vampire horror-drama from director Ryan Coogler. After delivering such impressive franchise hits like the Rocky sequel, Creed, and the superhero features Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it is impressive to see an original IP come out of the gates so confident and dripping with style. The film follows a pair of brothers who return home to open a juke joint in their hometown, using the money they robbed from warring gangs to open the bar. When their cousin reveals his powerful use of music, it opens the door for vampire threats to their door, who hope to claim that power for their own. Coogler has crafted one of the most auteur-driven blockbusters in recent memory, delivering the visual effects focused action, the comedy from actors like Delroy Lindo and the horrific bloody visuals and scares you would expect from the horror genre. Coogler also delivers a film which feels like an authentic love letter to music, and specifically African American music, showcasing how important music is to connection, community and cinema.
Sound Design is immense in this feature, alongside some of the most excellent performances of the year, from Academy Award nominated roles from Michael B. Jordan and Wunmi Moskau, and even the main villain played by Jack O’Connell. Coogler defines a story however that feels more meaningful than just vampire action and comedic wit, Sinners is brought together by a look at cultural assimilation, as the vampires act as a hivemind, taking culture from each of their victims and forcing their own roots down on their victims. However, Coogler’s film is more nuanced than just painting the white man as the villain and the African American as the hero, the vampire is depicted as a victim, an Irish villain who has faced almost as much cultural assimilation as the African American protagonists, crafting one of the year’s most memorable antagonists
5) One Battle After Another
Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
If anyone deserves the best director Oscar at this year’s Oscars, then it is Paul Thomas Anderson, a director who has been long in the game and consistently snubbed from the award. There is a reason why this film has constantly hit the top of many people’s lists for the best films of the year, the 10th film from the director is an entertaining feature which also feels incredibly revolutionary in scope. Feels very similar to a previous film mentioned in this list, Eddington, in how it tackles themes that feel very relevant to the modern day, and could easily be seen as a critique of the current state of America and the world.
The film tackles immigration, the fetishization of African American women by white supremacists, and how the rich upper class controls our way of life, and how far some corrupt individuals will go to become part of that controlling class. The film however does not feel like a depressing vehicle, there is a pure hope for the future, that the next generation can continue fighting for what is right and it will become better for them, that the fight will not be over until every generation fights together. Leonardo DiCaprio leads a cast that has become one of the most nominated casts of the year, with Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor making up a very memorable ensemble. However, it is Sean Penn who walks away with easily the best performance of not just the film, but maybe the year, and leaves the film an entertaining but meaningful big feature
4) Hamnet
Directed by Chloe Zhao
Many adaptations have braced the film and television mediums of William Shakespeare’s works, and namely his most famous work, Hamlet. This year brought one of the most engaging and unique versions of the story, as director Chloe Zhao adapts the novel of the same name, Hamnet, which tells a supposed backstory for why Shakespeare wrote the play he did. Focusing on the death of the writer’s young son, who shares the name of the film, and the reaction from the writer and his wife, Agnes, as they seek resolution of their pain from the art they create. It is a great comeback film from the director who brought us Marvel’s The Eternals, a film which both looks and sounds incredible, with so many shots that look straight out of a stage show and music that will bring a tear to the eye.
The story is depressing and moving, coming from an incredible performance from Jacobi Jupe as the title character, a young actor who is incredibly capable in leading various sequences that are completely soul crushing in tone. Paul Mescal continues his streak of playing depressive father figures, feeling similar in tone to his role in Aftersun at times, and Jessie Buckley has become the favourite for the Best Actress Oscar. This is for good reason, when the film focuses on her in a continuous one take shot in the conclusion, the rest of the film vanishes to focus on such an incredible facial performance where pain gets lost in the love of cinema
3) Sentimental Value
Stellan Skarsgard and Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value
Directed by Joachrim Trier
Joachrim Trier has had an incredible career since releasing his first film in 2006 and only continues to skyrocket upwards as one of the most influential directors of the modern day, off the back of his 2021 film The Worst Person In The World. His newest film, Sentimental Value, marks a continuation into his themes of memory, identity and love as the film tackles a dysfunctional family who come back together when their absent father wants his daughter to play a role in his film, and when she declines, hires an American actress who is playing a character based on both their late mother and the daughter who declined. Standing alongside One Battle After Another as the biggest ensemble to be nominated for acting awards at this year’s Oscars, the film is marked by a phenomenal cast, where each member shines incredibly. Renate Reinsve returns after starring in Trier’s previous film and has an incredibly subtle performance, alongside her on-screen sister Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas.
Elle Fanning delivers a great supporting role, and Stellan Skarsgard delivers one of the most multi-faceted performances of the year, as a father who sees connection through his works, obsessed with fame and unwilling to connect. The film seeks an exploration of identity and self-expression being opposite or entwined with the act we consume and take part in, and how that can rub off on our connections. The film is never melodramatic or incredibly emotional, it just feels more honest and sincere, completely realistic and one of those films that needs to be seen a hundred times to experience every aspect of its very multi-layered narrative
2) No Other Choice
Lee Byung-Hun in No Other Choice
Directed by Park Chan-wook
Do not let the lack of Oscar nominations for this feature fool you, No Other Choice is easily one of the best films of the year. Director Park Chan-Wook delivers a smart and snappy comedic critique of capitalism and work culture, following a man who seeks to keep his job role and his way of life, by killing off his competition in the workplace. Chan-Wook is one of the few filmmakers today who truly offers something unique and different with each of his films, namely in the directorial stance, there is no one else who is delivering such a unique direction in the modern Hollywood studio system. Sequences like the camera moving in tune with a swing shows some of the unique ways Chan-Wook experiments with his direction, his films brimming with personality and pairing perfectly with the dark humour on display.
Based on the Ax by Donald Westlake, being the second film adaptation of that novel, the film pairs perfectly a story of dark humour with an undertone of deep sadness and desperation. Lee Byung-Hun delivers one of the truly best performances of the year, a performance filled with need and deprivation, a character who reflects people’s need to work, people’s identity being linked to their jobs, the money they make and the lack of time outside of those careers. It is a truly deep film which laughs in the face of its deeper message, the perfect way to display something so depressing
1) Train Dreams
Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones in Train Dreams
Directed by Clint Bentley
The big prize for the best film of the year here goes to Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams. Based on the 2011 novella of the same name by author Denis Johnson, the film represents a beautiful look at the American dream, to work for a living to live with your family, find love and grow old together, but does not shy away from the more painful moments from life. Delivered with perfect narration by Will Patton, who read the audiobook version of the original novella in the past, the film shows the beauty of life, the beautiful nature of connection and how every moment of our lives mean something for our story. Joel Edgerton delivers one of the best leading performances of the year, alongside one of the smallest supporting roles in a film but still one of the most memorable in William H. Macy’s small appearance. Easily features some of the most gorgeous lighting and cinematography of the year, looking like a documentary at times and a painting at the same time. This is one of those films that balances the sadness that came from this year’s slew of films but keeps enough humanity in between each emotional beat, and reminds you why life is so uplifting and purposeful
Chloe Zhao was a filmmaker who steadily created work that was lesser known across Hollywood, with her 2015 and 2017 features known as Songs my Brothers Taught Me and The Rider respectively. It was only until 2020, when she released the film Nomadland, did she raise her stock in Hollywood and jump into the limelight, with the film winning Best Picture and Best Director at the year’s Oscars, alongside Best Actress for lead Frances McDormand. Her next project would be franchise material, directing the Marvel feature film Eternals, putting her hand into the superhero genre and mainstream Hollywood, to a mixed response. The film became the first feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to not receive generally positive reviews, and the first film to faced with a rotten score on website aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Plans for a sequel, which originally had Zhao returning, were put on hold and it took four years for Zhao to return to the big screen.
