2025 was a year filled with some great movies. Unfortunately not everything I saw managed to leave a deep, memorable impression upon me. Here are a few films that just did not work for me:
First, let me state that I think Lynne Ramsay is one of our more provocative filmmakers working today, a compelling artist with an uncompromising vision which has regrettably lead to her having made only five feature films to date since her acclaimed debut, "Ratcatcher" back in 1999. The latest from Ramsay, "Die My Love", based on the novel by Ariana Harwicz, deals with a new mother who begins to suffer from postpartum depression and psychosis, has moments that are magnificently performed and visually stunning, thanks to the camerawork by Seamus McGarvey, reteaming for the first time with Ramsay since "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Yet this heavily stylized drama fails to generate much of an emotional connection. Jennifer Lawrence, in an amazingly raw and feral performance, plays Grace who we meet with her boyfriend, Jackson (Robert Pattinson) as they explore a rundown ranch in Montana that he inherited from an uncle. With Grace pregnant, they decide to move in to start their new life. As their relationship was happy and playful, it begins to change not long after their baby's birth. Grace's behavior becomes progressively more erratic, manic and highly unpredictable, deeply concerning Jackson and his recently widowed mother (Sissy Spacek). As we watch Grace spiral out of control, lost in mental collapse and the trauma of parenthood, it becomes more unbearable as we are never given a clear understanding of what exactly is happening to her. Unfortunately, "Die My Love" stays too much on the surface, never really digging deep enough to actually make us feel Grace's anguish, desires and pain.
In the second of their planned lesbian B-movie trilogy, director, Ethan Coen and co-writer, Tricia Cooke have delivered "Honey Don't!", another black comedy, this time involving a private investigator in Northern California trying to solve a series of mysterious deaths. I found this poorly conceived, joke deprived, comedic thriller in even worse shape than their last endeavor, "Drive-Away Dolls". Margaret Qualley returns to play Honey O'Donahue, a sexy detective in a tight skirt and click-clack heels. She gets wrapped up in this case when a potential client (Kara Petersen) contacted her, afraid and looking for help, and ends up murdered the next day. A local homicide detective (Charlie Day) is more interested in trying to get a date with Honey than investigating so she'll have to do the heavy lifting to figure out what happened. She's soon on the trail to the Four-Way Temple where the Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans) is far more interested in bedding his female parishioners than leading them to salvation. More death, a French femme fatale (Lera Abova) and a horny police officer (Aubrey Plaza) all crosses Honey's path on the way to her trying to unravel this mystery. Slight and lazy in plot and style, "Honey Don't" is a repellent modern noir filled with unsavory characters and not nearly enough laughs to make this even remotely palatable.
I, for one, am tired of the live-action versions of the Disney animated classics that the studio keeps forcing upon us. Each one tries to expand upon the beautiful simplicity of these cartoons, adding nothing creative or visually inspired and only offering pointless and inept recreations. The latest, "Snow White", based on Disney's first full-length animated feature film, might possibly be the worst of them all. Named for a snowstorm on the day of her birth, Snow White (played by Emilia Faucher as a child) is a princess born to the good King (Hadley Fraser) and Queen (Lorena Andrea) of an enchanted land. After the Queen dies from an illness, the King remarries a new Queen (a bland Gal Gadot) but he disappears following sailing off to fight in a conflict. The new Queen turns out to be a beauty obsessed, evil sorceress, allowing the kingdom to fall into financial ruin and forcing Snow White (now played by Rachel Zegler) to become a maid. The Queen, angered after she frees Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) who was imprisoned for stealing food and being named "the fairest of them all" by the Magic Mirror (voiced by Patrick Page), orders the huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to kill Snow White. Unable to commit the act, he has her flee into the forest. A frightened Snow White stumbles upon a seemingly abandoned cottage but the home actually belongs to seven "miners" (generated by CGI) who allow her to stay for her safety. This version, directed by Marc Webb, is an artless affair with dreary, banal visuals which includes unpleasantly creepy looking dwarfs. In an effort to give this German fairytale a modernized spin, the screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson has made an empowered Snow White who eventually fights back against the evil Queen. But having Jonathan to not be a prince yet awakens her from the spell of the poisoned apple with a kiss and then fights by Snow White's side just feels even more awkward. And since this is a musical, the new songs written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul fail to enhance these dour proceedings yet thankfully they did use four of the beloved songs from the original film. Despite the silly claims that several of the controversies surrounding this film had derailed its potential success, "Snow White" managed to be awful and forgettable all on its own.
"The Woman in Cabin 10" is a polished looking, psychological thriller, directed by Simon Stone and Farhan Rana Rajpoot, that offers nothing we haven't seen before yet executed in a way that building a compelling mystery or offering some logical thrills are never considered. British investigative reporter, Laura Blacklock (Keira Knightley), who goes by "Lo", has been trying to recover following seeing one of her sources murdered and realizes the best way for her to truly mend is to get back to work. She's given a puff piece to write about a new charitable foundation by an ill, billionaire Anne Bullmer (Lisa Loven Kongsli) with a fundraising gala on her luxury yacht sailing to Norway. Also on board are Bullmer's husband, Richard (Guy Pearce), a gaggle of wealthy "friends" (which includes Kaya Scodelario, Daniel Ings and Hannah Waddingham) and Ben (David Ajala), Lo's former boyfriend who just happens to be a photographer for the Bullmers. One night, Lo is awakened by a woman's scream and sees someone go overboard from the cabin next door. After informing the crew, she's told that everyone on the ship is accounted for and there was no one assigned to that room. Lo insists, having personally spoken to this woman, but no one believes her. She begins her own investigation, leading to her becoming a target. This film is based on a book by Ruth Ware and the screenplay by Stone, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse veers wildly from this source material with added action sequences and odd situations that only manages to create more confusion to this story. It's nice to see Knightley back in a leading film role but her time as well as the rest of the solid cast are completely wasted in this muddled whodunit. "The Woman in Cabin 10" is simply implausible from the stumbling beginning to the over-the-top, ridiculous ending.
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