Companion (2025)

Like Presence, Companion was part of a Mystery screening at my local cinema and since Presence turned out to be a good film I thought that this film would be just as good but unlike the previous film I guessed this correctly. Companion is about Iris (played by Sophie Thatcher) who meets Josh (Jack Quaid) at the supermarket and then the story moves along in time with Irish and Josh arriving a house in the middle of nowhere that is owned by a russian who tries something with Iris who then kills him and the film’s twist is that Iris is a robot. Sadly Companion was sort of spoiled in the trailer so I knew that the twist but the film looks past that and becomes a cat and mouse chase with Josh trying to get Iris shut down and her attempts to prevent that.

GOOD POINT 01 - GOOD CENTRAL PERFORMANCE FROM SOPHIE THATCHER

The film has a great central performance from Sophie Thatcher. I thought that she was really good in Heretic and despite playing a robot, she makes Iris a likeable and real person. The film sort of has its cake and eats in when they make Iris really smart and then really dumb when the plot needs her to be. Thatcher manages to play different versions of the same character and do it very well. She is showing that Heretic wasn't a one off.

GOOD POINT 02 - JACK QUAID IS A VERY GOOD BADDIE

Jack Quaid gives one of his best performances as Josh. He comes across as likeable at the beginning but when the main plot kicks in, he becomes such a horrible antagonist and does a great job in making you hate him. He doesn't seem to have any qualms about getting Patrick to basically become a younger Terminator to hunt down Iris. Quaid should play more bad guys as she seems to do quite well with what he is given.

GOOD POINT 03 - SUPPORTING CHARACTERS GOOD BUT NOT TOO ANNOYING

The film does have a limited supporting cast but whilst they are young characters they aren't too annoying. Lukas Gage (Patrick) turned out to be another robot but the same sex relationship with Eli (Harvey Guillén) was well performed and Kat (Megan Suri) was fun to watch as someone who didn't like Iris and when it turns out that she is in cahoots with Josh made her character seem more interesting that it probably had any right to be. Rupert Friend is chewing the scenery and seems to be having fun doing it. He’s not in it very much but what we do see of him made him one of the highlights

GOOD POINT 04 - DOESNT BECOME AS SILLY AS IT COULD

Somehow the film doesn't become too silly. It does start to head that way when Josh is eating dinner prepared by Patrick whilst he basically tortures Iris and Patrick attacking the engineers because they reveal that the company will be able to see what Josh has been up to. Despite all this the film somehow manages to keep it together that's perhaps the most impressive thing about the entire film.

BAD POINT 01 -  JACK QUAID’S PLOT IS WAY TOO CONVOLUTED

As much as I think that Jack Quaid is great and the character is so unlikeable, the plot to get Iris to kill Sergey to take all his money does seem a little bit convoluted and there does seem to be a simpler plan to get the money. It might not have made for a better film but this is the closest that I could find to a bad point

OVERALL

I was genuinely surprised with how much I enjoyed this film. The trailer may have spoiled the twist but I still enjoyed the film enough that it might be one of my unexpected favourites of the year. The film has a good plot and good characters that make use of a restricted setting and the film zips along at 97 minutes and there isn't an ounce of fat that could have been cut. A rare thing in a modern day film.

Presence (2024)

 Presence isn't the sort of film I would have gone to the cinema but my local cinema did a ‘Mystery Screening’. It stated nothing but it was a horror film, coming out soon and the curious clue ‘Can you see our POINT OF VIEW?’ and that was actually a good clue as the film is a mix of 1917, Paranormal Activity and Poltergeist. The plot is that a family moves into a house which seemingly has a ghost. We see moments of their lives as they start to settle in and we discover that the ghost is a friend of one of the kids and things go from there. 

GOOD POINT 01 - ISOLATED SETTING

The entire film takes place inside a house. Ok it's quite a big house but the isolated setting is something that I liked. This will always be a good point in movies because it means we are not jumping to other areas of the country or even world and the plot and our attention is focused on one place. I would love to see behind the scenes footage of how they pulled this off because it was rather well done and I liked how the film showed restraint by not cutting away to somewhere else. The closest the film gets is the final shot when the camera pulls outside of the house and flies into the sky.

GOOD POINT 02 - POINT OF VIEW SHOT IS INTERESTING IDEAL

Using a POV isn't new but when it's used it has to be done well and the film does use this well. The way that we feel like we are listening to private conversations and then pull away almost like something more interesting is happening is something that shows a different energy to this type of horror film. When the camera is hiding in the closest it does a good job of showing how the ghost is feeling and when it tries to get someone's attention we are made to feel like its urgent and internally you want to shout to try and wake them up. 

