What would you classify as the best film of 2025? One Battle After Another? Thunderbolts? Weapons?
I don’t actually care, because I’m more interested in talking about 2025’s hidden gems; films you missed because they got next to no marketing or because you were too busy to watch everything that came out.
The Unholy Trinity is a Western in which a young man tries to avenge his father’s hanging. Along the way, the protagonist comes across a sheriff (Pierce Brosnan), an associate of his father (Samuel L. Jackson), and a Blackfoot woman.
If you have an itch for tense Westerns with nail-biting action and numerous twists and turns, The Unholy Trinity will scratch it. Afternoons of Solitude by Albert Serra is an eye-opening documentary that follows Andres Roca Rey, a bullfighting star driven by his respect for tradition and a modicum of pride to test his mettle against the bulls waiting for him in the arena.
The movie may repel some viewers with its cruel violence while entrancing others with its contemplative brutality. Unfortunately, few people watched it. Caught Stealing by Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, The Fountain) follows Hank Thompson (Austin Butler), a former high school baseball player with a great girlfriend and a decent job.
Thompson can’t play baseball anymore, but had no significant complaints until his neighbour (Matt Smith) asked him to look after his cat for a few days, a task that should not have presented much of a challenge.
But then Thompson became the target of a crew of gangsters who want to do him harm, but won’t tell him why. Caught Stealing made $32 million on a $65 million budget, which is surprising because the acting on display is excellent.
Austin is the sort of charismatic, sweet-natured underdog you cannot help but root for. Expect a lot of comedy and violence. If you think sports movies are a dead genre with nothing new to offer, Eaphus by Bull Durham will prove you wrong.
Easily the best baseball film of the last ten years, Eaphus follows a team of middle-aged rivals facing off in one final game before their decrepit stadium is demolished. This is not one of those movies where the protagonists can miraculously save their precious stadium by winning a crucial match.
And yet, Durham (the director) makes the game matter with his grounded and humorous approach to the delightful drama unfolding on screen. Ghost Trail by Jonathan Millet (his feature directorial debut) is another film no one watched.
It has a 97% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but no audience score because not enough people submitted their reviews. Hamid (Adam Bessa), the protagonist, is a former Syrian professor now working as a construction worker in France after leaving prison.
Hamid just wants to move on with his life. But memories of his incarceration linger, eventually compelling the haunted soul to find and exact revenge on the man who tortured him behind bars, a target he can only identify through his voice and smell.
The director could have turned Ghost Trail into a loud, explosive spy thriller. But his restraint adds a haunting element to the final product. Drop by Christopher Landon (Disturbia, Happy Death Day, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) deserves more attention than it got.
The protagonist is Violet, a widowed mother who goes on her first date in years. Things are going well. Henry is great: good-looking, handsome, charming, and caring. Violet can’t believe her luck.
But then the evening takes a turn when she starts receiving anonymous messages on her phone commanding her to kill Henry. If she fails, the mysterious antagonist will kill her young son.
Honorable mentions include Hamnet by Chloe Zhao, which explores William Shakespeare and his wife’s grief when their son Hamnet dies, eventually inspiring the play Hamlet; Black Bag by Steven Soderberg, in which a spy (Micheal Fassbender) is tasked with finding the mole in his organization, but his wife (Cate Blanchett) is the prime suspect; No Other Choice by Park Chan-Wook, in which a financially desperate businessman tries to change his luck by killing potential rivals; and Eddington by Ari Aster, a modern-day Western in which a Sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and a mayor (Pedro Pascal) face off.
katmic200@gmail.com