Monthly Archives: November 2025

11.04.25
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Nuremberg

This accessible and matter-of-fact historical drama is engaging and makes good use of its runtime and central cast. Rami Malek inhabits the role of Douglas Kelley quite well, a psychiatrist brought to assess the mental state of Nazi prisoners convicted of war crimes leading up to the Nuremberg trial. Russell Crowe gives one of his strongest performances in recent years as Hermann Goring, one of the most evil and infamous figures of the Nazi party responsible for carrying out many of the Reich’s atrocities, including Hitler’s plan to conquer Europe and murder millions of innocent Jews and others the party deemed inferior. Crowe’s performance emulates a manipulative coldness that’s hard to read, as the film examines how such ego would respond to losing such immense power, and Malek’s character attempts to find the man’s weaknesses. Michael Shannon gives an excellent performance as Justice Robert H. Jackson, who leads the charge in the trial and remains the film’s most passionate and likable character, though Richard E. Grant does effortlessly steal the screen later on, too. Leo Woodall is solid, but his and Colin Hanks’ characters are slightly underwritten.

The film’s main distracting element is the color-grading that’s oddly dull and dry, even for a film of such hefty subject material. The movie does do a great job, however, of showing the importance of the Nuremberg trials in a broader historical context, and ensuring that such evil would never be enabled again. It also powerfully connects the rise of Nazi ideology to history that followed, including McCarthyism and other far-right movements in America. It’s an interesting watch, if not one of the most resonant recent films about WWII or the Holocaust and their aftermath, led by an all-star cast.

11.01.25
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Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos creates worlds of oddity, discomfort, and unease in most of his film, but Bugonia has the most to say about our world now. Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis play two extremists who kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company (Emma Stone), believing her to be an alien in disguise sent to enslave humanity. Plemons and Stone are daring, unsettling, and riveting in the film, continuing to surprise and take their characters further, even with both being alums of Yorgos’ filmography and tone. Plemons’ turn is scary based on the conviction of his belief that comes from lifelong pain, and Stone is phenomenal as a character who’s also done some awful things, but clearly has the moral high ground while challenging the other characters. Delbis is convincing as a character who beneath the darkness, possesses a helplessness and strange empathy.

Lanthimos’ best traits as a filmmaker are that he finds the funny and big in every circumstance, making the story feel large-scale with the editing and storytelling. He also recognizes how equally unsettling and hilarious the concept can be, and that the two almost always go hand in hand in the case of Bugonia. The cinematography by Robbie Ryan, is unique and often stunning, and the thrills come from itching to find out the insanity that’ll unfold in every moment of the tense situation. It doesn’t let any of its characters off the hook but also allows the audience to understand some of their points, while debating on which characters are less sympathetic. It’s a film about shared delusions, stemming from our modern world of online radicalization, ideology-based violence, and corporate corruption on a vast scale. The symbolism and hidden layers reveal so much more about the characters’ world and the film’s messages, and there is much horrific yet calculated madness and macabre to expect from the director, while leaving an incredibly satisfying amount of ambiguity. It balances genres, tones, and themes effortlessly, leaving food for thought in all its aspects while allowing its stars to beautifully share the spotlight in one of the most unsettling and brilliant works of film this year.