Sundance Film Review: Zi (2026)

In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night-and possibly her life.

Zi is directed by Kogonada director of Columbus (2017), After Yang (2021) and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025).

Zi is a return to form for Kogonada, after last year’s disappointing A Big Bold Beautiful Journey it is nice to see Kogonada return to what he’s best at. Although Zi is heavily flawed and is still not as great as Kogonada’s first two films, there is still a lot to like here and there’s some genuinely great moments that make Zi shine.

The performances from Michelle Mao and Haley Lu Richardson are both quite strong here, the two have great chemistry that over the course of the film builds into something beautiful. There are some silly moments in between it all, Richardson’s character El immediately starts crying for Zi (played by Michelle Mao) after only meeting her for 10 minutes. However that actually does work here as the film is going for a much more experimental direction and I do think what ends up getting revealed later on justifies this. Mao and Richardson play their characters well and have some very real moments, there is some great facial acting and quiet moments that help build their bond. Jin Ha who plays Min gets the short end of the stick, his character is underdeveloped and just not all that interesting, he does however show off his great singing voice (he’s been on Broadway).

The writing is the film’s weakest point, the story is a very thinly written narrative. The premise here is Zi gets visions of the future and sees an older version of El, the two meet and from there very little happens. There’s just not a whole lot to chew on here writing wise, with that being said there’s beautiful moments that do happen and I do think the ending wraps it up nicely.

It’s a much more experimental film compared to A Big Bold Beautiful Journey it’s an incredibly small budget of these characters walking around in the city. Admittedly the city element does bring some excellent atmosphere that does create this beautiful tone to the film. The score is beautiful as always when it comes to Kogonada’s films, it fits the atmosphere that is required and brings this level of beauty and warmth that helps elevate the film.

Overall Zi is definitely an improvement over A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025), it’s a nice return of what Kogonada is best at. If you can get past the thin story you should be able to enjoy this one for what it is.

Zi currently has no release date.

6/10 C+

Predator: Badlands (2025) Film Review

Cast out from its clan, an alien hunter and an unlikely ally embark on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

Predator: Badlands is directed by Dan Trachtenberg director of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), Prey (2022) and Predator: Killer Of Killers (2025). The film serves as the seventh installment in the Predator franchise.

When Prey (2022) revived interest in the Predator films I was very excited to see what he had in store next. To everyone’s surprised he had not one but TWO films planned out. Earlier this year Predator: Killer Of Killers released and as I said in my review it was excellent and that trend continues with Predator: Badlands, watching all three of these films it’s very clear that Trachtenberg loves the Predator franchise and that is especially clear here. Badlands has excellent performances, satisfying action scenes, this large in scale exploration and beautiful yet simple character writing that really goes a long way.

The performances are excellent, the center focus is Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning both of who give some of the best performances of the year. The two also dive quite deep into their characters and really bring out some truly fun and beautiful moments. Koloamatangi plays Dek a young Yautja outcast, while his character may seem like the typical warrior who needs to prove himself. The film goes a lot further than that, as he goes on his journey we get to see his character slowly but surely build over time, Koloamatangi’s performance really puts in the work as well. We can hear tons of emotion even through the Yautja speech, it gets to the point where you want to root for him and hope he accomplishes his mission. There’s a surprising amount of depth here that you do not see very often with these films, it might be a bit simple yes but it’s there and it helps build Dek into this quite interesting character we follow.

Elle Fanning plays a dual performance, Thia a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who travels with Dek and Tessa a Weyland-Yutani synthetic and Thia’s sister, she serves as the antagonist of the film. What Elle Fanning captures the excellent balance of good and evil masterfully here, in one corner you have Thia who is hilarious, fun and a person who just wants to see the good in people. Then you have Tessa the cold, evil and whose only goal is to complete her mission. She puts up this fake act of caring for Thia all for taking advantage of her to get what she wants. Elle Fanning does such a brilliant job of bringing depth to both these characters, she’s able to show off just how wonderful she is as an actress while having so much fun with the performances. The trope of clone/evil versions of characters can be a bit on the lame side, however it absolutely works here due to just how much personality and power Fanning puts into both her performances.