Hamnet, which just released in the UK this January, after a wider release in the US in 2025, feels like a return to form for the director, a film which returns her to the heights that warranted her those Oscars only six years ago. Hamnet tells a dramatized series of events based on the life of William Shakespeare, focusing on his family life with wife Agnes Hathaway, and the death of their young son Hamnet. The film is based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, which had already been adapted to stage across 2023 and 2024. Hamnet had died at the age of eleven in 1596, an event that has been very little discussed by scholars, with it being argued whether he died of the bubonic plague or not. The life of Agnes is also known very little, a mysterious section of Shakespeare’s life that is highly debated. This gap in scholarship is why O’Farrell wrote the novel, attempting to give them a voice and presence, and focusing on the impact of the death of a child, and the battle a child takes part in when facing illness. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most notable stories, long discussed about what it truly represents thematically, and both film and novel represent it as a way for Shakespeare to get over the death of his young son.
Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley in Hamnet
Zhao’s film will be remembered mostly for its central performances, that has gained the film so many of its awards during this year’s award season, with Jessie Buckley already winning Best Actress at the Critics Choice Movie Awards and Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama at the Golden Globes. However, it is important to note the filmmaking on display firstly as well. Zhao shoots a beautiful looking film, paired with immaculate cinematography by Lukasz Zal. Nature makes up a massive backdrop for the film, paired with the dull and grimy look at city-life, while nature looks lush, colourful and lively. These two elements come together as a pair, when the power of art comes with drawn backdrops of Shakespeare’s plays showing the beauty of nature and the realism of life. Zhao shoots so many of the sequences from one angle, long shots which take up a lot of the room but the camera staying stagnant, especially sequences taking place in the home of the Shakespeare’s. Zhao brings across that feel of the stage play, and how Shakespeare’s life shapes the plays he creates, life imitating art. The power of art is the biggest theme of the film, as Hamlet becomes a vehicle for William to process his grief from, acknowledging how art can be the ultimate source of emotion and working through those emotions. The final sequences, which demonstrate the power of Hamlet, is one of the most emotional moments of the 2025 film season, shot mostly on Buckley’s face in a powerful showcase of her acting talents.
Paul Mescal in Hamnet
Jessie Buckley seems to be the favourite for the Best Actress award for the Oscars this year, and it’s very easy to see why. She feels very natural in her role, from loving mother to devastated griever, with that closing sequence featuring some of the most fantastic facial acting all year. The film is so emotionally damning because of Buckley’s performance, she has a lot of baggage to carry around as her character must mould itself around the current mood of the film. From mysterious woman of the woods falling in love, to romantic love with children, to becoming a being who is defined by her grief and the sorrow of losing a child, Buckley handles everything perfectly in what is probably her greatest performance yet. She has perfected the cry of pain, a cry that haunts the rest of the film and will leave the viewer motionless.
Agnes is a character so deeply rooted into Buckley’s performance that it is hard to define who the character is without, deeply removed from any tropes that would come in a tragedy film like this. Paul Mescal is also equally excellent in a role that he feels typecast in nowadays. It is a under the radar performance, that has been seeing him get nominated but not winning, because of how similar it is to his roles in films like Aftersun, the television series Normal People and All of Us Strangers. He excels at playing troubled men, with each project always featuring a long take shot of him breaking down crying, he seems drawn to portraying broken and sad characters, and he continues to excel in that type of role. The small moments of happiness in the beginning sets up beautiful chemistry between Mescal and Buckley, which only adds to the silence when the relationship is broken by the final act. Specific attention should also be paid to young performer Jacobi Jupe, who portrays the titular character, a fantastic performance for such a young talent. He delivers all the Shakespearean dialogue perfectly, and manages to do what the role demands, to make you feel for a person lost to history and make the audience cry.
Hamnet is a hard watch for sure, a soul crushing film in a year of films that seemed more pessimistic than usual. It is a film designed to mine the most emotions out of both its cast and the audience, designed as a pure tearjerker, but its passion for the arts shines through even further. Art as a form to understand pain and overcome trauma is a powerful theme across the film, a powerful love letter to the art of theatre, film and the works of William Shakespeare, a worthy film to stand alongside Shakespeare’s original magnum opus
No one could have seen it coming when released in 2009, that Avatar would become a true global phenomenon, become the highest grossing film of all time and then essentially fading away from the cultural zeitgeist. It would take 13 years for a sequel to come, with 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, and the franchise returned to thunderous success, grossing over 2 billion at the global box office, becoming the highest grossing film of the year and the third highest grossing film of all time. This proved that Avatar was here to stay, the first film was no fluke, it was a franchise that the public had a hunger for, and no big gaps between sequels would stop people coming in droves to view the heroes of Pandora. Two sequels were initially announced when the first film released to major box office numbers, set for 2014 and 2015 release dates respectively.
These release dates would get further pushed back with multiple different factors facing the film, from the Fox buyout by Disney, to director James Cameron requiring the development of new technology to shoot motion capture scenes underwater, which lead to the sequels being shot from 2017 to 2020. The announcement of Avatars 4 and 5 lead to more work for the production, and lead to The Way of Water and 2025’s Avatar: Fire and Ash being shot back-to-back. Fire and Ash exist as a direct follow-up to 2022’s previous film, continuing the narrative almost instantly from where the film left off. After the death of their child, Jake Sulley and Neytiri are grieving, and threats of the RDA come back to face them and their family. Quaritch, who has become an Avatar himself when revived in the previous feature, comes across the Mangkwan, a tribe of warmongering and savage Na’vi, led by the mysterious Varang.
Sam Worthington in Avatar: Fire and Ash
There was a wave of a phenomenon known as post-Avatar depression syndrome when the first film released in 2009, a non-recognised medical condition where various viewers of the film felt unsatisfied with the real world, a disconnection with reality and a longing to live in the world of the fictional Pandora. It is understandable why people were so drawn to the world in the film, because the worldbuilding is truly the best part of Cameron’s features. An almost perfect world where creatures are in unity with nature, a utopian society which contrasts with the harsh and militarised world of the humans is a great setting to get lost in. The additions in the sequel also added a greater mythology to the world, from the spiritual afterlife to a water tribe, and Fire and Ash continue this trend by making the planet of Pandora feel even more real by adding conflict between the Na’vi. The volcano tribe of the Mangkwan are the most compelling part of this sequel, a new element for a film that feels very similar to the previous feature. They are essentially collaborationists in the war between the Na’vi and the RDA, holding grudges against the all-mother Eywa, joining forces with the enemy to bring the whole world down. Varang and her tribe don’t get much to do in the film’s runtime, but they have enough to keep them intriguing, easily setting them up to be larger elements of future films.
They’re true role seems to be to add to the eventual redemption arc of lead villain Quaritch, who was humanised in the last feature with the introduction of his son, and his conflicted feelings of being brought back as one of his enemies. He becomes one of the film’s most compelling characters, as he becomes enthralled by the Mangkwan way of life and with clear feelings for Varang, feeling the draw to become a pure Na’vi. His dynamic with franchise lead Jake Sulley is also compelling, brought together by a need to protect Quaritch’s son, Spider.
Stephen Lang in Avatar: Fire and Ash
The worldbuilding comes from the excellent visual effects that continue to stun throughout, there was a massive upscale in the effects between the 2009 film and its 2022 follow-up, but with the small amount of time between the two films, there is not much new technology at play, but everything still looks glorious. Simon Franglen’s score gives the film an awe-struck feel, helping to sell this world that still has so much to explore. It is a shame really that the film’s narrative cannot hold up to the excellent world it takes place in, as Cameron has essentially made the same film twice. If a viewer enjoyed The Way of Water, they are bound to enjoy this film as well but will easily see how both films are essentially the same feature. The introduction of a new Na’vi tribe does not do enough to differentiate a narrative that relies on cliches and playing it safe, from keeping the same villains, setting and even the same finale as the previous film, to even a predictable finale that leaves the door opening to have a fourth film which could promise to do something completely different. For a film that is clocking in at over three hours, it is extremely thin on plot, and its narrative ramps up at various times, with each act essentially ending on a sequence which could have been its own finale. It feels like the second act of a larger story, proven by the fact it was shot back-to-back with the previous film, but lacks its own signature hook or conclusive ending outside of putting all the toys back in the box for another day.