GOOD POINT 03 - RYAN IS A FLIMSY VILLAIN BUT EFFECTIVE

The film has to have a villain and in this film is Ryan who is introduced as a jock friend of Tyler’s who falls for Chloe and as they become an item comes across as supportive and patient but there is always something about him that comes across as a villain and it happens when he tries to drug Chloe but is thwarted by the ghost before he tries again and drugs not only Chloe but Tyler and again is thwarted by the ghost who manages to wake Tyler up. There isn't much to the character apart from him clearly being a scumbag but at least the film attempts to give him reason for us to care about him getting his comeuppance.  I do think they missed a trick by killing him off and would have liked him to have had his day in court but that's more of a nitpick and not worthy of being a bad point. 

BAD POINT 01 - ACTING IS NOT GREAT

Despite Lucy Liu’s best efforts, the acting isn't the best throughout the film. The character of Tyler played by Eddy Maday wasn't particularly strong and in one of his first scenes where he gets to deliver some dialogue he is dropping the f-bomb in every sentence. I know that isn't Maday’s fault and I am sure that he will do better in future films but here and now it's not a great performance. The dad (Chris) is next to useless as he admits that he lets the Lucy Liu character pretty much do whatever she wants and the only time he does anything is when he brings the woman who can feel the soul. The acting could have been better but then probably would have taken our attention from what's going on but at least Lucy Liu is working. 

OVERALL

This was a complete mystery screening which was very populated for a Monday evening in mid-January which was a good sign. I wasn't disappointed with the choice although I don't think I would have gone to see it had I had the choice but I thought it was pretty decent. It’s not on par with some of Soderbergh’s best work but I thought for a 90 minute film it did what it was supposed to and got out of there (literally). Not worth going to the cinema for but definitely worth seeing it when it appears on streaming.

A Complete Unknown (2024)

 I can't say that I am the most knowledgeable Bob Dylan person in the world. I know of him and know a couple of songs but that was about it. A key reason for me wanting to see this film was that it was getting good reviews and has done well with BAFTA nominations so I wanted to give this the cinema going experience. This film follows Bob Dylan during the first half of the 1960’s as he gets started in his career and becomes the hitmaker we know he would become.  Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan, Edward Norton plays Pete Seeger, Ellie Fanning plays Sylvie Russo & Monica Barbaro plays Joan Baez with James Mangold trying to prove that the disaster that was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was a blip.

GOOD POINT 01 - CHALAMET WAS VERY GOOD AS BOB DYLAN

This film was really going to succeed or fail based on who they cast as Dylan and they cast the right person for the role. There is something that seems quite strange about Chalamet that means he pulls off roles like Bob Dylan and Paul Atreides with the same aura no matter how different the characters would be. He doesn't just look like Dylan but he seems to be talking and behaving like Dylan and this helps to create a believable version of the man himself. I also liked the fact that he actually sings all the songs himself instead of just miming, if you watch the end credits then when it says all the songs that were used it says Chalamet song most of the songs if not all of them.

GOOD POINT 02 - NORTON AND BARBARO ARE VERY GOOD SUPPORTING ACTS

To be fair there are quite a lot of good supporting characters but Norton and Barbaro stand out. It’s nice to see Norton in something (can't remember the last time I saw him) and he has earned a Supporting Actor nomination and its not hard to see why because the character who is a sort of father figure to Dylan but where Dylan’s music starts to get some people’s back up then Seeger changes his tune (pardon the pun) and there is a little bit of conflict. Then there is Barbaro who play Joan as a strong yet vulnerable person and its not hard to see why there was chemistry between Dylan and Baez.

GOOD POINT 03 - SONGS WERE VERY GOOD

If you are a fan of Bob Dylan then this will probably be an obvious good point but for someone like me who isn't then the songs are a big part of why I enjoyed it. There are portions where the song fills 5-10 minutes at a time and yet it doesn't ruin the flow of the film. The only downside with focusing on such a short period of time is that we only get a small percentage of his back catalogue. The film made the songs seem as good as I think that most people would say they are and it does make me want to get into Bob Dylan’s music.

GOOD POINT 04 - SCREENPLAY WAS VERY SHARP

The plot is going to come up as a bad point but the screenplay is very good as it allows Chalamet to have some good speeches with pretty much everybody and I think that the film does what it needs to. I think that there isn't a massive amount of plot but that isn't really much of a problem in this film because the songs do the heavy lifting and between the songs, you are won over by Chalamet’s performance.

GOOD POINT 05 - GREAT RUNNING TIME

At two hours and twenty minutes, I was worried that the film was going to outstay its welcome and the film was working to the point where I never felt like it was plodding or that the story was using padding to get to a longer running time. The performances probably do take a large chunk of the running time but the mix of performances and dialogue mean that the film has a perfect running time. Joker 2 should have watched this to see how to mix songs and story. 

