Eleanor The Great (2025) Film Review

After the death of her oldest friend, 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein moves from Florida to New York City for a fresh start. Wandering into a support group for Holocaust survivors, she tells a tale that takes on a dangerous life of its own.

Eleanor The Great is directed by Scarlett Johansson which is her directorial debut. 

Scarlett Johansson in the director’s chair immediately caught my interest and for a directorial debut this is a delightful little movie that definitely has some issues. But in the end you can’t help but love the film’s charming nature. 

The performances all around are great, but June Squibb is the one part that is holding this film together. She displays so much personality and captures what grandmothers are like, Squibb’s performance is incredibly charming and has this layer of honesty here that when the film explores Eleanor’s (played by June Squibb) grief you end up being invested. Even if the exploration of grief is done in a very conventional way that’s not really breaking any new ground. 

Erin Kellyman is also quite great here, while I do wish there were much stronger character moments for her. The interactions between her and Squibb work really well and have this genuinely charming friendship that you can’t help but smile at. Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a beautiful monologue that really displays his talent as an actor. 

The main flaw with Eleanor The Great largely comes from the plot of June lying about being a Holocaust survivor (her best friend Bessie Stern who was a Holocaust survivor died) while it’s understandable on what the movie is trying to say here. It ultimately falls on the weaker side of things due to this sort of grieving not being explored all that well. Some people have a strange way of grieving and it’s important to talk about this in a much more investing and elaborate way, instead the movie opts to explore it in a very muted way. The best way to describe it is you are expecting and feel something powerful coming but in the end you do not really get that all. It’s unfortunately done in the whole “fall out between characters but they make up” sort of way. 

The ending is admittedly very sweet and does wrap the film up decently well, there is this bit of Eleanor looking to the future while honoring her past that is genuinely touching. She gets to finish Bessie’s story as well, it’s charming but does feel like the firepower could have been stronger.

Overall Eleanor The Great is a charming little film that definitely could have been a lot stronger in the writing department, but it’s a decent enough film to recommend. I would say watch this one for June Squibb.

Eleanor The Great is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Freakier Friday (2025) Film Review

Two decades after an identity crisis, Anna’s blended family faces new challenges. Tess and Anna discover their past may be repeating with the next generation.

Freakier Friday is directed by Nisha Ganatra director of Chutney Popcorn (1999), Fast Food High (2003), Cake (2005), Late Night (2019) and The High Note (2020). The film serves as a sequel to Freaky Friday (2003). 

A Freaky Friday (2003) sequel was bound to happen at some point, it’s a film that is quite beloved and has gained a bigger and bigger following over the years. Freakier Friday might not be as great as its predecessor but it still manages to capture a lot of the excitement and spirit of what made the first film so great. 

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are both excellent here and just ooze with personality. Everything that made their performances so memorable from the first film is present here, adding into the mix we have Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons who while are not as great as Curtis or Lohan they still do a pretty solid job. Especially considering this time around it’s a double body swap which can be incredibly tricky, there are times where some of the actors seem to lose track of who they are playing. However those moments are very far and few in between which ultimately does not hurt any of the performances. 

Freakier Friday does not really have anything new going on narratively, it has the same message as the first film and the double body swap ends up being the main difference. With that being said it’s still a lot of fun, the humor is genuinely solid and the nostalgia callbacks are actually integrated very well into the story. The last 15 minutes displays the more emotional moments of the film and wraps the story up very nicely, stronger character moments could have absolutely given more strength as Ganatra does focus on a lot of comedy antics that do not land incredibly well. 

But from what we are given, there is just enough here for the viewer to latch on to and enjoy both the comedic and emotional moments. Ultimately Freakier Friday is harmless, as I said before narratively it’s not much different and when you really get down to it there is just not a whole lot to say here. But there is no denying that this is an entertaining one. 

Freakier Friday is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Splitsville (2025) Film Review

When his wife asks for a divorce, a man runs to his friends for support, only to learn that the secret to their happiness is an open marriage.

Splitsville is directed by Michael Angelo Covino director of The Climb (2019). 

Splitsville is a decent little comedy that has just enough meat on its bones to make it to the finish line, the performances, humor and the exploration of its themes such as the struggle for honesty openness within marriages and this whole honesty vs deception angle is able to make the film more interesting. 

The performances are all quite great here, Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino all turn in very solid performances and work well together. The discussions the characters have are both decently funny and have this layer meaning that brings the film’s themes such as exploring open marriage front and center. It gives these characters personality especially when you combine the witty banter. 