The previous film acknowledged serious change and ended on a major twist that promised no one was safe, but this film lacks those stakes, with each character feeling invincible. Jake Sulley takes the backseat of development, as the family focus on their grief and develop very little past that. Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri goes through a mourning period, becoming vengeful of humans from her hopeful past, and there is a serious consideration between her and Sulley that the audience knows will not be paid off, it’s a choice that Cameron doesn’t seem convinced himself in. The villains steal the show here, and feel like they get the most focus, when it seemed the opposite way in the previous film.
Zoe Saldana in Avatar: Fire and Ash
James Cameron had already put some work into Avatar 4, with the film rumoured to feature a time jump early on in its narrative, requiring the younger actors to film the prologue sequences during the production of 2 and 3. However, the press run of Fire and Ash has led to Cameron revealing that those sequels would only happen with the success of Fire and Ash. Cameron is attached to a film adaptation of Charles R. Pellegrino’s novels The Last Train from Hiroshima and Ghosts of Hiroshima, and an adaptation of Joe Abercrombie’s novel, The Devils, which might make him a busy man alongside the production of Avatar sequels. He has even discussed the idea of hiring a protégé to take on the franchise once he is done, which is begging the question, is the Avatar franchise soon to be done? Or is it just Cameron who wants out? Either way, Fire and Ash continue to showcase the impressive effects and large-scale blockbuster action that comes from one of modern Hollywood’s biggest franchises. It is pure blockbuster entertainment in an era where the blockbuster seems to be dying. It is not the most original film in the world, and its narrative falters in lacking anything truly new but it’s a good time at the cinema, and one can only hope for more.
After almost ten years, Netflix’s pop-culture juggernaut, and one of the biggest television series of the decade has finally concluded, with New Years Eve 2025 launching the final episode of Stranger Things. Mere weeks ago, we looked back at the history of the series and its development from small-town mystery to blockbuster action spectacular, so it is only natural to take a brief look at the show’s final season and offer up some critiques and appraisal. Season 5 was marketed as the grand finale of the show, offering itself up in three different packages, releasing four episodes on the 26th November, 3 additional episodes on Christmas Day and the 2-hour final that came on New Years Eve. The final episode was also screened at various specific cinemas in the States, as it proved itself as the juggernaut it truly was, crashing Netflix on release of the finale. The new season has been received critical acclaim at initial release, but with the subsequent releases of episodes, the fanbase has become a lot more split, drawing in review bombing, with the show receiving its worst rated episode across the entire five seasons.
The show has still not reached the heights of the near-perfect first season, with the quality always remaining in subsequent seasons as good-to-great, but never spectacular, and is far from the worst television released this year, and the review bombing seems to be a harsh response to political messaging naturally rooted in the show. What could have been a cause of this massive fan backlash is also the long waits between seasons, which has only made people reevaluate the seasons of the past, build up expectations that could not be met and become annoyed by the long wait to get answers. The season continues from the cliffhanger ending of the previous season, as Vecna can open a rift between the Upside Down and Earth, leaving Hawkins with irreversible damage. Months later, the characters are now brought together to attempt to stop Vecna one more time, before he merges the Upside Down and Earth permanently. Hawkins is under lockdown by the military, as they hunt down Eleven to use for nefarious purposes.
Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna
Previous seasons of the show would separate their characters into smaller sub-groups to naturally split the storylines, and season five does that as well but come the second batch of episodes on Christmas Day, the entire cast are back together. One of the major problems that comes in this season, is that the show has way too many characters now, where powerful scenes like Will’s coming out sequence has near fifteen characters in one row, which feels ridiculous. The show has grown such an expansive cast of characters across its five seasons, because of its inability to kill off any members of their core cast, and then continue to introduce new characters in its final season. The cast rivals show like Game of Thrones in casts at this point, and the show lacks a sense of danger, the audience knows these characters are not going to die, because they failed to make deaths feel meaningful in the past. The fake out deaths of both Hopper and Max in previous seasons have only led to the belief that these characters are immortal and leaves all action feeling meaningless. Vecna feels less powerful than ever when he can so easily butcher unnamed military troops but fails to kill our leads. The expanded cast also leads the show to feel so overstuffed, with the need to wrap up so many storylines at once which leaves so many characters getting the short end of the stick.
Mike, who was easily the main character of the first season, has become an afterthought come this final season. He exists as a soundboard for other characters emotional development, until the final minute of the finale remembers to give him some emotional closure. Characters like Murray and Erica fail to have any meaningful impact and makes you question why they were ever moved to main cast members in the first place, alongside a late season with Karen Wheeler, making an impossible save that only exists as a sequence because the show needed to justify making her a main cast member. Joyce has also lost an identity, lost in the shuffle as the Duffer Brothers have lost any important plotlines for her outside of being a love interest for Hopper, or a doting mother for Will. However, the character dynamics that they do invest time into really works, the new dynamic of Will and Robin is very strong and delivers on one of the most satisfying moments of the season, the dramatic reveal of Will’s powers. Will’s coming out has been a long, drawn-out plot thread across the show, and Robin is used as a emotional guru for the character to finally get to that point, which leads to a very powerful performance from Noah Schnapp.
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
Dustin’s reaction to Eddie’s death from the previous season makes for a great showcase for Gaten Matarazzo’s talents as an actor, as his coming back to the comedic foil for the group comes naturally and powerfully. Making up with best friend Steve also comes to one of the best sequences in the season, alongside a wonderful sequence where Nancy and Jonathan end their long-standing and long-suffering relationship in a heartfelt manner. Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin still deliver exceptional performances and share the most chemistry out of the show’s romantic plotlines, while dynamics like Mike and Eleven fall flat and feel left to collect dust. Vecna feels like an afterthought in the season, the show leaving the character until episode 4 for a proper dramatic return, and there are attempts to develop him, but most falls flat without knowledge of the show’s spinoff Broadway show. Jamie Campbell Bower, however, truly delivers the performance of the season, a character who is both easy to hate but also incredibly entertaining to watch.
New plot threads come in the usual involvement of the military, with Linda Hamiliton taking on the lead villainous role in this plot thread. All characters in this plotline feel like cartoons, and ultimately become pointless, used as more of a canon fodder for action sequences, then fully developed antagonists. Characters like Derek and Vickie serve small roles in focus episodes but then stick around when they are well past their importance. The return of Kali, a long-forgotten character from the potential backdoor pilot episode from the show’s second season, also feels hollow. She is revealed in the show’s fourth episode and then stands around doing nothing until the show’s finale, where she is killed off to whimpers. The season spends a fundamental amount of time as well with a recast Holly Wheeler, the character getting more screentime than most of the main characters, featuring in a plotline that goes on for way too long and feels needlessly dragged out so there can be stakes in the finale. So many of these characters and plotlines could easily have been edited down to make room for the main characters who feel loss and superfluous.
