Hedda (2025) Film Review

HEDDA (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt–pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.

Hedda is directed by Nia DaCosta director of Little Woods (2018), Candyman (2021) and The Marvels (2023).

Nia DaCosta knocks it out of the park with Hedda, a very confidently directed film that displays tons of fantastic performances, visually stunning, and some clever build up that captures the atmosphere that is needed to make the film work in the end.

The performances are a delightful to watch, Tessa Thompson gives a career best worthy performance that fills the screen with passion for her character Hedda. Thompson is able to show her acting power here which leads to a complex and layered performance, she brings Hedda to life as this character who is a agent of chaos who will sit back and enjoy the show. Thompson’s subtle acting with her eyes, breathing or even just standing completely still make the film all the more effective. One of the best performances of the year as well as one of the most passionate ones.

Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots are both incredibly strong here as well, Hoss definitely gets the bigger part as she gives a volcanic performance that shows great deal of strength and range. Her chemistry with Thompson oozes with passion and immediately hits you with this electric type of feel. Much like Thompson, she’s able to portray a complex character brilliantly and in this way that will keep the viewer invested throughout the film.

The cinematography from Sean Bobbitt is absolutely wonderful here, what makes this a very interesting and clever case is the camerawork and how well the stories and emotions of the characters are told through the camera movements. Even when there are some scenes that do not have the writing to back them up, you have the clever use of the camera to back the film up and the results are genuinely beautiful. Due to this we get to see the performances shine front and center, with tons of attention to detail with the costumes and the many conversations that take place throughout the film.

The writing is sharp, very well blended together and has a lot of passion going on here. While it does take a bit to get going, the setup of the film is worth it and ultimately builds to a final act that is very worthy and fits the film like a glove. The atmosphere that is attached to the writing as well as the film’s world is rich and perfectly captures the “whodunnit” genre, it has this classic Hollywood feel that Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss radiate throughout the film with each and every scene.

Overall Nia DaCosta lands her best film to date, it’s a confidently directed film with clever camerawork and excellent performances. It might have a slow start but once it gets going there is so much to absolutely fall in love with.

Hedda is available on Amazon Prime Video.

9/10 A

War Of The Worlds (2025) Film Review

A computer security analyst working for the U.S. government finds his daily life disrupted by an alien attack. Accustomed to dealing with virtual threats, his struggle extends to secrets the government may be hiding.

War Of The Worlds is directed by Rich Lee which is directorial debut. The film is based on H.G. Wells’s 1989 novel The War Of The Worlds.

We all know what The War Of The Worlds is, it’s a classic story when it comes to science fiction. There’s been plenty of film and TV adaptations ranging from varying degrees of quality, I have not seen all of them (and quite frankly don’t plan on it) but War Of The Worlds (2025) is a very special case. It’s one of those films that is so bafflingly bad that you start to ask yourself “is this movie even real?” You know a film is going to be terrible when 6 days before release the trailer gets sent out and is met with so much laughter due to how terrible it looks, the tagline for the movie is “it’s worse than you think” and wow that is incredibly accurate…

For starters Ice Cube gives one of the most bafflingly bad performances in recent memory, Ice Cube is normally pretty okay as an actor but with this movie there is not one single moment where his acting connects with the viewer or even himself. For a large majority of the movie it seems like Ice Cube is confused and lost, maybe that’s due to the terrible screenplay that completely misunderstands the whole screenlife genre that the movie is going for. The conversations that Ice Cube has with the rest of the cast are about as good as when the teacher in your early morning english or reading class would ask you to read a part of the book you are reading for the class. It’s some of the worst line reading you could imagine, there were moments where my jaw was on the floor due to how much of not caring there really is here.

I mentioned this earlier but this movie goes for a screenlife approach, you know films like Searching (2018), Host (2020), Unfriended: Dark Web (2018) and a few others? Making a screenlife War Of The Worlds adaption is not a bad idea. In fact that’s a pretty interesting concept that combined with the science fiction elements could actually make for a decent movie….unfortunately the movie does not do any of that well at all. A large problem here is that there’s heavy Amazon product placement which almost immediately takes you out of the movie (if you were even invested to begin with) and it really sticks out like a sore thumb. The whole screenlife element while may look cool really does not get used in any unique ways, it really seems like screenwriters Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman had absolutely no idea how to make the concept work despite having a lot of the right material in front of their faces.