Dakota Johnson brings the necessary depth to Julie as a character, Adria Arjona gives a memorable performance due to one particular scene, plus she’s just fantastic here and works incredibly well with the rest of the cast. Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin both have strong chemistry, their real life friendship translates well here and at times it feels like we are given some personal moments, which can be felt due to both Covino and Marvin being the writers. It’s especially felt when we get scenes of both Carey (played by Marvin) and Paul (played Covino).

The humor for the most part works very well, there’s this nice balance of exploration in the film’s themes and the humor itself. While not every single joke lands, there is just the right amount to get some laughs from the viewer, the sharp direction from Covino really puts in the work here as well. The intimate moments help bring the characters closer to the viewer combined with the film’s cinematography from cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra. 

While Splitsville does suffer being from a bit too long and has some pacing issues. It’s a nice balance entertainment and meaning that gives the film more to stand on. 

Splitsville is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Shelby Oaks (2025) Film Review

A woman’s search for her long-lost sister becomes an obsession when she realizes a demon from their childhood may have been real, not imaginary.

Shelby Oaks is directed by Chris Stuckmann which is his directorial debut. 

I absolutely admire Chris Stuckmann for chasing his dream, he started on YouTube as movie reviewer and went on to be a film director. Even if I did end up walking away not really liking Shelby Oaks, Chris Stuckman still does have a lot of promise as a filmmaker as there are still a lot of things to like about this movie. It just falls short when it comes to the writing. 

The performances are great especially Camille Sullivan, who gives this raw and frantic performance of a woman who’s desperately trying to find her sister. Unfortunately the character moments are not that strong and fall more in the basic side of things, Sullivan’s performance is strong enough to look past those moments and deliver a genuinely strong performance that the viewer can still connect with. 

The cinematography from cinematographer Andrew Scott Braid gives this haunting look to the movie, there’s plenty of moments where you look around the dark environment simply because of how well of a job Braid does and combine that with the surprisingly well done atmosphere from Stuckmann, the result is plenty of thrilling moments. If there is one thing to take away from Shelby Oaks it’s that Stuckmann knows how to build an atmosphere and during certain moments showcases this quite well. 

The main problem with Shelby Oaks comes down to the writing, while the first bit of the film is genuinely quite great. Going for this mockumentary like style that really sets the movie up with a well done atmosphere and brings your interest into it all. The rest of the movie opts to go for a very generic experience that is filled with a lot of jump-scares. The worst of the writing shows up during the movie’s final moments, it’s a very messy ending that only leaves you with more questions than answers and not in a good way. 

It’s a shame as well because if you take away the terrible writing you are left with something quite decent, the camerawork combined with the atmosphere makes for a solid experience.

Shelby Oaks is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

A House Of Dynamite (2025) Film Review

Radars at Fort Greely, Alaska, detect a nuclear missile. The president and his entourage must use the limited time they have to try to shoot down the missile before it reaches Chicago.

A House Of Dynamite is directed by Kathryn Bigelow director of Point Break (1991), The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Detroit (2017) and many others.

As someone who is a fan of Kathryn Bigelow’s work my biggest question after watching A House Of Dynamite was “what happened here?” There is a ton of decision making here that ultimately cost the movie and completely drained any sort of tense atmosphere the movie built during the first act. 

The performances all around are great, Rebecca Ferguson is the standout here with her strong performance that helps the movie build some sort of tension during the movie’s first act. Idris Elba is pretty solid here as well, it’s definitely not one of his absolute best performances but there’s no denying that whenever he was on screen the movie had a bit more interest going on here. 

The atmosphere during the first act was at the very least thrilling, there was a nice setup here that could have potentially gave the movie more strength and intrigue…that is not what happened here, the middling second and third act that say absolutely nothing outside of “nuclear war is scary, what are we going to do?” does not do the movie any sort of favors. The atmosphere feels completely empty because of this, there is nothing tense or intriguing about the environments or dialogue. It’s a shame to because the first act’s narrative structure had a bunch of thrills that were investing very early on. 

Speaking of which, the dialogue and characters are just not interesting enough to reach the finish line, the different perspectives is an admittedly interesting choice that could have worked. But unfortunately that leads to the movie being a complete and total mess simply due to how empty the dialogue really is and the powerful direction that Bigelow usually brings to the table being absent this time around. 

Then there is the ending which is a whole lot of nothing, I get what it’s going for here but due to how much of a mess the build up was it just does not work at the slightest. It ends abruptly and is nowhere near as clever as the movie thinks it is, the movie sets itself up by wanting the viewer to believe that this big booming result is coming yet it ends on a whimper rather than a explosive force of a finale. 