The entire season could have easily been edited down throughout, as the show has become plagued by monologues and increasingly long episodes, similarly to the previous season. The season is consistently stopped by a sequence where the characters stand around and form a plan, spelling it out to the audience through props and needlessly over-explanatory dialogue. This has been a staple of the show since the beginning, but it is present in this season way too much, with one of these scenes in every episode. A study came in 2023, where Netflix found that 94% of their subscribers would view their phone while streaming, and the service sent out a request for their original programming to be streamlined and be more expository for audiences not paying attention. This is the first project where this is very clear, every scene feels like characters stopping to explain how they are feeling, or what is happening to a maddening degree, and by the finale, flashbacks from almost 20 minutes before in the same episode are shown to remind audiences of information.
It comes with the movement of the show becoming such a massive titan of a franchise, the reveals this season muddles the waters of the show’s mythology and leaves various elements feeling convoluted. The finale sticks the landing, easily being the best episode of the season, but the lead villains feel too easily dispatched with such long build-up. In addition, for a season that is reported to have a budget between 400-480 million, the show looks increasingly cheap at times, with a major greenscreen problem throughout. Effects like the Demogorgon and Vecna look incredible, but completely effects created scenery looks ridiculous, with it easy to be seen that everyone is on a green screen and not in an interesting set that used to be common in prior seasons.
The finale is where the show shines and falters, with a massive ending which would look ridiculous comparing it to the small-scale events of the first season. However, the shows wrap up in the 30-minute-long epilogue wraps the show up perfectly, leaving each character off in an emotionally impactful situation, and has enough level of bittersweetness to its conclusion, where not everything is a perfect happy ending. Stranger Things is a show that very much outlived its initial premise, a show that probably should not have made it past that initial first season. However, no matter how messy each season got afterwards, the characters were always the highlight and that continues in this season, and it ends it on a nice note, one that won’t leave the show being left negatively, but also won’t end it becoming one of the best shows ever made. Stranger Things will be remembered for one amazing season, and a couple of follow-ups that had their moments, but also as a global phenomenon which was a very specific point in time
Christmas movies are a staple of the holiday period, the movies designed to be watched with the family on the big day, films filled with whimsy, heart and holiday charm. Commonly characterised by comedies and dramas, films like Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life and Elf are the most common staples of the holiday season, or films focused on fantasy elements like the multiple adaptations of Dr Seuss’ The Grinch. The horror genre is not uncommon to be included in the holiday craze however, with one of the many prototype slasher films coming as a holiday feature, in the film Black Christmas, and horror-holiday features continue to this day with films like Krampus. One of the most famous horror features set in the Christmas season would come in 1984, with the release of Joe Dante’s Gremlins. The film was released in the height of Steven Speilberg’s producing career, where most of the big blockbusters of the 80s felt like Spielberg films even when they were not directed by him, with films like Back to the Future and Poltergeist falling under this category.
Gremlins follows Billy Peltzer, who receives the mysterious Gizmo as a pet, who spawns evil members of his kind when touched with water, unleashing mischievous creatures onto Billy’s hometown. Gremlins would soon become a holiday classic, blending the worlds of dark comedy and horror under a Christmastime setting, and inspired a trend of horror creatures causing chaos on the big screen, with films like Critters and Spookies following the release of Gremlins. Demand would be made by Warner Bros for Dante to make a sequel instantly after the success of the original film, and the sequel would arrive in 1990. Not a Christmas classic in any sense of the word, it is one of the most entertaining and complex sequels made from such a lucrative property. Gremlins: The New Batch follows the same basic plot of the original film, but with a grander scale, as Billy now works in a skyscraper in New York City, where the mogwai Gizmo resurfaces, and a fresh new breed of Gremlins wreak havoc in the skyscraper.
Dante was originally against the idea of making a sequel to his Christmas classic, believing that the original told a very open-and-close narrative, and he seen the production of the original film as very taxing for him. Work on the sequel would be shopped around afterwards, with ideas being formed around bringing the Gremlins to cities like Los Angeles or even Mars. Dante would return to production of the sequel when Warner Bros returned to him with the offer of having complete creative control over the film, and budget that was triple compared to the original film. The 80s and 90s were filled with sequels, with most being seen as near-remakes of the original film but going under the motto of bigger is better. Ivan Reitman’s 1989 sequel to Ghostbusters would retread many of the same character beats of the original, resetting the characters progress so they could come apart and come back together as the Ghostbusters once again, leaning into the family friendly angle that came from the cartoon produced at the time. Chris Columbus’ 1992 follow-up to holiday classic Home Alone would do much of the same, but instead swapping Kevin and his family, leaving him home alone abroad, but still having to deal with the same robbers. Even Spielberg would not be immune to just remaking his own film, with 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park coming alive with the central idea; what if there was a second island with dinosaurs on it. Dante seems to follow this trend of sequels, with the plot following the same basic concept of the original, but this time on a grander scale, but also heavily parodies sequels, and Hollywood itself.
Gremlins: The New Batch opens with a Looney Tunes animated short, directed by Chuck Jones, who had retired before being asked to return for these shorts. The opening short acts to confuse the audience, believing it’s an animated short attached to the film, and not actually part of the film, with Daffy Duck attempting to become the main character and requesting for the actual film to play once he fails to do so. The opening sets up the chaotic tone of the film, and how anarchic the film will get as it continues. The animated opening also helps set the stage for how animated and slapstick oriented the actual film becomes, as the film leaves its connection to horror behind to focus on the signature Gremlins causing chaos. A central plot thread leads to the Gremlins mutating into various forms, causing the Gremlins to become their own characters, most likely for merchandise but also to fall in line with its cartoonish aesthetic.
There is a lightning Gremlin, a female Gremlin and a smart Gremlin, who can speak full sentences. It is a rather goofy set of scenes that would not sit at home in the original feature. Satirical elements make up a large section of the Gremlins sequel, as the setting even satirises Trump Tower, with the character Daniel Clamp and his Clamp Tower clearly being a satirisation of billionaire Donald Trump. Spoofs of popular media appear all over the film, alongside spoofing cable television, which was on the rise in popularity at the time. Scenes include Gizmo wearing an outfit that resembles the lead character from the Rambo franchise, a Gremlin wearing the outfit owned by the Phantom of the Opera, or a bat Gremlin resembling the iconic Batman logo. Robert Prosky appears in the film as an actor portraying Grandpa Fred, a character from the popular show The Munsters, and the cast of the show Square One Television appear as themselves filming an episode of the show.
Meta comedy is all the rage in Hollywood nowadays, with films referencing popular culture and satirises their genres being common staple after the release of Scream in 1996, but it was certainly not commonplace in the time of the release of this Dante feature. The most meta moment comes when Dante stages the idea of the film breaking, as the Gremlins sabotage the projector and begin to engage in shadow puppets across the scene. Hulk Hogan makes a cameo appearance next as he threatens the troublemakers into allowing the film to continue to be shown, as the film continues. This scene was then reworked when coming to VHS and home media, where the scene is staged to make it look like the viewer’s VCR has been sabotaged, as the Gremlins are threatened by John Wayne instead, in a broadcast of the 1970 film Chisum, with actor Chad Everett providing voice over lines impersonating the late actor.
Hulk Hogan’s cameo in Gremlins: The New Batch
A scene also includes film critic Leonard Maltin, a critic who had heavily critiqued Dante’s original film, who retreads his thoughts on the original film inside the film’s sequel, before cutting off when being attacked by the Gremlins. There is another scene that acts as a direct commentary on the original film, namely around the rules placed on the Mogwai. The first film sets up rules, that you should not splash any water on the mogwai and you should not feed the mogwai after midnight, with this second rule leading to various fan theories. A scene in the sequel follows-up on this running ‘criticism’ of the first film, as Billy explains the rules to the staff of Clamp Tower, with the staff finding them absurd. The staff then ask the fan favourite question, whether a mogwai on a plane travelling across time zones would keep with the rule or break it, because it is always ‘midnight somewhere’.
