Movies
Year in Review - 2025
The List
(new to me in 2025)
It was a memorable year for the “leading man”
I started the year with Adrian Brody’s powerful performance as a Holocaust survivor trying to rebuild his life in America, and ended the year with Timothee Chalamet’s entertaining performance as a ping pong ace and world’s biggest narcissist. In between was Leo’s memorable performance (which is saying something with his catalog) as a stoner dad fighting to save his daughter in One Battle After Another. Each man portrayed markedly different characters, but all three riveted me with their deep commitment to their characters and complicated range of emotions.
My Favorite Movie of 2025
The Brutalist
Written By: David Corbet, Mona Fastvold
Director: David Corbet
Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola
Run Time: 3hrs 35 minutes
What more needs to be said about the Jewish American experience during and after World War II? Indeed, it is a story that should be retold again and again and again lest people forget how horrific the events of The Holocaust were. But it is also a story that is naturally familiar to audiences. Films like Schindler’s List, Sophie’s Choice, and The Pianist (also starring Adrian Brody, also winning him an Oscar) have expounded upon this important story in award-winning ways, making them timeless films that tell the tragic story about the abhorrent capability of man to subjugate his fellow man.
It’s with that context that I was intrigued by The Brutalist, and wondered what new perspective it had to tell? For starters, The Brutalist takes place after the war and the events of The Holocaust, following a Hungarian architect in his migration to the United States and his desire to still make something of a life interrupted.
The opening sequence of the film set the tone powerfully for what The Brutalist had to say about the contradiction that is life in America for an immigrant. Adrian Brody’s character, László Tóth, arrives to Ellis Island amidst the disorienting dark confines of a ship that just crossed the Atlantic, and the Statue of Liberty, beacon of freedom, is framed tilted on its side. If you’ve yet to see the movie, I implore you to watch the below 42 second clip.
So often it can be challenging for a film to meet the moment it finds itself in. In today’s world, immigration has become a divisive and unfortunate flashpoint in societies all across the world. The prevailing winds seem to favor the conservative, the viewpoint that the immigrant is not someone to be trusted, a stranger who should be made to feel strange in their new land.
In this context, I thought The Brutalist was a deeply necessary and valuable contribution to the depiction of the American immigrant. The film works on multiple levels, demonstrating the perverse impacts of wealth, and the way in which it can distort relationships and control destinies of the poor by the rich. Guy Pearce is a force in this film, and gives the performance of a lifetime as a wealthy baron looking to leave a legacy.
Ultimately the legacy that is remembered is the legacy of the architect he hires, Adrian Brody’s character. Though the ending may be a vindication, the journey to cement that legacy is a tragic one, and an ode to the immigrant challenge.
What I’m Most Excited For in 2026…
Project Hail Mary is far and away the movie I’m most interested in for 2026. Having just rewatched The Martian this past year and having read the source material via Andy Weir’s gripping novel, I’m really excited to see how they adapt this for the big screen.
I like Ryan Gosling in general and think this is a great casting for this role. I’m really tempted to re-read the book this Spring before the movie comes out just so I can experience it all again, it’s that good of a story.
Ultimately, sci-fi remains my favorite genre and epics my favorite kind of stories. If done well, this has the potential to be an absolute classic.
I’ll admit I’m actually a bit skeptical of this one. Whenever a movie has a giant cast of big name actors, you wonder how they’ll all come together neatly on screen. It’s also an adaptation, of course, of a very old story that will be a leap to take from text to screen.
But who better than Christopher Nolan to take that leap? I think until proven otherwise, Nolan really deserves the benefit of the doubt here and I have no doubt he has some creative ideas around how to do an adaptation like this.
While I worry that a project like this might be the beginning of the end (in quality) for one of this generation’s greatest directors, it also has the opportunity to be another seminal creative contribution to his already sterling track record.