BAD POINT 01 - FELT A LITTLE BIT UNDERWHELMED

As much as I love the good things about this movie, I felt a little disappointed with the film. I honestly cant put my finger on what it was but I liked this film rather than loved it and feel that I didn't quite get the proper feel of what Bob Dylan was like. A friend says that he is a bit of an enigma and so it was perhaps going to be difficult to present a full version of Bob Dylan in this film. Whilst I have praised the screenplay I do think that a little bit more effort could have been made to flesh the character out.

OVERALL

My overall feeling of this film is that there is plenty to like about this film and I understand why it's doing well at the awards but I feel like there was a slightly better film somewhere. This is a big step up for the director and I do recommend people going to see this film if only to see what Chalamet is like as Bob Dylan. It is towards the top of the pile of biopics based on music stars but I would honestly be lying if I said that I loved this film and I wanted to love this film as I went into the screening. As for the rest of the film, the songs are great, the pacing is great and it has a visual sheen that I think is hard to pull off and yet the film manages it. 

A Real Pain (2024)

A Real Pain was the second film I saw at the cinema in 2025 and one that I felt was one that might belong going straight to streaming instead of getting a cinematic release. The story tells of two cousins who decide to visit Poland to honor their recently deceased grandmother. David (Jesse Eisenberg) is an introvert and has his life together with a good job and a family and then there is Benji (Kieran Culkin) who is the life and soul of the party and doesnt quite have his life together.  The film 

GOOD POINT 01 - THE EISENBERG/CULKIN DOUBLE ACT

The film is pretty much sold on these two and it's not hard to see that this was a smart move. Eisenberg and Culkin are basically playing exaggerated versions of themselves although Culkin is playing the same character he did in Succession but that's not a bad thing instead it was nice to see cause Roman Roy was a funny character. Eisenberg is the writer and director so he sort of takes a step back to allow Culkin to become the lead and he has some great moments but they work very well together by being two different types of people and as a result we get some not scenes about wanting to be like the other person. 

GOOD POINT 02 - THE CONCENTRATION CAMP SECTION WAS ??

I honestly didn't know how to finish that line. Given that the film was about the cousins visiting places connected to their grandmother and they visit interesting areas but the most interesting was Majdanek and very little is really said during this portion which goes on for a few minutes and it's a sombre experience and it's one of those examples where silence says more than words ever could but what really seals it as one of the most powerful moments in the film is when they are on the bus and the camera slowly moves along to show Benji crying and David is just sitting next to him. 

GOOD POINT 03 - NEVER BORING/WELL PACED

The film is 90 minutes long and it never stops as it can't really afford to but despite the inevitable fallout from making this film so short (see the bad points), the film was well constructed and so never feels like there is padding and every scene is important to the story. Things that on paper that look like they should be cut are played well by everyone and the film has humorous moments when it needs to have humorous moments and sad moments when it needs to have sad moments. When you have interesting characters then it makes films enjoyable to watch and that leads me to….

GOOD POINT 04 - SUPPORTING CAST ALL FEEL LIKE REAL PEOPLE

A large portion of the film sees David and Benji take part in a  tour along with other people who are there for similar reasons. We get a bit of information about each character to make them seem like real people and interesting ones that we can follow. I thought the most interesting of the supporting cast was James (played by Will Sharpe) who is trying his best but suffers from one of Benji’s well meaning but slightly mean rants at the cemetery. Jennifer Gray was arguably the most well known of the supporting cast and her character was interesting because of the marital grief she had suffered and I thought the film showed restraint by not having her fall in love with either David or Benji.

BAD POINT 01 - BENJI’S STORY FELT HALF BAKED

The bad points are linked to each other. My biggest issue with this film is that the details of what was going on in the characters' lives were too vague. We know Benji tried to kill himself six months earlier but we don’t know why or ultimately why he doesn’t want to go back home. Yes it could be implied that he doesn’t want to leave the airport because he doesn’t want to return to real life but there is nothing mentioned. I don’t want everything spelt out to me but a little bit more would have helped a lot.

BAD POINT 02 - COULD HAVE DONE WITH ANOTHER 30 MINUTES

If the film had been half an hour or so longer then it would have allowed things to be expanded and given more screen time because things did feel rushed. We could have had more Benji backstory as a result and I genuinely believe that this would have made this film a much better film. Not sure why they made the decision to make this film so short but if it was for artistic reason rather than financial then I feel like it was the wrong choice as it felt like we were being short changed a little bit.

OVERALL

It’s not a bad film by any means because the good things did make up for the bad things but it came perilously close to being a frustrating film and I haven't felt like that since I saw Challengers. The performances are really good and the story itself was equally as good but I think the short run time meant that we lost out on a lot of rather interesting things. I do think that you should go and see this film. Not just because it's a good movie or because it's been BAFTA nominated and will probably get some Oscar nominations but because it's an original idea and when they are in such short supply we need to make sure we are seeing them and supporting them especially when they are as good as this one. Frustrating but very good.