Gremlins: The New Batch became a cult classic in the years after its release in 1990, grossing $42 million at the box office on a budget of $30-50 million, compared to the box office success of the first film, which sits at $212.9 million on a budget of only $11 million. With a higher budget, the film didn’t translate into a bigger box office haul, which put a pause on the franchise for nearly two decades. Dante would move on and find success with two more cartoon-focused features with 1998’s Small Soldiers, and 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Dante remains focused that Gremlins 2 is his last film with the franchise, as Warner Bros has moved into the streaming era.
HBO Max series, Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai
With the need of content for their HBO Max Streaming Service, Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai would air on the service in 2023, with the second season, renamed to Gremlins: The Wild Bunch, airing between 2024 and 2025. The series acts as a prequel to the films, and also gaged the interest of the audience into the franchise. With the franchise appearing in various video games in the past couple of years, from crossover fighting game Multiversus, and the Lego Dimensions game, it was only time that the franchise would make a return. A Gremlins 3 is currently scheduled for 2027, directed by Chris Columbus, with Spielberg returning as producer, after being in development hell for decades. It can only hope that this film will live up to the hilarious heights of Gremlins: The New Batch, a film which broke the clear sequel roles, ushering in a new trend of meta filmmaking
Video game adaptations seem to be a new commodity for Hollywood in the wake of the oversaturation of the superhero feature, with video game adaptations moving from the joke of the industry to big moneymakers. The earliest live action adaptation of a video game for film would be the Super Mario Bros in 1993, a critically appalling movie, which hurt the video game film brand for decades. Followed by live action takes on franchises like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, the video game movie was received as one flop to the next. However, things have changed in the 2020s, with video game adaptations going as far to be nominated for the Emmys and winning big at the box office. Sonic the Hedgehog has just finished a trilogy of blockbuster family features, with a fourth on the way, and Mario returned to the big screen with an animated feature with Illumination, becoming the second highest grossing film of 2023. Television has lit up with adaptations of The Last of Us and Fallout and will soon be joined by a revival of Tomb Raider, and a reported Assassins Creed television series. The franchise potential of gaming brands that have already got a built-in fanbase has opened the door to new attempts at Resident Evil and Street Fighter coming in 2026, and sequels to the Mortal Kombat reboot and the animated Super Mario Bros film, both also coming in 2026. One of the biggest surprises in the current video game adaptation boom came in 2023 with the release of Five Nights at Freddys.
Based on the video game franchise of the same name, the games follow the player as a night security guard as they attempt to survive five nights in a closed down restaurant, which is the home to deadly living animatronics. The horror games are designed as point-and-click thrillers, with jumpscares as the biggest release of tension, eventually expanding to bigger free-roam style games when moved to consoles. The franchise is synonymous with the expanded lore that is hidden in supplemental material and in the games itself, building a life for itself on Youtube with theories circulating in the fanbase. Bringing this simple game with such complicated lore to the big screen was no easy task, and it released a film that was mixed in its critical response. Loved by fans but failing critically, the film however grossed an impressive $297.1 million on a $20 million dollar budget and marked itself as a new horror franchise for Blumhouse.
Piper Rubio, Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Lail in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Two years later, and creator Scott Cawthon has crafted a follow-up, in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, which follows loosely the elements of the second game in the series. Set a year after the events of the previous film, the film follows the characters still reeling from the action taken place at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Vanessa, daughter of serial killer William Afton, is having nightmares about her past with her father, and Abby Schmidt attempts to regain her animatronic friends when contacted by them. However, what she doesn’t know is that there is a second Fazbear location, which holds a terrifying and secret enemy who is looking for vengeance.
Before exploring the film’s plot, specific attention must be paid to the shining light of both horror productions, and that is the animatronic suits created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has been a longstanding effects and creature design location for Hollywood, crafting amazing suits for projects like the Muppets, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They crafted 6 amazing suits for the original Five Nights at Freddys, and now up to almost 16 for the film’s sequel. The production design has always been the part that impresses the most about these features, and the amount of variation in each animatronics design is impressive. The film features up to three different sets of animatronics, from the ones featured in the original, the withered and destroyed versions of that animatronics and the new Toy animatronics, who are designed to be looking shinier and newer. The designs look ripped straight out of the games, and are brimming with personality, fluid movement and detailed. Even the production design of a lot of the sets is a massive step up from the previous film, with the new location featured here feeling more lived in and resembling a real-world Chuck E.Cheese.
With the positives out of the way, it is not hard to see Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 as around the same quality as the original feature. Both films seem designed to put video game references and easter eggs before crafting an actual meaningful or engaging narrative, with both films falling flat in both their dramatic and horror moments. Fans of the games will find the films fun and entertaining, with the films designed to make those fans point and reminiscence of better uses of those elements or characters, but someone looking to feel engaged in a plot or feel scared will be missing out here. The previous feature lacked any serious scares and felt more like a children’s film that sometimes-featured scary animatronics, with the film leaning heavily on its antagonists being really victims and children. This film attempts to include some scares, but they are all boiled down to generic jumpscares, and the movie takes so long to even get to the horror that it is almost a shock when those horror attempts begin. There is a lack of tension in any of the scenes featuring the villains, and the new central villain, the Marionette, becomes a use to turn characters into possessed monsters who resemble more like members of the band KISS then something horrific.
For a franchise that is remotely more about child murder, decomposing and brutal possessed monsters, it lacks any actual brutal or unsettling imagery, with every kill featured in the film feeling like something that could be at home in a children’s movie. The camera cuts when it gets to the good bit, with the only actual kills being seen when the animatronics get destroyed or hurt. The movement of releasing the animatronic killers from their pizzeria homes to the actual real world leads to some of the most humorous moments of the year, which is certainly not the point the movie was aiming for.
Matthew Lillard in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Character work does not seem to be the focus for screenwriter Scott Cawthon, who also created the game series, as the characters become the worst part of this film. Cawthon seems to want to be seen as a serious screenwriter, attempting to fill the film with drama, the characters are attempting to overcome their trauma, in a first act that feels slow and plodding in nature. The character work is just not strong enough to keep the boring and monotonous first act above water, with Vanessa, played by Elizabeth Lail, taking the focus as she attempts to remove herself from the trauma of her father. However, its one to thing to say that it is her arc throughout, and another thing to prove it when the film only pays attention to that character arc in a small amount of scenes, with the real role of that arc being so that they can include a dream sequence role for Matthew Lillard and set up another future villain.
Lillard feels wasted once again, appearing in only two scenes, and his Scream star Skeet Ulrich feels wasted himself, appearing in one scene that only serves to throw exposition at the viewer. Josh Hutcherson, who took on the protagonist role in the prior film, feels lost in the shuffle of this film, as his character is thrown to the background as support for Vanessa and her non-existent character journey. Abbey, played by Piper Rubio, gets a lot to do, but a lot which still boils down to replicating her role in the prior film, with the script asking you to suspend your disbelief in the smarts of a child, especially one that has already been through a life-and-death scenario such as this.
Skeet Ulrich in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
The biggest problem with the film is how aimless it feels, it’s a sequel that seems designed to set up sequels, by throwing as many video game characters in as possible, instead of telling its own contained story. The amount of sequel set up leaves the entire narrative feeling too convoluted for its own good, designed almost to confuse people who are not familiar with the games, and are not familiar with the already complicated lore that originates from there. The film seems to be building to a massive confrontation at the FazFest event taking place, but the film just ends far away from that choreographed end. Cliffhanger endings can leave you anticipating the next entry but also can leave a film feeling unfinished and unsatisfying, and the ending of this film just feels rushed and confusing. It almost feels like the film lacks a third act, completely stuck in the second act once the animatronics come into play. It is an ending that wants to set up the future, with the writer and Blumhouse high on their supply with the almost guaranteed box office success this film will have, allowing them to just produce an unsatisfying finale that can print out more sequels.