Finally the movie itself is just painfully hard to sit through, a majority of the characters are terrible and are only there to be killed off hence why I haven’t really mentioned the rest of the case besides Ice Cube. The story itself goes in a very predictable direction that if you watch the first 10 minutes you can easily tell what happens and the CGI is laughably terrible some of the worst you will ever see from a movie this year.

I’m not sure what else there is to be said about War Of The Worlds it completely fails both as an adaption and as its own film, this is definitely one of those movies where it kind of must be seen to be believed. If you like terrible films that are so bafflingly bad then this might be for you.

War Of The Worlds is available on Amazon Prime Video.

No good qualities just absolute garbage F

Heads Of State (2025) Film Review

U.S. President Will Derringer and British Prime Minister Sam Clarke have a not-so-friendly and very public rivalry. However, when Air Force One gets shot down over enemy territory, they find themselves on the run and working together to thwart a global conspiracy that threatens the entire free world.

Heads Of State is directed by Ilya Naishuller director of Hardcore Henry (2015) and Nobody (2021).

Heads Of State is not as bad as you would think, that’s mainly due to the fun cast, the direction from Naishuller, some decently timed comedic scenes and even some fun action scenes. The movie unfortunately does fall apart due to the story not really being that investing and a bit formulaic, having that said there’s a lot to like here.

The performances are fun especially Idris Elba and John Cena who both play the buddy cop duo very well, they play off of each other and have fun little banters that keep the movie going at this solid pace. The two’s back and forth are great with fun dialogue that does end up giving the viewer a decent amount to laugh at, it helps that Cena and Elba have the charm to make it work.

The action scenes and the camerawork are actually decently effective here, you get some genuinely great shots during the action filled moments. This does not come to much of a surprise due to Naishuller who’s worked on two incredibly well shot and beautifully done films that ooze with the action film atmosphere, Heads Of State has some of the DNA from Hardcore Henry (2015) and Nobody (2021) although on a much lesser scale (which is not a surprise given that this went straight to streaming.) the film’s action scenes are not anywhere near as good as the previously mentioned films but Naishuller is clearly having a lot of fun and does everything he can with these scenes. For the most part it ends up being effective, taking whatever he can to make a straight to streaming action film work. From what’s presented here and considering what he had to work with, he does a pretty solid job here.

The main flaw with Heads Of State is mainly the writing, while it’s certainly not terrible. It’s not that investing and does land in the formulaic territory, the movie does admittedly get weaker as it goes on mainly due to its nearly 2 hour run time combined with the slow pacing (Cena and Elba can only do so much when it comes to moving the film along.)

With that said, Heads Of State is not a bad movie, it’s one that misses some marks but is a fun enough time that will satisfy most action movie fans.

Heads Of State is available on Amazon Prime Video.

5/10 C

Another Simple Favor (2025) Film Review

Stephanie Smothers agrees to travel to Italy to be the maid of honour for the devious and cunning Emily Nelson. However, she soon suspects Emily’s good will is part of an elaborate plan for revenge.

Another Simple Favor is directed by Paul Feig director of Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), Ghostbusters (2016), A Simple Favor (2018), Jackpot (2024) and a few others. Another Simple Favor serves as a sequel to A Simple Favor (2018)

A Simple Favor (2018) is a film that I actually quite liked, I may not like it as much as when I first watched it but it’s still quite fun, has this humorous yet thrilling atmosphere and has some pretty solid performances from Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively who really sell the movie incredibly well. So I was interested when a sequel was announced mainly because I wondered where they could exactly go from here…this is not what I expected at all and not really in a good way.

