2025 in 50 Films - Part Three
We continue our countdown with Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, and a chilling documentary.
One of the things that is occupying my time these days is a film project that, if it comes together, is going to allow me to indulge all of my most deeply-seated film fetishes at the same time. It has got me absolutely dizzy with want right now, and I’m very close to getting this thing off the ground.
It’s not going to be easy, but it never is. Making a film is an incredibly difficult undertaking, even with all the support in the world behind you. That difficulty is part of the point. When you see a great movie, and it all just feels organic and perfect and like it was meant to be this way, that represents an absolutely mind-boggling amount of work between a small army of artists all working towards a singular goal, and when people pull that off, it makes me want to do cartwheels in the street to celebrate.
When I say I love a filmmaker, there’s no guarantee I’ll love each of their films. What it means is that I’m going to always give that filmmaker the benefit of the doubt and I will happily give them my attention. I think part of being interesting is taking big swings, and that means you’ll fail to connect sometimes. I love it when someone finds their groove and just starts working variations on that, and I love it when someone tries something totally new and you realize they’ve got another gear as a filmmaker.
The longer I do this, the more it feels like criticism is about having this giant bag that you keep adding filmmakers and movies to, and the bag just keeps expanding. It is a joy to watch filmmakers explore variations on a theme or new ideas, and it’s always exciting to find a new voice that feels like you’ll be following forever. This part of the list is a healthy mix of both, and now we’re getting into some of the absolute cream of the crop for this year. I love all of these films, and they’re going to be part of the rotation now. They are all worth revisiting and they feel like they will only grow for me over time.
Let’s kick things off with a filmmaker whose independent resolve is pretty much without equal in an industry where everyone’s ultimate goal is to make a Marvel movie…
- The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt’s version of a genre film is not going to look like anyone else’s take on that same genre. She is a filmmaker of enormous integrity, and her body of work is marked by a stubborn independence and a refusal to bend to anyone else’s idea of what a movie should be. This is, ostensibly, a heist film about a guy in 1970 who decides to boost some art from a quiet suburban museum. He figures it is exactly the kind of low-stakes score that someone like him could pull off, and no one’s going to launch an international manhunt for the stuff he’s going to steal. JB Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is an out of work carpenter, and he’s tired of losing. He comes up with a plan to steal four paintings by Arthur Dove, and he ends up hiring Guy (Eli Gelb) and Ronnie (Javion Allen) to help him with the robbery. From the jump, this is a terrible idea, and part of what makes the film interesting is seeing just how far JB gets on pure desperate desire. He’s not built for this, and neither is anyone else involved in the robbery. The FBI quickly figures out what happens, and JB has to go on the run. None of what you expect is going to happen happens. This is a film about someone who is not quite smart enough to plan a heist somehow pulling it off and then having to deal with what happens next. Okay… you stole the paintings. Now what? You hang it in your house? You sell it? Where? Who do you contact who knows the art market, let alone the black market?