As we move from steamy hot weather into a brisk cooler season, this is reflected in the upcoming movie slate. We had a summer filled with box-office hits of largely sequels, reboots and lighter fare. And now it's time for a shift with movies involving more serious, dramatic subjects and prize-seeking projects. There is a lot of intriguing movies on the horizon over the next four months and here are a few I'm really looking forward in seeing:
"THE HISTORY OF SOUND"
Release date: September 12, 2025
"The History of Sound", based on short stories by Ben Shattuck (who wrote the screenplay), deals with the romantic relationship between two men, Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O'Connor) after meeting while attending a music conservatory in Boston. Separated due to World War I , they are reunited and, to make up for their lost time together, begin traveling to record traditional folk songs throughout rural Maine. Oliver Hermanus directs.
"KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN"
Release date: October 10, 2025
"Kiss of the Spider Woman" began as a drama in 1985 from director, Héctor Babenco that was set in a Brazilian prison during the military dictatorship and centers on two very different cellmates; a rigid leftist revolutionary (Raul Julia) and an apolitical gay man (William Hurt who would win the Oscar for Best Actor). Seven years later, this film was adapted into a popular Broadway musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander and Fred Ebb, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical. Now this musical of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" will be brought to the big screen by Bill Condon who has had great success previously with the stage-to-screen transfers of "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls". Here Diego Luna will play the revolutionary, Valentin, Tonatiuh is Molina, the gay cellmate and in her first screen musical, Jennifer Lopez appears as Ingrid Luna, Molina's favorite movie star.
"BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER"
Release date: October 15, 2025
The Swiss/Austrian filmmaker, Edward Berger, who made a major splash with his first English-language film, the papal drama, "Conclave" which was nominated for eight Academy Awards last year, is back with another film in English. "Ballad of a Small Player" is set in the high stakes world of gambling with Colin Farrell playing a troubled man deeply in debt and trying to lay low in the Chinese city of Macau. But he can't keep away from the lure of the tables and hopes to be saved by an employee of the casino (Fala Chen) before it's too late. Tilda Swinton also stars.
"GOOD FORTUNE"
Release date: October 17, 2025
After the attempt for his directorial debut was cancelled back in 2022 due to star Bill Murray's alleged inappropriate behavior on set, stand-up comedian, Aziz Ansari went to work on his next project. The comedy, "Good Fortune" tells the story of Arj (Ansari), a man struggling to make ends meet while working for Jeff, a wealthy mogul (Seth Rogen). A "budget" guardian angel (Keanu Reeves) enters Arj's life to help by proving that if he swapped places with Jeff his life wouldn't be any better. But Arj is actually very happy with his newly acquired opulent lifestyle, causing the angel to lose his wings and forced to live back on Earth. Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh also star.
"THE SECRET AGENT"
Release date: November 26, 2025
"The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)" made it's world premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival where it received the Best Director prize for Kleber Mendonça Filho and Wagner Moura won Best Actor. Moura (his first role in his native Portuguese in eight years) plays a teacher caught in the political turmoil during the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship while desperately trying to escape persecution.
"FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER"
Release date: December 24, 2025
Jim Jarmusch, a major force in independent cinema since the 1980s, is back with his latest offbeat comedy-drama. "Father Mother Sister Brother" is an anthology film involving three stories with each concerning the complicated relationships between adult children and their parents. Set in present day and in different countries, Jarmusch offers a series of character studies that features an impressive cast that includes Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps.
"MARTY SUPREME"
Release date: December 25, 2025
Josh and Benny Safdie began as an indie filmmaking team, making their mark with the compelling crime thrillers, "Good Time" and "Uncut Gems". But like the Coen Brothers, the Safdie siblings have decided to go their separate ways as filmmakers. Josh's first solo directorial venture will be "Marty Supreme", a sports drama based on the life of professional table tennis player, Marty Reisman. Timothée Chalamet will play Reisman in this film which apparently is not an accurate biopic but a more fictionalized version of his life and career. Safdie continues the family tradition of eclectic casting with fellow filmmaker, Abel Ferrara; comedian, Sandra Bernhard; sitcom star, Fran Drescher; "Shark Tank" businessman, Kevin O'Leary and Oscar-winner-turned-lifestyle-guru, Gwyneth Paltrow appearing in the film.
