‘I watched 52 new movies in 2025 and these hang-out me’ | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Last 12 months, as a substitute of reaching into the again catalogue of my consolation zone movies, I pledged to observe a brand new movie, or a movie new to me, each time I had the prospect.

I succeeded – however, as feared, I used to be usually left reeling with a super-cut of haunting vignettes flashing earlier than my eyes as I tried to sleep.

This was a worth I used to be prepared to pay to develop my cultural references and divest from the drained plotlines that grew to become not more than a soundtrack to my doomscrolling. There are six standouts – all are must-watches.

Do not watch this. People usually cite the ‘octopus scene’ because the one which sticks with them ceaselessly. This quaint culinary second looks like a second of Disney whimsy in comparison with the stark psychological horror of the movie’s plot twist.

Park Chan-Wook arguably didn’t must make this movie. As instructed by the identify, this movie may very simply fall into ‘Boy Film’ class (assume any movie that has develop into the topic of a non-consensual lecture from a person.)

That being mentioned, I watched this with my good friend, a boy, and we had been each so upset by the content material that we parted methods struggling to look one another within the eye.

When Emma Stone rolls her eyes at two males who’ve chemically castrated themselves in order to efficiently kidnap her, it appears like a good friend jovially mouthing ‘incel’ at you whereas gesturing to somebody. Stone is at her most charismatic enjoying a hard-nosed, high-heeled CEO who flouts prompts for higher DEI in her firm.

Down to his overgrown nails, Jesse Plemens is a tragic and intricately constructed loner and conspiracy theorist. Initially, I believed this was an authentic screenplay, so I used to be much more impressed by the difficult journey this movie takes you on.

In the setting of 1 workplace and one dwelling, Bugonia actually covers every little thing; class, masculinity, feminism, conspiracy, social media, the opiates epidemic, medical insurance, dying and the unstable bee inhabitants are all stabbed at. However, it transpired this movie is definitely primarily based on a 2003 South Korean sci-fi darkish comedy Save the Green Planet!

A tragic triumph from Lynne Ramsay, Robert Pattinson’s eerily correct portrayal of weaponised incompetence rattled me and bled into my real-world, shaking my belief in males for at the very least per week.

Jennifer Lawrence is superb, and makes use of her complete physicality to depict a lady chased into madness, while sustaining completely tousled honey-highlighted hair.

The ending felt absurd and thus fell somewhat flat, however that is little doubt a movie that may reveal extra of itself on a second watch.

This builds and builds till it reaches such a horrendous crescendo that I used to be compelled to take myself on a stroll to decompress. I spent any second I wasn’t pulling out my hair marvelling at Jennifer Conolly’s extremely stylish and interval correct outfits, courtesy of Laura Jean Shannon’s costume design.

The uncared for star of this movie is The Exorcist’s Ellen Bustyn. Although she is relegated to a sub-plot, she is the emotional core of this movie and her speedy descent right into a deadly mess of consuming issues, tablets and TV dependancy is a brutal commentary on working class America.

Zach Cregger has carried out the unthinkable – created a sympathetic character of a horror villain. This movie is a fragile steadiness of foolish and unsettling and has damaged the curse of the cop-out Devil rationalization for any actually gripping horror.

Supported by properly developed, hideous characters it is a uncommon horror that is smart and ties up its unfastened ends making for a satisfying weekend watch.

So a lot of this movie’s longevity – apart from its three and a half hour run time – is in that it insists upon its personal dialogue. There had been only a few individuals speaking about this movie when it got here out. Whether it was Adrian Brody’s grossly self-indulgent Oscar’s speech, its AI aspects, or the piercing relevance to immediately’s Israel.

Aside from its arresting cinematography, most notably the imposing marble quarries in Tuscany, the story made me really feel bodily sick at occasions. Guy Pearce delivers a really nauseating villain.