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The Best Films of 2025 (So Far), And What To Look Forward To

We return once more to the year in progress, where 2025 lies on the scale of cinematic exploration, and what's left to come as the latter half of the year ramps up with award hopefuls and festival premieres going wide. 2025 has been flooded with a kaleidoscopic deluge

I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things: The Phoenician Scheme // The Rehearsal Season 2

Two film critics sit down to discuss two films and a season of television. Novel? Not particularly. However, the curious nature of one critic's unexpected admiration for one film concerning the misadventures of Steve and his world of crafting is enough to bewilder his misanthropic cohost – aghast at

Doom: The Dark Ages (Series X): Rip-oste and Teareth

The two previous Doom games (Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal) from id Software are brilliant examples of cohesive design. The 2016 reboot took what was, at that point, an oversaturated and homogenised genre (the first person shooter) and made it into something fresh. Why the genre works was maintained but

Ballerina: How To Get Away With IP Murder

Chad Stahelski and David Leitch had no idea what they were starting when they began working on the first John Wick in 2013. After cutting their teeth doing action choreography, stunts, and second unit work for the likes of The Wachowskis, John Carpenter, Albert Pyun, and Ringo Lam, they wanted

The Phoenician Scheme: Immaculate Chaos

Every line would be the funniest thing you’ve ever heard if not for every other line.

Bring Her Back: Hollow Horror From Messy Misery

Pure misery, mean-spirited and endless cruelty that doesn't have the slightest inkling of how to leverage that cruel energy into something impactful.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Series X): Always Parrying its Own Potential

The highs are high but the lows are low. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is persistent mix of satisfaction and disappointment, of potential and eventual failure. A great premise is thrown to the wayside, replaced with a confused and unsatisfying narrative focus where plot ploughs through all else. Combat and music

SIFF 2025: Souleymane's Story // Bitter Gold

Souleymane's Story dir. Boris Lojkine The humming neon betrays a sense of extant hopelessness, the rain slicked Parisian streets bustling with life but only on the surface – the city of romance and dreams built on the back of migrant hustle, people desperately working and clinging onto distant possibility.

SIFF 2025: Happyend // Cloud

Happyend dir. Neo Sora Carves a neo-fascist dystopian cyberpunk landscape out of negative space, a lo-fi exploration of disaffected youth in the spirit of Blue Spring or Rebels of the Neon God. Adolescence in search of catharsis and connection pushed into authoritarian structures and regressive ideals, the throes of angst

SIFF 2025: Good Boy // Chain Reactions

Good Boy dir. Ben Leonberg Wields a sharp understanding of the semiotics of horror to generate a potent atmospheric dread, effectively communicating its ideas through the soulful eyes of its canine protagonist. The novelty lies entirely in its shifted perspective offering, but it never wavers on delivering the expected thrills

SIFF 2025: New Jack Fury // 40 Acres

New Jack Fury dir. Lanfia Wal Somewhere between throwback blaxploitation and modern day 80s exploitation spoof, the pure dedication to wanton absurdity and low budget cheese makes this a mostly delightful romp, if not one that overplays its hand even at 84 minutes. It's a visual effects showcase

I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things: Sinners // Warfare // The Shrouds

May 18, 2025. The US and the UK. Two film critics take podcasting positions in support of a tactical spoiling operation. This podcast uses only their memories. Every effort has been made to recreate these critics' thoughts as they experienced them while watching these films, a revolutionary approach to

SIFF 2025: Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass // By Design

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass dir. Timothy & Stephen Quay Somewhere between the mesmerizing, hallucinatory dreams of Jan Švankmajer and the creaking, wooden fantasies of Jiří Barta, the Brothers Quay return to the influence of Polish writer Bruno Schulz, 38 years after their adaptation of Street of Crocodiles.

The Grand Deceit of Alex Garland’s Warfare

For all its claims of authenticity, Warfare is deeply deceptive. It starts by misleading you, a claim is put forward that ‘this film only uses their memories’ (their being the soldiers depicted therein). On a number of levels, this is profoundly untrue but the way it is untrue is deeply