One of the great things about covering film festivals throughout the year is the opportunity to see films before they go wide to the general public. This affords reviewers, such as myself, the chance to champion storytellers who we believe can use the extra boost. As we officially enter the new year, here’s a short list of 10 films that are expected to or are already scheduled to release this year that you should make an effort to see.
Baby Assassins Nice Days
Directed By: Yûgo Sakamoto
Written By: Yûgo Sakamoto
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Sosuke Ikematsu, Atsuko Maeda, Mondo Otani
Summary:
Even if I kill you, I won’t forget.
Teenage assassins Mahiro and Chisato visit the coastal city of Miyazaki for a contract and a vacation when they unexpectedly cross paths with a legendary, bloodthirsty assassin who’s looking to add to his kill count.
Over the last few years, writer/director Yûgo Sakamoto’s (A Janitor) created a very specific cinematic world in which low-stakes slacker comedy meets high-stakes wet work via his Baby Assassins series. Returning for a third outing in Baby Assassins Nice Days, having its Canadian premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival 2024, Akari Takaishi (Chisato) and Saori Izawa (Mahiro) shift gears from the usual bubblegum killers we’re used to into a more dramatic arena as Sakamoto brings them up against an enemy unlike anything they’ve faced so far. Thanks to the choreography from returning series action director Kensuke Sonomura (HYDRA/Bad City), this new entry in the trilogy of films ups the ante in ways that’ll actually have audiences worried for the fates of their favorite slackers, simultaneously breaking the audience and the characters out of the safety they’re used to.
Well Go USA releasing TBA.
Desert Road
Directed By: Shannon Triplett
Written By: Shannon Triplett
Cast: Kristine Froseth, Frances Fisher, Beau Bridges, Ryan Hurst, D.B. Woodside, Max Mattern, Rachel Dratch, Edwin Garcia II
Summary:
A woman crashes her car and walks down the road for help – only to find no matter which way she walks she ends up back at her crashed car again.
Desert Road is a surprising and unexpected rich text of a film that lulls you in thinking it’s going to be a standard loop thriller and then surprises you with its humanity. Much of this is due to Froseth, whose performance remains grounded despite the unnatural events her character experiences. Going back to that groundwork from Triplett, we learn enough to understand how the woman was raised, so that the ways in which she interrogates each problem makes sense, and it’s Froseth who infuses it all with believability. Froseth is what makes any sense of anxiety hair-raising, any foreboding carrying of weight, and any relief feeling like a shared joy. Though there are moments in the script that are predictable, thereby setting an expectation for how the narrative will ebb, flow, and arc, the execution is far from it, guided by Triplett and performed by Froseth, Desert Road becomes a lesson in being our own worst enemy and the legacy we leave behind with our choices. Not all of which belong to ourselves.
Firebrand media releasing April 2025.
The woman (Kristine Froseth) looks out across the vast desert before her, with no hope in sight in DESERT ROAD. Photo Credit: Nico Navia. Photo courtesy of SXSW.
The Day the Earth Blew Up:
A Looney Tunes Movie
Directed By: Pete Browngardt
Written By: Kevin Costello, Alex Kirwan, Andrew Dickman, Peter Browngardt, David Gemmill, Darrick Bachman, Ryan Kramer, Johnny Ryan, Michael Ruocco, Jason Reicher, Eddie Trigueros
Cast: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter Macnical, Fred Tatasciore, Laraine Newman
Summary:
That’s not all folks! Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, one of the greatest comedic duos in history, are making their hilarious return to the big screen in the sci-fi comedy adventure, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.
This is the first-ever fully animated Looney Tunes feature-length movie created for a cinema audience. Porky and Daffy are our unlikely heroes and Earth’s only hope when facing the threat of alien invasion. In this buddy-comedy of epic proportions, they race to save the world, delivering all the laugh-out-loud gags and vibrant visuals that have made the Looney Tunes so iconic, but on a scope & scale yet to be experienced.
