2025 Holiday Released Movies
The holiday season is a busy time of the year for most people, and it's a busy time of year for movies, too! Here are brief reviews of some of this season's holiday crop.
Marty Supreme
** stars (out of four)
Many critics have been raving about Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, a film about a top-level ping pong player (Timothée Chalamet) and his efforts to secure funding so he can travel to compete in global ping pong championships in the 1950s. However, this reviewer found the title character to be a completely insufferable, narcissistic scumbag who is utter torture to spend 153 punishing minutes with.
Marty is a poor, working class shoe salesman in New York City. After losing to a Japanese opponent at a world championship, he finds himself in legal trouble on his return because of a theft he committed to pay for his previous ping pong expedition. What follows are a series of situations where Marty completely uses or steps on anyone in his path. Granted, some of these characters are also loathsome: a low-level gangster played by Abel Ferrara, as well as a pen magnate played by Kevin O'Leary. But the fact remains that Marty just uses everyone around him, including a loyal friend whose money he took for a business venture. This critic was actively rooting for the many people pursuing Marty to catch him and give him his comeuppance.
There are a lot of tangents in the film, and there are instances of characters who are introduced then forgotten about fairly quickly. One of Marty's opponents is an Auschwitz survivor. He's actually interesting and it seems like he might be an important part of the proceedings, but he is almost entirely discarded not long after the audience meets him.
The film's finale feels completely phony and unearned. There's nothing wrong with a previously horrible character slowly growing and developing a bit over the course of a film, but Marty's climactic transformation feels false in every way. It's sudden and jarring. Spending time with him was like listening to someone scratch their fingernails on a blackboard for two and a half hours.
The Housemaid
*** stars (out of four)
Based on the 2022 novel of the same name by Freida McFadden, The Housemaid is a psychological thriller about Millie (Sydney Sweeney) a recent parolee desperate for work. She takes on a job as a live-in nanny for wealthy Andrew and Nina (Brandon Sklenar and Amanda Seyfried). At first, Nina is warm and welcoming, but she quickly becomes domineering, gaslighting, and cruel. Millie needs a job as part of her parole conditions, so she cannot just quit in response to Amanda's tyranny.
At first, it almost seems like The Housemaid is a reverse version of 1992's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. However, Paul Feig's film has a few twists up its sleeve (none will be spoiled here). Viewers can poke holes in the plotting if they spend enough time thinking about it, but it's a mostly entertaining ride. Seyfried in particular is a standout as Nina. The role could have been reduced to mere caricature, but Seyfried finds depth in the part.
The Housemaid is a solid thriller aimed at adults and is worth checking out in theaters.
Anaconda (2025)
*1/2 stars (out of four)
1997's Anaconda is not a good film. The CGI is terrible, Jon Voigt gives what might be a career-worst performance while delivering an all-time terrible accent, and the story is laughable at every turn. However, movies like that are the ones actually worth remaking/reimagining—movies that didn't work the first time around. However, writer-director Tom Gormican's new Anaconda falls flat.
Four childhood friends, played by Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandie Newton, and Steve Zahn, are dissatisfied with their lives. Rudd's character gets the idea to reimagine Anaconda for a new generation and recapture some of their childhood happiness (they made kid-level monster movies together). So they set off to the Amazon and end up heading down the river with a snake handler (Selton Mello) and a young woman (Daniela Melchior) pursued by mysterious men. Of course, they come across a giant murderous anaconda in the jungle.
Despite being played for laughs, most of this is painfully unfunny. An exception is a scene where the aspiring filmmakers discuss how they could incorporate "social issues" into their Anaconda reboot. It might've been funny had the movie actually featured them shooting scenes of their cheesy snake movie with hamfisted social justice messages crammed in, but that idea is dropped almost as soon as it's brought up.
"Meta" is a fine line to walk in film. It can be a lot of fun (e.g. Scream) or it can feel like it's trying way too hard to wink at the audience. Anaconda is in the latter category.
Song Sung Blue
*** stars (out of four)
Writer/director Craig Brewer tackles the true story of a Milwaukee couple (Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson) who became unlikely local music stars with their Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline act in the new film Song Sung Blue.
Set in the mid-1990s, the film tells the story of Mike (Jackman), a struggling musician, Vietnam vet, and recovering alcoholic looking for something new. He finds it when he meets Claire, a divorced mom and hairdresser who shares his love of singing and performance. She points out Mike's resemblance to Neil Diamond and suggests he lean into it with a Diamond tribute act. They join forces and get a local following, even opening for Pearl Jam in Milwaukee at the height of the grunge band's fame. However, tragedy ensues and the road gets bumpier for Mike and Claire.
Jackman and Hudson are both very good here. Hudson might even get an Oscar nomination. The middle-aged romance is touching, and it accurately captures that middle-aged feeling of being weighed down by life's disappointments while still clinging to some hope for the future. Brewer, as he has showed in Hustle & Flow and Dolemite Is My Name, is terrific at conveying the joy of performance and artistic creation.
Moviegoers
don't need to be Neil Diamond fans to be charmed by Song Sung Blue.