The world building is quite fantastic, it’s definitely one of those films where the visuals of the film’s world as well as the large in scale nature does all of the talking. The film feels like an open world video game, that you lose yourself in and never want to leave. This large in scale nature lets the viewer explore all the different landscapes and creatures on the planet, even if some of the creatures are on screen for a few minutes it still feels like we know a lot about them simply due to the detail and how large in scale the film really is.

The film’s writing has this depth to it that really adds on as the film progresses, the underdog story that may have started as something simple evolves into a bigger beast. The film’s depth also has plenty of fun moments of dialogue, the humor works surprisingly well which is mainly due to the bond of Dek and Thia. The two characters have this fun and surprisingly wholesome bond that we slowly get to see form throughout the film. Which makes later scenes a bit more devastating when future events unfold.

Overall Predator: Badlands is yet another fantastic installment to the Predator franchise. It’s not known yet if Trachtenberg will be directing another Predator film, but I sure do hope we get to see even more of his love for this franchise.

Predator: Badlands is available in Theaters!

10/10 A+

Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) Film Review

Zora Bennett leads a team of skilled operatives to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park. Their mission is to secure genetic material from dinosaurs whose DNA can provide life-saving benefits to mankind. As the top-secret expedition becomes more and more risky, they soon make a sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the world for decades.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is directed by Gareth Edwards director of Monsters (2010), Godzilla (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and The Creator (2023). The film takes place three years after Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) and serves as the fourth installment in the Jurassic World series as well as being the seventh installment overall in the Jurassic Park series.

I had some sort of hope that Gareth Edwards could turn the ship around with the Jurassic Park franchise, a franchise that has been struggling in terms of quality for years now. While this movie is a lot better than Fallen Kingdom and Dominion that’s hardly anything worth celebrating, as Rebirth has a ton of issues of its own that completely stop this movie from being any good.

The cast does the best they can with such a bland script that gives them characters who are about as interesting as cardboard cutouts. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey are all very talented actors who do have a few scenes here that work. But unfortunately most of them are heavily affected by the script that does not give them anything investing to do. I get the audience of these films mostly care about the dinosaurs but when you have your characters reduced to flip notes that are instantly forgettable after watching that becomes a huge problem.

The only real positives here are some of the dinosaurs, solid visuals and the camerawork. The camerawork does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to moving the story along mainly due to the lack of an investing script, the dinosaurs are admittedly pretty neat and it’s nice to see them in action during some of the movie’s surprisingly decent action scenes. But those can only get you so far because soon after you are reminded of how bland everything else really is.

The movie tries to recapture what made the first Jurassic Park so magical and large in scale, they even try to flat out recreate these scenes but of course they don’t match the original. Instead they feel like half baked attempts of trying to recreate it only because they will get people pointing their finger at the screen and saying “Oh I know that scene it’s like from the very first film!” it’s painfully obvious what they were doing here and as you probably have guessed it completely misses. When it comes to scale there’s moments where Gareth Edwards works his magic, even in Edwards’s weaker films he is always bring this large in scale feel which is present throughout this movie. But like most of the movie, the writing really holds it back from potentially having these beautiful moments.

Finally there’s the writing which is the main culprit of why this movie just doesn’t come together, it’s very much a below average adventure movie with dinosaurs. If the Jurassic Park or World name wasn’t on it this would have been ignored. The characters are cliched with very little going on development wise, the story is generic and has no stakes at all. The movie wants to brand itself as this new experience for the franchise yet it desperately tries to do what the first Jurassic Park did.

Overall there really isn’t much more to say about Jurassic World: Rebirth this might entertain some viewers and I guess it’s an improvement over the last two films but is that really anything worth celebrating?

Jurassic World: Rebirth is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

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

Daniela Forever (2025) Film Review

After his girlfriend dies in an accident, a grieving man joins a sleep trial that allows him to rebuild his life with her through the use of lucid dreams.

Daniela Forever is directed by Nacho Vigalondo director of Timecrimes (2007), Extraterrestrial (2011), Open Windows (2014) and Colossal (2016).