Much like the first movie Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively steal the show here, their chemistry is just as solid as it was back in the first movie. The best moments always involved one of the two and the dialogue exchanges between the two are genuinely funny at times, Blake Lively actually plays a pair of twins with a dual performance (seems to be a common theme we are running into this year.) She plays Emily Nelson or Hope McLanden (from the first film) and Charity McLanden, Lively does a pretty solid job playing both performances here. There’s some genuinely entertaining moments that admittedly did give me a few laughs.

The costume design is the other part this movie nails, costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus sticks with the theme and setting of the film and manages to create some admittedly quite stunning works. Particularly with Blake Lively which really captures her characters incredibly well, combine that with the production design from Martin Whist and the cinematography from John Schwartzman and you have yourself a surprisingly beautiful looking film. Considering how a lot of straight to streaming films tend to really struggle with trying to bring out a certain style or be visually appealing, this was a surprise and solid accomplishment.

Having that said what completely stops Another Simple Favor dead in its tracks is the writing, I actually thought the first bit of the film does a pretty decent job of setting up the atmosphere of the film then when we get to the third act that’s when things get incredibly ridiculous. This is like if you took Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) and instead of having the fun atmosphere you replace it with a very poorly written murder mystery that is nonsensical, admittedly there are times where it is so ridiculous that I bursted out laughing. But when it comes to a writing standpoint it’s a complete and total mess.

I get why they did this, they clearly wanted to avoid just repeating the first film again. Whereas the first film was more grounded, creative and fun (not in a completely over the top way), Another Simple Favor really jumps the shark constantly and leaves the viewer with a “what on earth just happened” and not in a good way. Everything is lazily thrown at the wall to see what sticks with barely anything doing so, the movie for some reason decides to make itself more complicated when it does not need to be and the dialogue from the other characters is forgettable.

Overall Another Simple Favor is a bad sequel, but you could do far worse. The third act for some can be a so bad it’s hilarious type of thing and in some cases it is. But when compared to the first film and when you take a look at the writing it’s a major step down.

Another Simple Favor is available on Amazon Prime Video.

4/10 D+

Holland (2025) Film Review

Teacher and homemaker Nancy Vandergroot’s picture-perfect life with her husband and son in Holland tumbles into a twisted tale. Nancy and her colleague become suspicious of a secret, only to discover nothing in their lives is what it seems.

Holland is directed by Mimi Cave director of Fresh (2022).

Holland is one of those movies where you just have to ask yourself “what on earth happened here?” I loved Mimi Cave’s directorial debut Fresh (2022) it was disturbing, had some strong dark humor and the acting was top notch as well. So I was excited to see what Cave would do next, I had a lot of hope for this one due to Cave in the director’s chair as well as the cast. Unfortunately this movie is a major step down from Fresh (2022) and is just a complete and total mess in every way possible.

The best part of this is the acting, while none of these performances are anything groundbreaking. Nicole Kidman, Jude Hill and Gael García Bernal turn in decent enough performances that at least make some parts of the movie tolerable. Kidman does a lot of heavy lifting with a lot of scenes, it’s a shame the script is such a mess because Kidman fits in a movie like this and would deliver such a better performance had the script actually been coherent. It’s worth noting that Rachel Sennott appears for 2 minutes of the movie at the beginning of this mess and is never seen again.

Everything else about this movie is as I said before a complete and total mess and that mainly comes from the writing, the story is jumbled together like a Frankenstein’s monster type of mess. The twist is something you could predict within the first 15 minutes, the story leads to a thoroughly dull investigation that has absolutely no sense of tension or thrills. It’s the most bland route this movie could have gone and it unfortunately turned to that route.

The movie attempts to explore this theme of revealing darkness hiding beneath the exterior of a suburban paradise, which is a fun concept but it’s been done so much better before there’s absolutely nothing different here that’s done with the idea. Some of the shots of the film and music try to create some sort of atmosphere to complement the darkness, but it just does not work at all due to the movie’s pacing being a slog which in turn takes away the viewer’s focus as well as the supposed darkness.

It’s unfortunate because Holland could have been a really great film, but unfortunately the writing severely holds this one back from greatness and gives these talented actors very little to work with. This is by far the most disappointing movie of 2025 so far.