Overall there is just not a whole lot to say about A House Of Dynamite which is baffling to say, you could go on for hours about Bigelow’s previous work and explore the themes and characters. With this movie that’s not the case, instead you are left with a very empty experience that you immediately forgettable after viewing. 

A House Of Dynamite is available on Netflix. 

5/10 C

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) Film Review

Through a surprising twist of fate, single strangers Sarah and David get to relive important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is directed by Kogonada director of Columbus (2017) and After Yang (2021). 

Coming off of two quite fantastic films, I was pretty excited to see what Kogonada had in store with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and unfortunately this was a huge step down from his previous work. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has a lot of great ideas and ingredients to make a great film is here, but unfortunately none of it is mixing all that well and creates this messy and forgettable experience that leaves the viewer disappointed. 

Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie are both solid here, there’s a few moments in particular where they easily make scenes that otherwise would be drawn out and dull into something genuinely sweet and somewhat powerful. There’s some moments that show vulnerability that mixes well with Joe Hisaishi’s score, there’s a track called “To Her Mother’s Side” that in particular is genuinely moving and creates one of the movie’s most memorable moments. It’s one of the movie’s longer moments but unlike other moments where they feel drawn out, this one feels a lot more earned. 

Unfortunately the rest of the movie does not have the strength and firepower it needs to leave an impression on the viewer, the characters just do not have much in common which in turn makes the whole love story element seem incredibly forced and is not worth investing in. The chemistry between Farrell and Robbie is just not there at all, a large part of it is due to just how shallow the script really is. The two are excellent individually but romantically there is not anything here that feels striking or to really care about them as a couple. 

The biggest problem here is the dialogue and how it’s desperately trying in every single scene to come off like it’s saying something profound, rather than going for a more natural direction and letting scenes speak for themselves. The movie opts for this forced dialogue that is the equivalent of those type of quotes you would see on Facebook like pages, the ones about relationships, or ones trying to inspire you. Those are fine in themselves, but when you are writing a script for a movie and that’s how deep your dialogue is then where exactly do you go from here? 

Finally there’s the scenes being drawn out, I spoke a bit about this earlier but this is a problem that appears several different times during the movie. It’s repetitive and unfortunately leads to the viewer checking out of the movie early on, there’s just not enough interesting moments for our main characters to explore, their backstories are incredibly cliched and predictable and despite how solid the cinematography looks thanks to cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, the world feels empty and the lacking of detail is incredibly noticeable.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is one of the most disappointing movies of the year, the themes of taking risks for connection, embracing vulnerability and overcoming regret do not have the proper writing to make the exploration worthwhile. The lack of chemistry and investing scenes completely stop this movie from being powerful. 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

The Conjuring: The Last Rites (2025) Film Review

In 1986 paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren travel to Pennsylvania to vanquish a demon from a family’s home.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is directed by Michael Chaves director of The Curse Of La Llorona (2019), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) and The Nun II (2023). The film serves as the ninth installment in The Conjuring film series, the film is also the wrap up story of Ed and Lorraine Warren. 

I have long since lost any sort of excitement for The Conjuring series, the first two Conjuring films were quite excellent and then you had Annabelle: Creation (2017) that was decent enough. But outside of that, the series has failed to evolve and has been met with varying degrees of terrible quality. That unfortunately has not changed with The Conjuring: Last Rites a movie that is a supposed final goodbye to Ed and Lorraine Warren’s story but ultimately feels like just another one of these movies both in spirit and in the terrible quality that’s been present for a while. 

The performances are by far the best part of the movie, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are once again very charming as the Warrens. Their scenes together have passion, Mia Tomlinson makes a nice addition to the series and works well with Farmiga and Wilson, she has some decent character moments here and there. But unfortunately there’s just not a whole lot going on here with the characters. 

The jump-scares are incredibly lazy this time around, this series has always had jump-scares but at least with the first two films there was build up to them, you felt the atmosphere hitting you in the face during those moments and those first couple of films brought you into the background. You just don’t get that here with The Last Rites there is nothing immersive going on throughout the majority of the movie, even during the final act when something does actually happen that is still not enough to really save this movie. 

The writing is just not there at all, while it might not be as bad as some of the spinoffs of the series, it’s about as equal to The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) meaning it’s not interesting and feels very empty, you would think after so much build up for these characters that the writing would at least try to deliver something unique or special into the mix. But unfortunately you just don’t get that here. 

Overall The Conjuring: Last Rites is a very empty movie, it’s a forgettable installment and it’s a bad final note for Ed and Lorraine Warren’s story. I wish there was more to talk about here but that’s just how forgettable and bland this movie really is. 

The Conjuring: Last Rites is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025) Film Review!