Daniela Forever suffers from having some really great ideas but just not executing them all that well, which is quite unfortunate because I do think the movie has some bright spots towards the end.

The acting is a mixed bag, Henry Golding gives a solid performance…during the last 20 minutes before that however is a bit painful to watch. There’s absolutely no subtlety with his performance or how his character Nicholas is feeling, that’s partly due to how messy the script really is. As I said Golding eventually recovers during the last 20 minutes but by then it’s too little and the viewer has more than likely checked out due to how chaotic and sloppy the movie really is. Beatrice Granno’s performance is serviceable but unfortunately the lack of chemistry with Golding is not doing the movie any favors.

There are some admittedly neat shots with some decent use of visual effects, it matches the sci-fi romance feel the movie is going for. The visuals actually do a better job at moving the story along than the writing in this case (which isn’t saying much given that the visuals are just fine.)

The writing has a lot of genuinely interesting ideas, there’s a somewhat intriguing middle portion but that’s really where it ends. The movie focuses way too much on explanations rather than letting a scene sit with the viewer, there’s even more explanations about obvious rules about dreams in general. This takes away a lot of the intrigue the movie might have had previously and instead leaves the viewer more confused as to why this needed to be explained.

The chemistry between Golding and Granno is just not there at all, the dialogue has very little going for it as well. Outside of a few moments that are genuinely sweet, it feels very bare bones with nothing for the viewer to chew on about these characters.

Overall there really is not much else to say about Daniela Forever, but the execution is incredibly lacking and leaves the viewer wanting more.

Daniela Forever releases in theaters Friday and on all VOD platforms July 22nd

4/10 D+

40 Acres (2025) Film Review

Surviving on an isolated farm after a series of plagues and wars, a former soldier and her family make one last stand against a vicious militia that wants to take their land.

40 Acres is directed by R.T. Thorne which is his directorial debut!

All I knew going into 40 Acres was that Danielle Deadwyler was in the cast which was a sign that I needed to check this one out. Deadwyler has quickly become one of my favorite actresses working today, a major part is due to how consistently she delivers fantastic performances and here is no exception. I also have to say for a directorial debut it’s a very interesting swing this film took, including some cannibalistic militia, family bonding and some pretty brutal action. All of this combined together makes for quite an interesting little movie.

As I said before Danielle Deadwyler is a fantastic actress so there is no surprise that she ends up being the best part of the film, there’s something about her tone of voice that is truly effective and that’s really present here. Her interactions with the rest of the cast are raw and lead to some quite effective family dynamic bits that make you care for these characters. Deadwyler does such a great job of keeping each scene interesting, she leads this film to success the whole way through. A mother character wanting to protect their family isn’t anything new but the way Deadwyler portrays Hailey Freeman is effective, raw and absolutely fun to watch.

The rest of the cast are great, Kataem O’Connor, Michael Greyeyes and Leenah Robinson get time to shine in certain scenes. The main focus is very much on Deadwyler, but the rest of the cast do get to be involved and are quite great at moving the plot along at this solid and focused pace. There just isn’t any heavy character writing going on with them.

When it comes to world building 40 Acres does a pretty solid job of giving the viewer the basic rundown, Thorne keeps things grounded by telling us background details of what led to a lack of resources. He tells us this through the grounded script that he and Glenn Taylor wrote, it’s a post apocalyptic story that has much more realism to it than a lot of others one do, yes it does have some traditional genre beats but that does not stop the film from being genuinely powerful with its family dynamics at times.

The cinematography combined with the location is beautiful and fits the film incredibly well, right from the beginning you can feel the thrilling atmosphere in the air. It does take some time to get going again but once the action kicks back in the film keeps building up from there. The cinematography from Jeremy Benning is detailed, and with the help of Thorne’s knowledge of music video directing he’s able to combine the cinematography and music together to make so very well done scenes. There’s one scene in particular that may feel a bit out of place, which there is definitely an argument to be made that it is. However I think Thorne combined with Benning’s cinematography makes it work in the long run.