Holland is available on Amazon Prime Video.

3/10 D-

Quick Review: My Fault: London (2025)

An 18-year-old girl moves from America to London with her mother and wealthy stepfather. She meets her stepbrother, and an attraction brews despite their efforts. Unaware, her estranged father tracks her down after release from prison

My Fault: London is directed by Dani Girdwood and Charlotte Fassler which is their directorial debut. The film serves as a remake of the 2023 Spanish film My Fault which is based on the novel Culpa Mía by Mercedes Ron.

First and foremost I have not seen the original Spanish film, I had no idea this was a remake before watching it and considering how I felt about this movie and the reviews for the original I did not bother watching the original.

I’m not exactly sure what to really say here about My Fault: London there’s the occasional decent shot from cinematographer Ed Moore who does a surprisingly solid job of building certain scenes. It is not anything mind blowing but for a movie like this it was definitely not expected. The acting is rough, Asha Banks and Matthew Broome try the best they can with a script that is very much fanfiction like (it does not help that this was originally a Wattpad story) which leads to a lot of laughably bad moments and ones that really make you regret watching (falling in love with your stepbrother plot is here).

The 119 minute running time also heavily hurts the movie, it overstays its welcome almost immediately and never really picks back up. There are some decent visuals here but they admittedly do not serve any point outside of making the movie look a touch better, I give props for at least attempting to make one of these films based on a Wattpad story look decent visually.

I don’t have much else to say, what you see is what you get with My Fault: London I’m clearly not the target audience for this one, there’s definitely far worse out there but that is not exactly a compliment.

My Fault: London is available on Amazon Prime Video.

3/10 D-

You’re Cordially Invited (2025) Film Review!

A woman planning her sister’s ideal wedding and the father of a bride-to-be discover their destination weddings at a remote resort are double-booked. When both parties decide to share the small venue, chaos ensues and disaster awaits.

You’re Cordially Invited is directed by Nicholas Stoller director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Neighbors (2014), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Bros (2022) and a few others.

You’re Cordially Invited is very much a bad early 2000s romantic comedy movie that somehow ended up releasing in the 2020s, while it’s not one of the absolute worst out there (trust me they could have done a lot worse) this movie suffers from some of the exact same problems as a lot do in the genre.

I will say for the first 30 minutes or so the movie actually had a promising start, the jokes were decently funny, Will Farrell was giving a genuinely touching performance as a father who desperately wants to make his daughter’s marriage the best it can be. Geraldine Viswanathan was actually not bad here in the supporting role, she gives a genuine performance that isn’t really affected from the movie’s over the top style it tries to use for the rest of the movie. It’s not a mind blowing performance by any means but it is a decent one that does make you feel invested towards her.

Unfortunately the rest of the movie goes towards a very over the top style that was common in the 2000s, sometimes it worked other times it didn’t and here is an example of it NOT working. Will Farrell’s usual shtick appears that takes so much away from his character and turns him into familiar territory that we have already seen Farrell do before. Reese Witherspoon is fine enough of here but much like Farrell doesn’t really do anything we haven’t seen her do before.

The writing is filled to the brim with predictable plot elements, terrible jokes and it becomes incredibly cliched. It’s also one of those movies where it does not know when to end, there’s so many points where the movie could have easily ended as all of the plot points were wrapped up but it still kept going on and on. There’s absolutely no reason why this needed to be 109 minutes long, stretching a romantic comedy like this is already asking for issues to arise but to cram in as many gags that go on for way longer than they should seals the movie’s fate.

Overall You’re Cordially Invited is incredibly forgettable, while it’s not the worst romantic comedy out there it is one of those movies where you put it on in the background while doing chores and don’t think much of it.

You’re Cordially Invited is available on Amazon Prime Video!

4/10 D+

Canary Black (2024) Film Review

Avery Graves, a CIA operative, is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive.

Canary Black is directed by Pierre Morel director of Taken (2008), The Gunman (2015), Peppermint (2018), The Ambush (2021), Freelance (2023) and a few others.

