Babaylan (2025)

J Brooke, Incluvie Guest Columnist on 'Life and Beth' and 'Sort of': while living one’s truth is freedom, speaking it as a mandatory assignment can become captivity.

Treated like a granter of wishes for those earning out of retelling the same tragedy, Marilyn looks like she's caged in different stages of trauma for us to stare at, instead of someone we’ve finally allowed to rest in peace.

With The Father, writer-director Florian Zeller- who wrote and developed the play upon which the film is based- pulls no punches as he confidently makes every effort to put the audience in the mind of someone whose grip on reality has all but vanished. It’s a dazzling testament to Zeller’s abilities as a director as he makes his first transition from stage to film appear as if he’s been working behind a camera his entire career. The dialogue he fashions with co-writer Christopher Hampton, along with the work of production designers Peter Francis and Cathy Featherstone, collectively makes the downward spiral of dementia startlingly tangible, doing so in a way that can be comprehended by everyone except the person it directly affects.

The Resort has an excellent climax surrounded by disappointments. Somehow, at a mere 75 minutes, this movie still manages to be 70 minutes too long.

"THANK YOU, Zach Creggar!" Back in 2022, this now established star in the horror film genre gave us the quirkily creepy, unexpectedly funny (at times!) cinematic gem that was "Barbarian". It felt like a cool breeze just washed over us as, for ONCE, the much traversed roads these films tend to go with got an upgrade of uniqueness without sacrificing the ambiance of uneasiness you desire.

‘Babylon’ is an exhilarating journey one has to brace themselves for