Finally there’s the action which does actually get brutal towards the end, the film very much focuses on the family dynamics however the action is still incredibly effective when it pops up. There’s this sense of thrills that makes you want to root for the family to make it out of this situation.

Overall 40 Acres is a solid thriller that has this big in scale feel that is quite striking, Danielle Deadwyler’s performance alone warrants a watch but if you are also looking for a thrilling ride with some strong action and family dynamics I recommend giving this one a go.

40 Acres releases July 2nd in theaters.

7/10 B

M3GAN 2.0 (2025) Film Review

Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, her creator, Gemma, resorts to resurrecting her infamous creation in order to take down Amelia, the military-grade weapon who was built by a defense contractor who stole M3GAN’s underlying tech.

M3GAN 2.0 is directed by Gerard Johnstone director of Housebound (2014) and M3GAN (2022). M3GAN 2.0 is a serves as a sequel to M3GAN (2022).

M3GAN 2.0 is one of those sequels where they go in a completely different direction genre wise, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something you have to make sure you execute it well, where as the first film was a campy horror movie that I actually quite like (I am not as high on it as I was back when it first released but still a solid movie.) M3GAN 2.0 is an action sci-fi film that goes for this Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) type of feel, which although the movie mostly lands there are some glaring issues.

The performances are fine enough, with the exception of Jenna Davis who once again does a really great job as the voice of M3GAN. Plus Ivanna Sakhno does great as AMELIA although the lines she is given are a bit basic she makes them work quite well, the action scenes involving Sakhno work mainly due to AMELIA as a character actually being quite interesting and fun. M3GAN as a character gets some nice development here, there’s this light theme of redemption going on here which I do think is actually some of the movie’s best moments. There’s some decent dialogue between M3GAN and Gemma (played by Allison Williams), it’s not anything special but it is admittedly quite fun.

Allison Williams and Violet McGraw unfortunately aren’t as good here as they were in the previous film and I honestly can’t exactly pinpoint why, maybe it’s because their characters worked a lot better in a traditional horror film or they never really match up to the chaos the script is asking for. Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps are given a lot more to do this time around, it’s nice to see them more involved but this still does not push their characters in the interesting territory. They fill their roles fine enough but that’s really where it ends.

As I said before this movie goes for a completely different direction from the first movie, if you loved the horror and the tension from the first movie you are going to be incredibly disappointed with this one. Because the horror just isn’t here with the tension being nonexistent, instead we have an action sci-fi film that has very light horror elements. The action scenes are actually pretty fun, there is not anything super impressive here but the fun factor is there. It’s quite neat to see M3GAN and AMELIA fight and I do like the use of the environments while these action scenes are occurring. The choreography is also quite well done which also helps these action scenes stand on their legs.

The writing is a mixed bag, while there is some commentary about AI it’s very surface level. The character writing unfortunately really does not go anywhere (M3GAN is the only one who actually gets some real meat from the writing) and the jokes are the definition of a hit or miss type of situation. There’s some jokes that I found decently funny while others just make you roll your eyes, there’s a lot of ideas that are interesting such as the commentary on AI and the theme of redemption. But they are done in this very surface level way that you ultimately forget about by the end.

Finally there’s the pacing combined with the runtime, this is one of those cases where you can really feel that the movie is dragging out and unfortunately it ends up costing the movie, which is a shame because I do think for the most part it’s a fun little ride.

Despite my problems with M3GAN 2.0 I do not think it’s necessarily a terrible movie, there’s a lot of fun to be had here and I do think M3GAN is a fun character. This is just a sequel that is a step down from the previous movie and not something that I think I will ever revisit, if you like action sci-fi movies you may like this one.

M3GAN 2.0 is currently in theaters.

6/10 C+

Predator: Killer Of Killers (2025) Film Review

A Viking raider, a ninja in feudal Japan, and a World War II pilot encounter a fierce intergalactic hunter.

Predator: Killer Of Killers is directed by Dan Trachtenberg director of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and Prey (2022). Predator: Killer Of Killers is the sixth film and the eighth installment of the Predator franchise.