Barrack Obama was the president of the United States when Netflix’s biggest series, Stranger Things aired in 2016, and while the show has been airing its subsequent seasons, America has gone through a Donald Trump presidency, a Joe Biden presidency and now amid Trump’s second term. It has been nearly ten years since the show began, and this year marks the final season of the show. There has been much criticism facing the show around the long wait times between seasons, as streaming series become increasingly padded in release, and as the actors who were once age appropriate for their roles, have become twenty-year olds playing high schoolers. However, it is hard to downplay the power of Stranger Things, and the immense popularity it has had since its release in 2016, and its importance to Netflix. It has been reported that the combined production cost of the newest season is in the ballpark of $400-$480 million, around $50-$60 million per episode. Netflix, the streaming giant that is well known for cancelling shows only two or three seasons into their lifespans, has threw massive amounts of money into the series that has essentially became its backbone.
The service has big series, mainly all released off the back of Stranger Things, with shows like Squid Game, Wednesday and Bridgerton being streaming series giants, but nothing compared to the cultural phenomenon that Stranger Things was. When its first season aired, it became the third most streamed season on the service and come the third season the show was watched by 64 million households in the first month of release of the show’s third season. The show’s fourth season has entered the top 10 most streamed seasons on Netflix of all-time and is one of the few Netflix franchises that have evolved past just the series. The show has launched a set of comics and novels, including crossovers with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dungeons and Dragons, various mobile games and appearances in crossover games like Dead by Daylight and Fortnite, and a canon stage play prequel known as Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Mere weeks before the launch of the fifth season, an animated series was announced, set between the shows second and third season, proving the franchise is here to stay.
Set in 1983, the first season opens with the disappearance of Will Byers, as he leaves a Dungeons and Dragons game with his friends and disappears into the night. His friends find a strange girl when on the hunt for him and soon encounter a supernatural being linked to another world. Will’s mother believes she is communicating with her son and brings the local town sheriff in to investigate Hawkins Lab, as the child’s brother teams up with one of his brothers’ siblings to hunt the monster themselves. The Upside Down, the other world mentioned beforehand, and the characters become the centre piece of the show, as the second season explores a larger threat coming from the Upside Down, as Will becomes possessed by the being that calls that world home. The third season hosts the Mind Flayer, the larger threat, trying to become real, as the Russians attempt to use the Upside Down to win the Cold War. The fourth and fifth season expand the scope of the show, as the expanded cast attempt to put an end to the threat faced by the military, the Russians and the Upside Down, who has revealed a new threat in the form of Vecna.
Stranger Things came out during the height of the 2010’s 1980s nostalgia movement, a nostalgia that critics have pointed out had started since the 1990s but only became more prominent in the past decade. Stranger Things owes much of its success to the films, series and iconography that it draws upon from the 1980s. The biggest inspirations clearly come from the work of John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg, and the literary works of Stephen King. The first season acts intentionally as a merging of the narratives of ET: The Extraterrestrial and King’s Firestarter. Eleven, the mysterious little girl who becomes the focus of the series, acts as a stand-in for the pyrokinetic abilities of the character from King’s novel, hunted by the government for the abilities she holds. However, she also acts as a stand in for ET, being harboured by Mike in his house, and the season features a homage to ET raising the bikes in the air in that classic feature. The characters travelling around on bikes acts a homage to both Kings’ novels, IT and the Body, which would be turned into the film Stand By Me, to the point that Warner Bros’ future IT adaptations that came in 2017 and 2019, would in turn cast one of the central Stranger Things’ child actors for a character and feature a decade change in setting to the 80s to cash in on that nostalgia started by Stranger Things. Connection in the show comes from the characters’ love of pop culture, as the show acts as not just a homage to the pop culture icons it is based on, but a celebration of those cultural touchstones.
The central boys are friends because of their love for Dungeons and Dragons, which the show derives names from for its central antagonists, and Eleven finds love for Eggo Waffles, a brand which brings her close to Mike and eventually Sherriff Hopper, in season 2. The homages to 1980s pop culture only continues to become more prominent in the shows’ subsequent seasons, with the shows’ sophomore season featuring a clear callback to The Exorcist in the possession of Will Byers. The season’s finale features more than one Demogorgon, now known as Demodogs, as a translation of the movement between Alien and Aliens. Even the casting of Sean Astin acts as a popular culture callback, known for his roles in the Goonies and Lord of the Rings, and even a Halloween episode where the characters dress as the Ghostbusters. Season 3 featured a plot which called back to films like the Blob and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as the Mind Flayer possessed large groups of people and reformed into a sinister blob-like creature.
A heavy-handed Russian character also clearly seemed to reference The Terminator. The show’s fourth season acts an homage to Nightmare on Elm Street, with a central antagonist that can attack the characters in your dreams and nightmares, feeding on fear and trauma, and even featuring an appearance from Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund in a small role. Character’s connections form from their love of pop culture, but also in their love of 80s music, which becomes a driving force of the show’s nostalgia. From a duet to The Never Ending Story to the immensely popular Kate Bush sequence from the show’s fourth season, the show homages the best in 80s music to a great degree.
Homages to the 80s famous features even comes at the cost sometimes of even understanding what those films were about, as the third seasons acts as a clear homage to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. That film featured zombies in a mall, deriving metaphoric commentary around the consumerism of the 80s and how the ones who mindlessly consume products of such are just the same as the zombies featured. The show’s third season derives inspiration from the film by featuring a mall as a central location, and a final battle featuring the monster being trapped in said mall. However, the inspiration stops there, as the show’s love for the past and love for consumerist goods hits an all-time high, featuring a mind-numbing sequence where Lucas advertises New Coke to the audience, an old rebrand for Coke that was brought back as a tie-in promotion for the season. Season three also moved the show from just referencing products from the past, to featuring products that Netflix would sell themselves inspired by the show, from Scoops Ahoy to the fourth season’s Surfer Boy Pizza. The show became bigger than it could have ever imagined to be at this point, moving from the small ‘indie’ series that was a mystery to Netflix’s blockbuster show which acted as a long-running film. This could be seen as early as the second season, with the show referring to its seasons as sequels, with its second season being labelled as Stranger Things 2.
What really made the show shine, however, was how it also turned its inspirations on its head and turned character archetypes on their head. The central bully character, Steve Harrington, played by Joe Keery, becomes a hero as the show progresses, and a fan favourite character alongside that. The character was designed to die but was rewritten once the creator’s fell in love with Keery as the character. The season two-character, Billy, would take on the form of the more stereotypical bully, but once becoming part of the narrative in season two, would be featured in a smaller redemption arc. Hopper, the town sheriff, would start the series as the drunken mess who does not believe in the supernatural happenings, but would be soon developed into a multi-layered character who starts as the cliché trope because of the loss of his daughter, but believes in the supernatural once having clear proof.
The characters became iconic and fuelled fan demand, as the fanbase of the show grew and grew. Fans would get into shipping wars, from demanding the inclusion of Byler, a fan-made relationship between characters Will and Mike, to an online campaign known as Justice for Barb, after the said character died in the first season. This campaign would influence a storyline in the second season, proving how engrained the fan base was in the creation of one of the 2010’s most popular shows. The central five child actors all seemed to strike a chord with audiences, as Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp deliver exceptional performances as young actors in the first season. The show follows the same route as the Harry Potter films, as the cast age with the show and begin to develop as actors as the show becomes more emotionally complex, with season two’s Sadie Sink joining the central child actors and proving herself a talent. David Harbour’s portrayal as Hopper becomes another backbone of the show as he balances a character who is warm but also intense, emotionally guarded but incredibly loyal. This character allowed the actor to finally break out and become the star he is now, starring in films in the Marvel universe and becoming a box office draw.