Oh Pierre Morel you made Taken (2008) a really good action film and never had that home run when it comes to action movies again. Canary Black is arguably his worst movie to date, think of the most cliched and terrible action thriller spy movie and the end result is Canary Black.

Kate Beckinsale is by far the best part about this movie, she actually gives a surprisingly decent performance that really makes you wish the movie itself was a lot better. The late Ray Stevenson is also pretty decent. There’s a few action scenes that are fine enough especially given this was a movie that was immediately sent to streaming.

Having that said the rest of the movie is so painfully bare bones that it hurts, as I said before it’s about as cliched as you can get. Running through a ton of bad guys without the elements that make a good action thriller spy movie, sure there are some decent action scenes every once in a while . But that’s all you really get, the writing is terrible and about as predictable you would expect, the characters are bare bones and have no real personalities outside of what’s given to them and the pacing is so incredibly slow that this movie feels far longer than 101 minutes.

I’m not sure what else I can really say? This is the very definition of release date fodder, a movie that the studio put out there because they needed something to fill in the gap.

Canary Black is available on Amazon Prime Video

3/10 D-

Brothers (2024) Film Review

Two criminal twin brothers, one trying to reform, embark on a dangerous heist road trip. Facing legal troubles, gunfights and family drama, they must reconcile their differences before their mission leads to self-destruction.

Brothers is directed by Max Barbakow director of Palm Springs (2020).

Brothers is the very definition of wasting a talented cast, what’s even more shocking is this is from the director of Palm Springs (2020) a film that was very likable and great as well. Brothers is the direct opposite and when you really boil down to it does not have a whole lot going on.

The performances are fine enough, Peter Dinklage, Josh Brolin, Brendan Fraser and Glenn Close all give the type of performances they are assigned. None of them are particularly good but they are still the best part about this movie. There’s actually a few particularly moments between Brolin, Dinklage and Close that are sweet even if the moments lack development.

The rest of the movie is filled with unfunny gags and a very uninteresting plot about collecting stolen emeralds from 30 years ago. It’s the type of action crime comedy movie we have seen a thousand times before it and we will most definitely see after it, if you have seen one of these movies before you could probably already guess what’s going to end up happening.

Really don’t have anything else to say here, Brothers is the very definition of a streaming movie that has a very talented cast but doesn’t bother to use them in an interesting way.

Brothers is available on Amazon Prime Video.

3/10 D-

House Of Spoils (2024) Film Review!

It tells the story of a chef who opens her first restaurant where she battles kitchen chaos, a dubious investor and self doubt, but the pressure heats up thanks to the spirit of the estate’s previous owner who threatens to sabotage her.

House Of Spoils is directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy who both previously directed Blow The Man Down (2019).

House Of Spoils is yet another misfire from Blumhouse, that really should not shock you given how bad of a year it’s been for them. While the movie isn’t as bad as Afraid, Imaginary or Nightswim that really does not say much at all.

Ariana DeBose is the only reason there’s positives here, without her the whole ship would sink. She gives the best performance she can really give with a script that is incredibly lacking in its own premise and even disinterested in doing something interesting as well.

The movie is close to doing something interesting with its premise but backs out at the last minute and goes for a much more safe and predictable route. A choice that heavily hurts this movie and makes a lot of scenes that previously happened feel incredibly pointless, which is a shame because the setup is decent but once the movie reaches its second half that’s when the movie just gives up and glosses over a lot of plot elements and characters that were established early on.

There’s no conflict with the characters, the horror is completely drained and the setup that had some creepy moments along with the atmosphere is replaced with jumpscares that anyone can see coming. At this point in the movie it truly makes you wonder why you even bothered in the first place as the movie renders itself as pointless.

Overall House Of Spoils is terrible, outside of the decent performance from Ariana DeBose and the occasional solid moments. This is a very wasted premise on a movie that doesn’t seem to care to grab the viewers attention.

House Of Spoils is available on Amazon Prime Video.

3/10 D-