Nosferatu (2024)

My first cinema experience of 2025 is for one of my most anticipated films of the year. This is a remake of the 1922 copyright infringing Nosferatu which itself is based on Bram Stoker's Dracula and comes from Robert Eggers the director of The Lighthouse and The Witches along with 2022's The Northman. This isn't the only Dracula movie we are getting this year with a Chloe Zhao directed Dracula supposed to be coming this year but there currently are no details about it so there are several question marks attached to this.

GOOD POINT 01: VISUALLY BRILLIANT AND ATMOSPHERIC

You can tell this by the trailer but this film is very atmospheric and looks stunning. The film does basically exist in black and white although there are obviously other colours but when I think of this film I just think of it in black and white. Every frame gives off a gothic vibe and despite the plot, Credit has to go to Jarin Blaschke for his cinematography work which would totally undermine the tone of the film if it didn't work like it did. I would love to spend a bit of time in this world. We might not even be a full week into 2025 but I would be astonished if there were any better looking films that I see this year. 

GOOD POINT 02: GREAT PERFORMANCES FROM SKARSGARD & DAFOE

To say that Bill Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe give the best performances is at this point a given. I cant remember a time when Dafoe has given a bad performance, he might be in films that aren't as good or terrible but he's never been bad in them. As Professor von Franz, he comes into the plot relatively late but when he does appear he makes up for the time he is missed and starts to steal the show (more of that later). It’s a confident and at times cranky performance yet its mixed in with kindness and warmth. Skarsgård who plays Count Orlok gives a performance that at times rivals Pennywise. In fact there are a couple of shots where he did remind me of It. The thing about Skarsgård’s performance is that we don't really see him for 80% of the runtime as he is always shown in silhouette which works for the tone of the film and when we do see him it's quite horrific and makes the final scene. I did find the manner in which he spoke to be slightly frustrating and joked to myself that the film would have probably been 30 minutes shorter if he spoke at normal speed. It’s still a great performance and a great villain for the film.

GOOD POINT 03: NICHOLAS HOULT AND LILY ROSE-DEPP ARE GOOD SUPPORTING ROLES

Normally this would be a negative but Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp are supposed to be the leads of the film but they are outacted by Dafoe and Skarsgård. They aren't terrible in it by any means but they weren't able to quite keep up with their co-stars. I quite like Hoult and think that he is quite underrated in most of his films. The Menu instantly comes to mind as a cowardly Tyler in 2022’s The Menu. He is very good as Thomas Hutter who is trying to be a nice person but has been pulled into this horrible work through no fault of his own. Lily-Rose Depp is ok when she is playing Ellen normally but never has any weight behind her scenes, where she saves this from going into the negative section is when she is possessed and has to contort her body in ways that dont look like they have been done with CGI. I think that this makes up for the weaker aspects of her performance.

Ralph Ineson is also worthy of an honourable mention as it is his character that drives a lot of the action in the first half of the movie. He always elevates whatever he is in and is one of those actors that never delivers a bad performance regardless of whether the film is any good or not.

GOOD POINT 04: WELL PACED AND NEVER BORING

The film is just over two hours and it was never boring. The atmosphere and visual moments keep you occupied when the action takes a breather and at no point during the course of the film was I looking at my watch waiting to see how much time was left. For something that is lacking in light hearted moments, the film managed to keep my attention and was the rare thing nowadays and that is a film that is the perfect running time. It would have been so easy to make this an extra 30 minutes or so but Robert Eggers told his story and got out as soon as he could. An argument could be made that the film needed a final scene which left the audience with an upbeat moment but I thought it ended just the right way.

BAD POINT 01: AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON WAS THE WEAK LINK

Hollywood’s attempt to try and make Aaron Taylor-Johnson a big star continues to falter. I haven't seen Kraven the Hunter but apparently he’s not great in that and I don't think he is much better in this. There are moments where he is fine but I thought that he disappeared into the background. He was at best the fifth best person in this film which considering he’s in a decent amount of the movie is a shame.  It’s worrying that people keep trying to push him as the next Bond because I don't think he has the presence that is needed to play the role.  

He is due to appear in 28 Years Later so hopefully that will show us what he can do but in Nosferatu he doesn't quite keep up with everyone else.

OVERALL

I had a lot of expectations for this film and they were met. It’s not the best Robert Eggers film but I still think it's a damn good movie with some great performances and one that looks like care and attention has been paid to the film and it's also clear that Eggers cares about the source material and the end result is an early contender for film of the year. Not sure if that will be the case by the end of the year but wherever it ends up in my rankings, its a relief that the year has started off in such a great way.