(And Benny Safdie will also be making his solo directorial debut this fall with his own sports biopic, "The Smashing Machine" with Dwayne Johnson as MMA fighter, Mark Kerr, premiering during this year's Venice Film Festival and reaching US theaters on October 3rd).
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Sunday, August 24, 2025
2025 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
The 2025 Venice International Film Festival will be held from August 27th to September 6th at the Venice Lido in Italy. For its eighty-second year, "La grazia (The Grace)", from the acclaimed Italian filmmaker, Paolo Sorrentino, has been selected to open the fest. Little has been revealed about this drama making it's world premiere but Toni Servillo, who starred in the director's Oscar-winning film, "The Great Beauty", appears in what has been described as the final days of a fictional Italian presidency.
The American filmmaker, Alexander Payne will be this year's Jury President to select the prize winners in the Main Competition with French filmmaker, Stéphane Brizé; Italian filmmaker, Maura Delpero; Romanian filmmaker, Cristian Mungiu; Iranian filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof; Brazilian actress, Fernanda Torres and Chinese actress, Zhao Tao filling out the rest of the jury.
Some of the films selected for the main competition includes the latest works by an impressive collection of international filmmakers: Yorgos Lanthimos ("Bugonia"), Jim Jarmusch ("Father Mother Sister Brother"), Guillermo del Toro ("Frankenstein"), Kathryn Bigelow ("A House of Dynamite"), Noah Baumbach ("Jay Kelly"), Park Chan-wook ("No Other Choice"), Benny Safdie ("The Smashing Machine"), Ildikó Enyedi ("Silent Friend"), François Ozon ("L'Étranger (The Stranger)") and Olivier Assayas ("The Wizard of the Kremlin").
The Closing Night film will be "Chien 51 (Dog 51)" by French director, Cédric Jimenez. This sci-fi thriller set in a future society where their leader is assassinated with a top agent (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and a jaded cop (Gilles Lellouche) are forced to work together to solve the murder.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will be given this year to the provocative German filmmaker, Werner Herzog and legendary American actress, Kim Novak. Herzog's new documentary, "Ghost Elephants", which follows a mysterious herd of ghost elephants in the jungles of Angola, will make its premiere out of competition. And The Glory to the Filmmaker, an award dedicated to personalities who have made a significant contribution to contemporary cinema, will be given to American painter and filmmaker, Julian Schnabel with his latest film, "In the Hand of Dante" (starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler) screening at Venice out of competition.
Monday, August 18, 2025
TERENCE STAMP (1938 - 2025)
Terence Stamp, the handsome British actor who broke through with his first film, "Billy Budd" and went on to have significant career including appearances in "Superman" and "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", has died on August 17th at the age of eight-seven.
Born and raised in East London, Stamp became enamored with acting when he was a child after seeing Hollywood movies. Growing up during World War II, he enduring the constant blitz in London which did leave a traumatizing effect upon him. Stamp won a scholarship to study acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and performed in many theatrical productions. During this time, he became friendly with fellow aspiring actors, Peter O'Toole and Michael Caine, who Stamp would later share a flat.
Stamp got his first major break in 1962 with actor, Peter Ustinov's fifth feature as a director, "Billy Budd" which he also wrote the screenplay and co-starred. This British historical adventure, based on the novella by Herman Melville, has Stamp playing Budd, a young sailor who is falsely accused of attempting a mutiny by the cruel master-at-arms and accidently kills him, leading to his court-martial. The film was not a big hit but did earn Stamp a Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and winning him a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer (Male).
He would go on to work with several notable filmmakers throughout the rest of the '60's: William Wyler with "The Collector"; John Schlesinger's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Madding Crowd"; Ken Loach in "Poor Cow"; Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Teorema" and co-starred in the spy comedy, "Modesty Blaise" with Monica Vitti. Stamp was even considered for replacing Sean Connery as James Bond after his departure from the role but apparently his ideas for the dashing spy character made the producers uncomfortable.