After Prey (2022) was released with large amounts of praise, there was no doubt that there would be another Predator film, first they announced Predator: Badlands which releases later this year in November. Predator Killer Of Killers was a secret film that Trachtenberg was working on and the film further shows that Trachtenberg is doing truly creative and exciting things with the Predator franchise.

The first thing you will notice is how beautifully animated the film really is, I could go on for hours of how wonderfully done each and every scene really is. The amount of attention to detail helps build each and every scene, the characters are expressive and finally we have action scenes which in a lot of ways do have this Saturday morning cartoon feel but not in a bad way. The action scenes do such a great job of moving this film along at such a nice pace that compliments the atmosphere which manage to be dark, fun and tense at the same time.

The characters are simple yet effective, there is not any groundbreaking character writing here. But that ultimately does not hurt the film since the characters work just fine on their own. Ursa, Kenji and John J. Torres all get their own segment which ultimately leads up the final segment of the film. Their stories are admittedly a bit of the same in terms of what exactly happens (which is why I chose not to talk about each segment individually), with that being said it is simply very neat to see the predator travel through different periods of time and combine that with some really strong action scenes. Plus there are some genuine moments here where you do want to see the main three character’s loved ones survive.

The final segment is especially really strong, a giant colosseum battle that is so pleasing to watch. The buildup the film has been setting up pays off incredibly well and goes all out, it helps that we also got some pretty effective world building that I do hope we get to see in future films. There is a lot going on during this giant battle that is filled to the brim with fun character moments, the predators speaking in their native language and of course more beautifully done scenes thanks to the animation.

Overall Predator: Killer Of Killers is a lot of fun and one of the best installments of the franchise, it is filled to the brim with creativity even when some segments result in the same outcome that ultimately does not hurt the film as the film is beautifully made, written and executed.

Predator: Killer Of Killers is available on Hulu!

9/10 A

Thunderbolts (2025) Film Review

Ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker — embarks on a dangerous mission that forces them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.

Thunderbolts is directed by Jake Schreier director of Robot & Frank (2012) and Paper Towns (2015). Thunderbolts is the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

To say Thunderbolts is a breath of fresh air for the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be a huge understatement, a lot of the flaws to some of the more recent installments of the universe are not present here. Instead we get a lot of genuinely beautiful moments mixed with the film tackling some themes that might not exactly be groundbreaking in execution but the way the film goes about executing them is quite great. Combine that with some really strong acting, action scenes and engaging dialogue and you have yourself one of the best installments to the MCU in quite a while.

The performances are all fantastic across the board, everyone here gets a chance to shine even when some have very limited time on screening. Florence Pugh is one of the major standouts, she carries a lot of the dramatic weight of the film and puts so much passion and power into Yelena as a character. The character moments we get from her is quite beautiful and even heartbreaking at times, there are moments here that actually make the viewer tear up a bit, Pugh is a powerhouse actress as I’ve said in the past and here is no exception. She’s able to really build this whole different look to Yelena that are different from her past appearances while also complimenting them as well, Pugh is also able to have this wonderful balance between her dramatic moments and her comedic ones. The humor is actually quite hilarious here so Pugh is able to take advantage of it and work her magic, lastly the action scenes with Pugh are fantastic and always a treat to watch due to how committed she really is.

Lewis Pullman who plays Bob or Sentry/Void is the other major standout, he delivers this complex and sympathetic character who is constantly at war with himself. At first he may not seem like much but as the film goes on we see the character building in action which quickly pushes Pullman to one of the film’s best assets, this where the theme of mental health kicks in and it is very well integrated into Bob’s character arc. There’s one particular moment that is a highlights this incredibly well, Pullman just overall gives a fantastic performance that is truly beautifully done. Much like Pugh, he’s able to have this balance of dramatic and comedic moments. The timing is especially well done and his facial acting combined with his character clearly struggling gets the viewer more and more invested as it goes on.

Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen and David Harbour are all quite great, they all work incredibly well together. The banter between them is fun and the team chemistry is filled to the brim with charm, even if some get more bigger moments than others you still are invested in these characters. All of their personalities all blend together very nicely and have this genuine connection, it helps that the writing actually does help build these characters.