Based on evidence over the last few years, it seems pretty clear that Warner Bros. Discovery Entertainment CEO David Zaslav either hates being a success, doesn’t understand the industry he’s involved in, or merely wants to ensure he gets a golden parachute while the studio he operates flounders. One can understand the release of Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) as it’s a sequel to a billion-dollar award-winning film — film A makes money, making a sequel seems like a slam-dunk. But not only was Batgirl get sent to the vault for a tax write-off (directed by the widely successful Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah), but what is reported as one of the best mixed-media Looney Tunes stories in Coyote Vs. Acme was, too. At the very least, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie was saved by being sold to Ketchup Entertainment, who have a bonafide hit on their hands for Q1 2025 with this straight-up atomic age adventure comedy that will enchant Looney Tunes fans and young adults with a sci-fi story that delights in the daffy.
In theaters February 28th, 2025.
The Draft!
Directed By: Yusron Fuadi
Written By: Yusron Fuadi, Anindita Suryarasmi, B.W. Purbanegara, Richard James Halstead
Cast: Adhin Abdul Hakim, Winner Wijaya, Ibrahim Alhami
Summary:
Five students decide to spend their weekend away at a remote villa. What starts as a fun trip soon turns into a holiday from hell when they find themselves in a battle against a powerful dark force. The film flips familiar horror tropes on their heads to create a new and original take on the cabin-in-the woods horror.
The year is 2024. Horror films have been a staple of cinema nearly since the birth of the art format. Stories of demons, spirits, zombies, vampires, ghouls, and ghosts have been part of the fabric of storytelling for even longer. With 1997’s Scream, the approach of meta-horror became popularized enough to teach general audiences the rules of horror films and brought about a shift in approach to telling horror stories where they were no longer all hack, slash, excise, and/or survive (if you’re lucky). Not only did this bring about a new wave of cinema, it brought with it a more aware audience, hungry for artisans and creatives who could take the expected, the known unknowns, if you will, and gift unto audiences an adventure that surprises. Having its international premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024, director/co-writer Yusron Fuadi’s (Skull) second feature film The Draft! (Setan Alas!) begs the question: if you found yourself in a horror film situation, what would you do? Would you give in to the inevitability or take your fate into your hands, even if it meant fighting G-d?
Blue Finch Films releasing TBA.
Ghost Killer
Directed By: Kensuke Sonomura
Written By: Yûgo Sakamoto
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Mario Kuroba, Masanori Mimoto
Summary:
One morning, an ordinary college student, Fumika, fell down the stairs on her way home after pulling an all-nighter at some drinking session. As she gets up, she found a gun bullet on the road. As she picked it up, she lost her consciousness and woke up in her own house to find Kudo, a legendary hit man who’s just got shot and killed. Kudo, who lost his memory insists Fumika to help him exorcise his spirit by finding who killed him but Fumika cannot accept what is happening. Fumika keeps rejecting Kudo’s request, but learns he cannot be separated unless she exorcises him and reluctantly starts cooperating him to recall his memory.
With his first two features, Sonomura demonstrated a gift for visual storytelling to go along with his talents for action. With Ghost Killer, the third time’s the charm as it all comes together (narrative, performance, action, and themes) to produce a powerhouse adventure that satisfies from start to finish. Having worked together across many years and many projects, the collaboration of the talent on screen and off is this film’s secret sauce. Everything blends together so smoothly that humor and heart, hilarity and horror are given in equal measure, to the point where Ghost Killer is more dark comedy than dramedy. But that’s an exploration for a more spoiler-filled review and, seeing as Well Go USA has picked up the U.S. release, you can count on one coming in the future (fingers-crossed for 2025). Until then, catch Ghost Killer while and where you can.
Well Go USA releasing TBA.
Grand Theft Hamlet
Directed By: Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane
Written By: Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane
Cast: Sam Crane, Mark Oosterveen, Jen Cohn
Summary:
With theaters shut during the COVID-19 pandemic, two jobless actors, Sam and Mark, are uncertain about their futures—finding solace in the virtual chaos of Grand Theft Auto Online. Desperate for purpose, they decide to stage Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the ultra-violent world of their favorite game.
