One Battle After Another (2025): An Action Epic from P. T. Anderson

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Bob is absorbed in his own world, getting high while The Battle of Algiers (1966) plays on the television. The ringing of a telephone is enough to suddenly drag him back into his past and snap him into reality. By the time we reach this moment, One Battle After Another (2025) has already infected us with its frenzy. For director Paul Thomas Anderson, this is his second time adapting a novel by Thomas Pynchon. In 2014, he adapted Inherent Vice for the screen, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the peculiar detective Doc Sportello. Now Anderson draws on Vineland, published in 1990, to create the universe of One Battle After Another.

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Roofman: The Incredible Life of Jeffrey Manchester -TIFF 2025

Rating: 4 out of 5.

As Jeffrey Manchester runs to evade the police, he reflects on the series of bad decisions that led him to this point of no return. Roofman (2025), directed by Derek Cianfrance, tells the incredible story of one of the most peculiar criminals the world has ever seen. Between 1998 and 2000, Manchester carried out between 40 and 60 robberies, most of them in McDonald’s restaurants. His unusual modus operandi earned him the nickname “Roofman,” since he would always cut a hole in the roof to gain access to the establishments he robbed.

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Good News: Dark Political Satire on the Yodogo Incident – TIFF 2025

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Good News

In March 1970, nine members of the radical group Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction hijacked a plane at Tokyo International Airport. Good News (2025) by Byun Sung-hyun draws inspiration from this event to craft a portrait of the happenings through political satire and dark humor. The South Korean director delivers a visually striking film with a brisk pace, achieving an excellent balance between comedy and suspense.

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Dangerous Animals (2025): A Classic Horror Flick

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Horror has defined the short but striking career of Australian director Sean Byrne. Dangerous Animals (2025) is his third feature film, and once again, he walks the path of scares. In this new project, Byrne blends the serial killer formula with the kind of horror found in monster movies—specifically the shark attack subgenre.

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The Shadow Strays: The Indonesian New Wave

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Long before superheroes took over the screens. There were flesh-and-blood action heroes before Marvel and DC sought the niche of action cinema with their characters. Nostalgia always gets the better of me and I can’t resist returning to those action movies and characters from the 80s and 90s that paved my way to the movies. Stallone, Van Damme, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, Bruce Lee… these legends and many others dominated the big screen with their epic adventures from which they always emerged victorious.

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