Speaking of which the script from Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo is truly fascinating here, not only is it a very fun time with humor that is genuinely fun. But there is a lot of dramatic moments that help push these characters, these moments help build them into something the viewer can connect with and there’s a lot of successful moments like these throughout the film. The theme of mental health although not exactly groundbreaking (as I said before) still feels like it’s coming from a place of honesty and shows what people can go through when they are at war with themselves (obviously in a more comic book way with giant voids but you get the point.)

The action scenes are incredibly well done, they are very well detailed the stunt team seriously knocks it out of the park here with quite honestly some of the best we have seen from the MCU. The cinematography from cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo is beautifully done, pays a lot of attention detail and has this large in scale feel that really captures the world of the film. It is the epic massive beast of a picture that is striking and lets the viewer look around at many given opportunities.

Overall Thunderbolts is a huge step in the right direction for the MCU, the film has a lot of the spirit of what made the Guardians Of The Galaxy films so great and even does it’s own thing as well. Even apart from the MCU (the film does not really have any easter eggs) the film is still fantastic and is just an overall excellent film that is both fun and filled to the brim with heart.

Thunderbolts is currently in theaters

10/10 A+

The Assessment (2025) Film Review!

In a not-so-distant future where parenthood is strictly controlled, a couple’s mysterious seven-day assessment for the right to have a child unravels into a nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of society.

The Assessment is directed by Fleur Fortuné which is her directorial debut!

The Assessment really impressed me, not only because of how fantastic this was for a directorial debut. But how surprisingly grounded of a sci-fi story in a lot of ways, it also takes a somewhat high concept and goes all out with what it can with a low budget ($8 million.) There is so much attention to detail with this film’s world, to the point where I wanted to keep exploring this film’s world even when the credits rolled.

The performances from the cast are some of the best so far this year, Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander and Himesh Patel are all fantastic here in each of their own ways. Elizabeth Olsen gives one of the best performances of her career, the many emotions she goes through during the film and how quickly she’s able to match the atmosphere is truly incredible to watch. She has great chemistry with Himesh Patel who’s just as great as Olsen. Patel and Olsen have strong chemistry between one another that you really do buy them as parents and hear them out with their issues.

Alicia Vikander however is the show stealer, she gives such a bonkers, wild and intense performance that really drives home the point of the film’s themes. This is by far the best performance from Vikander in a while, Vikander quickly going from acting like a normal person to a toddler as part of Mia and Aaryan’s assessment is comedic, disturbing and at times uncomfortable. The atmosphere compliments that well with it bouncing around between being comedic and uncomfortable, Vikander takes advantage of this and never holds back. It helps that the writing completely matches the actions of Vikander’s character Virginia who’s just such a fascinating and well written character that truly captures the film’s world.

The film is a scaled down sci-fi film when it comes to production design and that was definitely the smartest move. Everything in this film’s world feels a lot more natural, as I said before it’s a much more grounded story than you usually see in sci-fi films. The film does such an excellent job of keeping it as natural as possible while also having a few out there ideas that still match the more raw tone the film is going for.

The direction from Fortuné is what really makes this work, showcasing three incredibly talented actors going all out with their performances is an absolute recipe for success and that’s no exception here. The themes of parenthood and environment are well done, offering ideas that the viewer may have not even thought about. The film shows a lot of the dark side of these themes and how they could end up in the future which again the film manages to capture with its atmosphere and direction.

As I’ve been saying throughout this review the atmosphere is always consistent and is a major key as to why the film works as well as it does. When the film needs thrilling and darker moments the atmosphere delivers (there’s a few scenes in particular that really showcase this) when the film needs some more happy moments the atmosphere will also give the film that as well. It especially helps the performances and just how fascinating they are, each character has their own path and you really feel that throughout the film.

The world building is incredibly top notch, sure we are restrained to a house but just by looking at the background, the house itself and from what the characters tell us it’s more than enough to connect to the film’s world. It’s to the point where you really want to stick around and explore more even when the film ends.

Overall The Assessment is a fantastic film, showcasing some of the best performances so far this year with some incredible world building and excellent direction! I highly recommend this one!

The Assessment is currently in theaters.

9/10 A