Winona Ryder, who would be a draw for the show’s nostalgia appeal, starring in 80s films like Beetlejuice, delivers an exceptional performance as a mother who is willing to do anything for her son. The characters are all brimming with charm, characterised by their connection to the audience through their own love for pop culture, but also in their dynamics with each other. Representation is also an important part of the show’s later season identity, with the exploration of Will’s coming out, and the introduction of Robin, a lesbian character who has become a fan favourite. Positive representation of LGBTQ characters in popular media is still hard to come by, and this is a very positive direction for the show. The show is immensely popular because the characters are distinct and memorable, but also flexible enough to move between the show’s varying tones.
The strength of the first season is that it is easily able to balance the various genres it is composed. It can pull of the Spielberg feeling, the wonder and awe that comes with referencing those films, but the show can also pull back into being a genuine tensely horror series. Comedy comes from the characters’ relationships and camaraderie, and never from the actual scenarios or the monsters. It can balance being essentially a creature feature at times, with a smart script that keeps the audience guessing with the mystery but also keeping it fun with its science-fiction elements. Later seasons would find it difficult to balance the various genres, with many critics pointing out how absurd season three was in going down the comedy angle, with the show swapping out the autumn leaves and low scale drama for neon lights and a summer blockbuster feel. The fourth season would embrace the blockbuster angle by splitting the characters up into smaller mini-movies, with each mini-narrative harbouring its own tone and genre that makes some hard to combine. The show’s strength is that it always harbours itself in realism, with all the extended world building that the show drags out, there is always a human element to the narrative.
When crafting the show, the Duffer Brothers based their concept off MKUltra, a US project in crafting medicine and drugs that could alter human behaviour, and the show would continue to explore its narrative as being a complex combination of the 80s nostalgia explored before, and the real-world issues happening at the time. 80s films were heavily influenced by the paranoia of the Cold War, with many of the films featuring either a distrust for the American government, with the government being the villains, or a foreign enemy. Stranger Things does both, the American government being after Eleven is a common part of each season, but the Russians become a antagonist from season three onwards. The supernatural elements of the fourth season become a conflict in the town because of the current events of the Satanic Panic. The panic came about with over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the 1980s, with major cases being linked to the blame of films, music and other popular culture. Season four’s newest character, Eddie, becomes linked to a series of murders that envelops him in the satanic panic movement, as he and the rest of the characters are blamed because of their involvement in Dungeons and Dragons.
Stranger Things is a cultural phenomenon that has survived a long period of time and remained able to be as popular as ever. It has nearly been ten years since the show first aired, and it is hard to argue against the fact that the show is probably the most famous show of the 2010s. It owes so much of its success to the films, music, television and games it takes ideas from, as its homages so many popular media, but it brings enough of its own twists that it stands on its own. The characters are memorable, becoming much as part of popular culture as the films they have based them on, and the mythology crafted for the show is rich enough to become important. 2025 marks the end of the show, but with promises of a spin-off series, a rumoured anime and the animated series premiering next year, the story is far from over.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked: For Good
There have been various adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of OZ since its release in 1900, from the 1974 stage version known as the Wiz, the NBC television series known as the Emerald City, or the iconic 1939 film that has become synonymous with the property to this day. One of the most bizarre takes on the material came in 1995, with Gregory Maguire’s novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which reinvented the story of Oz through the eyes of the Witch herself, renamed Elphaba. The novel was more adult focused in its storytelling, with some of its sequel books, 2005’s Son of a Witch, 2008’s A Lion Among Men and 2011’s Out of Oz, being described sometimes as ‘edgy’ in content. The children novel made by Baum was reinvented in one focusing on themes of terrorism, racism, nature versus nurture and propaganda. The fact that this novel would be then turned into the second most popular Broadway musical of all-time would surprise anyone, with Universal Pictures acquiring the rights for a film adaptation of the novel, with actresses such as Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman and Whoopi Goldberg rallying for the lead role, before composer Stephen Schwartz convinced the studio to pivot to musical theatre.
Opening in 2003, the musical has become the fourth-longest running Broadway show in history and opened the door for Universal to once again become interested in adapting the musical now to film. Plans started all the way back in 2011, with director Stephen Daldry announced to direct in 2016, with Lady Gaga and Shawn Mendes rumoured to be up for major roles. Daldry left the project by 2020 after major setbacks in production, with the film missing various release dates in favour of Universal releasing films like Cats and Sing 2, alongside the COVID-19 Pandemic stalling production. 2021 hit the news that Jon M. Chu boarded as director, and the film finally hit theatres as part one of two in 2024, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. A year later, and the idea of splitting the musical adaptation into two films, one adapting act one, and one adapting act two finally shown the light of day, as Wicked: For Good has opened worldwide.
Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande in Wicked: For Good
Adapting the second act of the play, Wicked: For Good follows after Elphaba found out the truth of Oz and the Wizard. Now with a rift between her and her best friend Glinda, the two begin to embrace their roles as The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, as the film depicts the last days of the Witch, and eventually overlaps with the arrival of Dorothy as the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz takes place.
The original film became a cultural phenomenon when it was released a year ago, finding itself on various best of the year lists, the music trending all other social media and the film finding itself nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film was not immune from having various faults showing through, the direction is very work-like at times and the colour palette is very dull and muted until the film’s glorious conclusion, but was filled with whimsy, charm and a wonder that made it popular. The film closed out the same way Act One of the plays does, with a triumphant rendition of Defying Gravity, a climatic moment that leaves the film off with a sense of wonder, all the film’s faults leaving the minute the song hits. Going into For Good, the film was in a good place, left on a wonderful hook, with massive boots to fill, but the film really fails to grasp the potential it could have. For Good picks up in the middle of the action, lacking a clear three-act structure, instead having a various number of events happening in a row because the plot demands it and because the book it is trying to connect to has those events happen. It has been long debated that the second act of Wicked is where the play faulters, and it really shows here in this adaptation.
Splitting the play into two films leaves the first film with the fun and the whimsical aspects of the story, and the second film with the dull and contrived. Every character in the narrative must become a character from the original novel, and most of them feel shoe-horned in, in a movie overstuffed with continuous contrived plot elements. It is a tonally confused film, trying to both handle the characters it had introduced in the original film and then also addressing the events of Baum’s novel, and attempting to turn that childlike wonder from those books into serious plot elements. The addition of characters like the Cowardly Lion, The Scarecrow, Dorothy and The Tin Man feel shoe-horned into the narrative, less like they are part of the story and more like ticking boxes to signal the classic elements missing from the prior feature. The prior’s film left off in such a way that it did not even need a sequel, it tells a completed story that could have lead into the events of the 1939 original film, and this film lacks that satisfactory open and close, lacking any substantial character arcs or natural plot progression, everything happens in a rush to get to the ending, and because it needs to tie into the original novel.
The three central performances of the original film continue to impress. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are the highlights of the film in their roles as Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero respectively. Erivo and Grande received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for the previous film, and for good reason, they are incredible in both these films. They share wonderful chemistry in their scenes together, and some of the few charming and humorous moments from the dreary film come from their moments together. Bailey is a Bonafide star, he commandeered the screen in his small number of scenes in the first film, and this film turns him into more of a serious star, and gives him a more sizeable role, but he is easily able to hold his own here. One of the major problems with this film is that there is no song featured here that can rival any of the songs featured in the original, and no song that can hit the same heights as Defying Gravity.
Jeff Goldblum, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked: For Good
‘No Good Deed’ and ‘For Good’ are both songs that attempt to hit those heights and fall short but are easily the highlights of the film’s soundtrack, and ‘Wonderful’ feels like one of the only musical numbers that attempts something visually distinct. The three central performers do wonders across all the film’s tracks, even if the songs aren’t as memorable as the ones featured in the original. The appearances of Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum continue to provide small problems for the films, similarly to the first feature, as Yeoh delivers another confused performance as Madame Morrible. Both performers are not as gifted musically as the other stars, which leaves their musical numbers as feeling awkward and stilted.