After learning that one of their victims, Maya, is still alive, three masked maniacs return to finish the job. With nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya soon finds herself in a brutal fight for survival against psychopaths who are more than willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 is directed by Renny Harlin director of A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Die Hard 2 (1990), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Devil’s Pass (2013), The Legend Of Hercules (2014), The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) and many others. The film serves as the fourth installment of The Strangers series and the second installment of the new trilogy. 

The Strangers: Chapter 2 achieves a quite baffling accomplishment….it somehow ends up being WORSE than its predecessor and that is truly saying something considering how much of a mess the last movie was. This movie doubles down on all of the flaws of the previous movie and even introduces a backstory to The Strangers themselves. 

The only positive this movie has going for it is Madelaine Petsch who I really admire for carrying these movies, she captures the final girl spirit well enough and even tries to make the atmosphere feel a bit more threatening with her solid performance. But the rest of the movie is just not agreeing with her and diddle-daddles to the point where it takes the viewer right out of the movie. 

The writing somehow gets even worse with this movie, whereas the first movie could be written off as a terrible slasher movie that may have some entertaining moments. Chapter Two for some reason decided to give the villains of the movie The Strangers themselves backstories, an element that completely defeats the purpose of this series in general. Isn’t the whole idea of these movies is to know as little about these antagonists as possible? To show the point that sometimes random psychos target people who they have no connections with, why are we suddenly giving these antagonists backstories? The childhood flashback origin stories are not only poorly done but they feel pointless, they take away a lot from the movie and end up resulting in a complete and total mess. 

The rest of the movie is a mess, way too many off screen kills that completely take away from the movie’s atmosphere. Dialogue that is not only terrible but has no interesting character moments for Maya (played by Madelaine Petsch) and a movie that is essentially one long chase scene that quickly bores the viewer. 

Overall The Strangers: Chapter 2 is one of those bad movies that is not even interesting in a bad way, it’s boring, not investing and a poorly put together mess that has very little personality. I am deathly afraid to find out how terrible the final movie of the trilogy truly is. 

The Strangers: Chapter 2 is available on all VOD platforms.

1/10 F

Ballad Of A Small Player (2025) Film Review

When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.

Ballad Of A Small Player is directed by Edward Berger director of Jack (2014), All My Loving (2019), All Quiet On The Western Front (2022) and Conclave (2024). 

Ballad Of A Small Player is the perfect example of a movie that looks stunning and is acted quite beautifully but is lacking an incredible amount of substance that unfortunately does not get it over the finish line. 

Colin Farrell gives a strong performance here, he especially feels striking when combined with the movie’s gorgeous cinematography from cinematographer James Friend. Even if Farrell’s character is lacking in the writing department, he still does manage to create this sort of thrilling atmosphere for his character and luckily due to his acting talent he makes it work for the most part. 

Volker Bertlemann’s score at first may not seem like it’s very fitting, the world of Ballad Of A Small Player feels a lot smaller in scale than some of Edward Berger’s previous work. Yet despite that the booming nature of the score still works, especially during a handful of intriguing sequences that end up meshing the movie together into some wondrous moments. 

The movie is also a massive departure from Berger’s other films, which is exciting to see him tackle something completely different. Unfortunately the writing is just not there to really back it up, the story itself is a bit of mess with very little direction. The characters are distant which leads to the emotional beats the movie relies on to fail. 

Overall Ballad Of A Small Player is a bold move but unfortunately one that leaves a lot more to be desired, there’s just not enough detailed exploration here to really give the viewer anything to chew on.

Ballad Of A Small Player is available on Netflix.

5/10 C

Quick Review: All Of You (2025)

When a new test matching soulmates together comes between two best friends, they spend the next twelve years trying to resist the urge to disrupt the paths their lives have taken despite the undeniable feeling they belong together.

All Of You is directed by William Bridges which is his directorial debut. 

Not a whole lot to report on here, All Of You is a romance movie that starts out promising enough but then quickly runs into a lot of the exact same problems that a lot of modern romance movies do. The main one being that the chemistry between the leads is about the only part going for it. 

Brett Goldstein is incredibly charming and Imogen Poots is gives a pretty touching performance that has a lot of beautiful moments. Unfortunately the side characters only serve the story and have very little going on which takes away a lot of the power this movie was building up. The side characters ultimately feel disposable which in turn hurts the movie quite a bit. 

The dialogue starts out decent enough but quickly gets tangled in its own web, the idea of time wasted is such a heartbreaking premise that it’s genuinely surprising the movie wastes a lot of time doing way too many time jumps. The sci-fi elements feel incredibly wasted and were begging for a much better script. 

All Of You is available on Apple TV+ 

5/10 C