During this time, Stamp became a popular fixture of the swinging London party scene and renowned for his high-profile romances with two of the celebrated women of that era; supermodel, Jean Shrimpton and actress, Julie Christie who co-starred with Stamp in "Far from the Madding Crowd".
Stamp would surprise viewers with his sensitive yet hilarious turn as a transgender woman in the 1994 Aussie indie, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" by director, Stephan Elliott. This road-trip comedy on a tour bus across the Australian Outback along with their two drag-queen friends (played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce) would win the Oscar for the outrageous costumes and this campy farce has gone on to become a popular cult classic. Three years later, Steven Soderbergh (a fan of the actor) gave Stamp a lead role in his crime drama, "The Limey". This critically acclaimed film did poorly at the box-office upon it's initial release but has since been found by more appreciative modern audiences. Stamp's last screen appearance was in Edgar Wright's (another big fan of the actor) psychological horror drama, "Last Night in Soho" in 2021.
Stamp also found some success as a writer, having written three memoirs, a novel and co-writing a cookbook that featured alternative recipes for those who are lactose-intolerant.
Thursday, August 14, 2025
THE NAKED GUN (2025)
Written by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva SchafferDirected by Akiva Schaffer
Where & When: TCL Chinese Theatres, Hollywood, CA. August 3, 2025 5:10 PM
After David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker had incredible success with "Airplane!", their wacky spoof on aerial disaster movies back in 1980, they moved to television with a parody on police procedurals. With Leslie Nielsen (who had a long career as a dramatic actor before his gift for deadpan comedy was revealed in "Airplane!") as Detective Frank Drebin, "Police Squad!" premiered two years later but was cancelled after only six episodes. But the comedy team still had faith in the concept and transferred the idea to the big screen. Reaching theaters in 1988, "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" became a huge box-office hit and spawned two equally successful sequels.
Now "The Naked Gun" has been rebooted for a continuation of the movie series directed by Akiva Schaffer, one third of the musical comedy outfit, The Lonely Island which features his childhood buddies, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. Liam Neeson, the Irish actor best known for his brooding and deadly serious performances in many popular action films, is on board to let loose and make us chuckle as the son of Frank Drebin. This version certainly has the uproarious looney spirit of the previous films and there are plenty of laughs to be found. But this "Naked Gun" feels somewhat restrained compared to the other movies, too timid to really go all the way in with jokes that some might consider too outrageous and potentially offensive.
Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. (Neeson) may have single-handedly stopped a violent bank robbery while disguised as a little girl but his unorthodox methods puts him in hot water with the police chief (CCH Pounder) who reassigns him to less public duty. During an investigation of a fatal car crash involving a software engineer, Drebin decides it was a suicide. But Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), a crime novelist who is the sister of the victim, visits Drebin at the station trying to convince him that her brother was actually murdered.
This leads Drebin to Edentech, the tech company Davenport worked with and the billionaire owner, Richard Cane (Danny Huston). Connecting over the hip-hop group, the Black Eyed Peas, the two men get on well enough that Cane even gives Drebin a self-driving electric car. However, Cane is behind a secret sinister plot involving a device, P.L.O.T. (get it?) which will convert the average man back into wild, primitive state while the wealthy will be unaffected to rule over them.
What we have in between this basic plot are rapid fire jokes, comical sight gags and hilarious puns. There are moments I found myself laughing out loud, particularly during an oddball romantic interlude between Frank, Beth and an amorous snowman. But some of the jokes land with a thud and running gags (Anderson's goofy jazz scatting at a club and Drebin trapped in the racing EV that Cane uses in an attempt to kill him comes quickly to mind) go on far too long. And as the film progresses to reach the conclusion of Drebin trying to defeat Cane's plan, the pacing becomes more slack and the humor feels more forced.
Neeson and Anderson may not be fully comfortable (or skilled) with performing the broad comedy in the film yet they give it their all with exuberance and gusto. We know that what was considered funny has changed considerably since the original movie was made and there is now a much stronger desire not to offend anybody. But this film pushes just enough to create a sense of outrageously silly fun. "Naked Gun" is a very welcome return of the big-screen comedy and hopefully will spark a much needed revival of the genre.
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