The tone of the film is incredibly sombre and serious, leaving the whimsical nature of the first half behind for a film which feels ridiculously unpleasant to watch at times, taking it so serious at points and ending up with some elements feeling humorous accidentally. The biggest problem of the original feature came from Chu’s direction, which was lacking visual creativity, and looking washed up and grey in the lightning and colour grading department. It was a visually dull musical, which is the last thing a musical really should be, and this film matches that visual dullness with a dull narrative and tone as well. The colours of the film are washed out and incredibly dark in the lightning department, and the musical numbers lack any creativity visually. There are no big set pieces, with each musical number essentially being two characters singing at each other in flat shot-reverse shot or long takes. Chu can do interesting looking musical numbers, he showed it off in 2021’s In The Heights, but he fails to showcase those directing skills here.
Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: For Good
Wicked: For Good just pails in comparison to its predecessor, it is a film attempting to justify its existence in reinventing moments that have been done in the original text and the iconic 1939 film. Wicked left on such a triumphant note that the change to a sombre tone for the sequel leaves the film feeling like an unpleasant watch, as the great performances from Bailey, Erivo and Grande get lost in the shuffle of middling music and a horrendous colour palette. The problems that shown up in the prior feature are only more apparent here, as Chu fails to deliver a visually spectacular film, leaving off with a muddy and grey film which looks at home with a funeral.
The 2003 South Korean feature film Save The Green Planet was formed from two separate instances in director Jang Joon-hwan’s research. Firstly, his criticism of the lack of development for Annie Wilkes in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery, resorting if he ever made a kidnapping film, it would be from the kidnapper’s perspective. The second half of his idea would come when he saw a crack website theory that Leonardo DiCaprio was secretly an alien invader who wanted to conquer the planet by seducing the earth’s population of women. An American remake of the 2003 film was in the works from the global pandemic, with the original director attached, Ari Aster on board to produce and Will Tracy adapting the screenplay. The big changes that would come from this new screenplay was the decision to gender swap the leading kidnapping victim from male to female and replace the kidnapper’s accomplice from his girlfriend to an autistic cousin. The gender swapping decision would be Joon’hwan’s final involvement in the film, as he dropped out and would become an executive producer instead, being replaced by director Yorgos Lanthimos.
Lanthimos was a perfect director for the material, a director who has a satirical and dark-comedy edge to most of his material, dealing with dark subjects in a way that never feels too heavy. Starting in experimental theatre, he made his directorial debut in 2001 with My Best Friend and broke out as a director when 2009’s Dogtooth was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His immediate move to American-language features came to an immense success, with films like The Lobster, The Favourite and Poor Things leading to vast academy nominations across the board and leading to best actress wins for Olivia Coleman for The Favourite and Emma Stone’s second win for Poor Things. Poor Things was a smash-hit, receiving 11 nominations and winning 4, and Bugonia would be seen as his big next feature, after his anthology film, Kinds of Kindness in 2024.
Jesse Plemons in Bugonia
Bugonia follows the same plot threads as the original South Korean film, following two conspiracy theorists who kidnap a powerful CEO, who they believe is secretly an alien who wants to destroy the planet. The kidnapping becomes more convoluted when the family members fail to trust each other, and revelations come to light about the CEO’s connection to the kidnapper’s dying mother.
The main draw of Bugonia is the excellent dynamic between kidnapper and kidnappee, with Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone and Aidan Delbis all delivering excellent performances. The strength of the script comes from the tension built by the reliability of all three characters, the movie keeps you guessing throughout whether Stone’s CEO is truly an alien or not, and whether Plemmons and Delbis are just insane conspiracy theorists. Outside of some backstory-filled flashbacks, the film is contained mostly just to the kidnapper’s house, but the film is above to drive so much out of one location with some excellent visuals from cinematographer Robbie Ryan. The film is colourful and bright while telling its bleak narrative, eye-popping visuals contrasting with the mundane nature of the setting, and the truly sad story on display. Ryan worked on Lanthimos’ previous three features, so it is only natural that he was able to continue bringing his eye-catching visuals to this narrative.
Aidan Delbis makes his film debut for this feature, submitting his own self-tape while he was still in the final year of high school. For a first-time actor, Delbis puts across an incredible performance, a performance and character that feels like the heart of the film, a meeting point between the conspiracy nut and the out-of-touch CEO. Lanthimos described his performance as the soul of the movie, he is the voice of reason who balances out Plemons’ unhinged performance, a simple but effective role in showcasing humanity in a world based around acting out of emotion. The fact that he can hold his own against such seasoned performers like Jesse Plemmons and Emma Stone is a testament to his natural acting ability. Emma Stone has starred in four Lanthimos movies so far, following her roles in The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, and got her acting start mainly in comedic roles, with films like 2007’s Superbad, 2009’s Zombieland and 2010’s Easy A. Her roles have always been linked to her natural charisma, her comedic sensibilities and a level of empathy that have led to her blockbusters like 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, but this role uses those sensibilities to deliver a multi-layered performance that keeps the audience guessing.
Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis in Bugonia
There is always something off with her throughout, like an alien wearing a human’s face, a sense of dullness mixing in with her natural charisma and empathy. Her performance can be cold and frightening one minute, and then warm and empathetic the next. The film constantly feels like Plemons and Stone matching each other’s confusing performances and trying to one-up another. Plemons has made his career through supporting roles mainly in television series, including Breaking Bad, Fargo and Black Mirror. Once moving to feature films, he would commonly be typecasted in roles of characters that were commonly unnerving and sometimes creepy, which is what he played in his first collaboration with Lanthimos, in Kinds of Kindness. Plemons plays on this typecasting again here, down to even the greasy hair, the unkempt facial hair and his maniac body movements, but the film humanises him through his dynamic with Delbis’ character, keeping the character relatable enough so he can be still seen as a protagonist.
His tragic past with his mother, blaming her illness on Stone’s CEO character introduces a wrinkle to the story, humanising Plemons but also dehumanising Stone at the same time. The best scenes of the film come from the two characters bouncing off each other, with Plemons shouting out conspiracy theory rhetoric while Stone pleads for her life and tries to end things peacefully. Will Tracy’s script is incredibly effective in leaving both characters feeling inhuman but also human at various points, it is what an effective thriller should really be, keeping the audience guessing as they must play along. There is a clear critique of the upper class across this film, bordering on some rhetoric of eating the rich, but also some clear criticism of internet-dwelling conspiracy theorems.
There is a level of Lovecraft sensibilities to the plot as well, with the major conspiracy focusing on the alien’s controlling society and dumbing down the masses, almost like John Carpenter’s They Live. The biggest message that the film pays service to however is an environmentalism message, blaming the upper classes for the engagement of animals and the loss of habitats. Frequent shots of beehives hammer home this message, and the title even derives its meaning from the belief that bees could arise from the flesh of a sacrificed bull. This could dwell on either meaning, that the aliens must die to save the population and nature itself, or the Earth will become a better place for animals once the aliens wipe us out.
Emma Stone in Bugonia
Bugonia is an effective thriller throughout, a film which hides its true tone in its dark comedy genre, as it relays an increasingly saddening story. Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone and Aidan Delbis make up an entertaining trio of actors to follow, as the fantastic script by Will Tracy and Lanthimos’s superb direction allows the film to drive the most out of a contained narrative. The most effective part of it is the fact it constantly makes the audience question every character’s motive, and if they are telling the truth, and when the answers finally come, they are incredibly rewarding.
Rhys Reviews 