There’s no better catalyst for creativity than necessity. When one feels absolutely pushed, it may be messy, it may be imperfect, but it’ll be entirely of their own making through the act of having to improvise solutions. Though machinima is widespread enough to have its own genre title in storytelling, no one’s done something like what Sam and Mark attempt, and I don’t think they expected this small idea to bloom into something as creative, as meaningful, or as hilariously inventive as it is. Thankfully, Grylls does capture enough of the actual performance that we can see how a few of the obstacles during the pre-production and rehearsal process work out, enabling us to see the good and the bad with it. Admittedly, this reviewer would’ve loved to have seen more as both a former literature major in undergrad and a video game nerd, but what we get speaks volumes to the efforts of the showrunners, performers, and the characters within GTA Online who become part of the crew. Even as the pandemic continues and the concerns of isolation remain for many, Grand Theft Hamlet may just inspire others to take a chance with the medium of their choosing to make art. You never know what you’ll create or discover in the process.
MUBI releasing January 17th, 2025.
Group Therapy
Directed By: Neil Berkeley
Cast: Neil Patrick Harris, Mike Birbiglia, Nicole Byer, Gary Gulman, London Hughes, Tig Notaro, and Atsuko Okatsuka
Summary:
Sharing is therapeutic.
Neil Berkeley’s latest is a thoughtful and humorous navigation of personal conversations on mental health. Produced by Kevin Hart, this unique documentary takes the form of a group therapy session led by some of today’s funniest comedians and comic performers.
Early into Gilbert/Harmantown director Neil Berkeley’s new film Group Therapy, one of the central cast members, comedian Mike Birbiglia, comments that comedy is similar to therapy in that the comedian opens themselves up to the audience, but that the difference is that, in therapy, the idea is to give the information to someone with the skillset to help guide someone toward tools to help them through the issue. From an outsider’s perspective, it would seem that comedians don’t want to give their audience the burden of their sorrow, their anxiety, or their trauma, they want to share with them the humor, the honesty, and the heart that exists within us all. Having its world premiere during Tribeca Film Festival 2024, Berkeley’s Group Therapy is a simply constructed, simply executed discussion of the intersection between comedy and mental health that will have you laughing in shared joy in one moment and crying in shared pain in another.
HartBeat Productions releasing into additional festivals 2025.
The Motherload
Directed By: Van Tran Nguyen, Alex Derwick
Written By: Van Tran Nguyen, Alex Derwick
Cast: Van Tran Nguyen, Sang “Sandy” Tran
Summary:
Conflict among the mother-daughter duo arises when Jessca embarks on a quest to find a home that once belonged to her mother’s family during pre-war Vietnam. Kim (Jessca’s mother), happy in her new but precarious position in America, fights to stay stateside. As their desires cause them to grow apart they are faced with old myths about the motherland, depicted in a public-broadcasting television show. With a cast consisting only of two Vietnamese-American women re-enacting and satirizing scenes from celebrated Vietnam War films while depicting a diasporic reality, this movie takes a closer look at what has been lost in war, what we find in the rubble, and how to hold on to what remains.
Sometimes the best way to get an audience to consider something, to battle with the way they perceive or process something, is to give it to them wrapped in something else. In the parlance of the 2024 action rom-com The Fall Guy, sometimes a message requires being wrapped in “sexy bacon” in order for the audience to open themselves to the possibility of introspection. For filmmaking partners Van Tran Nguyen (Erie County Smile) and Alex Derwick (Erie County Smile) — and newlyweds (mazel tov!) — this translates into the quirky satire The Motherload, their first feature film that just had its world premiere at Hawaii International Film Festival 2024 and now is screening during New Orleans Film Festival 2024. A film not to be missed for its hilarious use of lo-fi props and minimal casting (Nguyen and her mother Sang “Sandy” Tran play all the roles), and the serious bite it has as it lays out the maligned perception of Vietnam and its people through consumed U.S. media. Impressively, even more than that, it’s a lovely family story as mother and daughter portray fictional versions of themselves (and others), showing themselves to be a wholesome duo that only enhances the emotional power of the narrative.
Theatrical release in 2025.
No Other Land
Directed By: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Written By: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Cast: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Farisa Abu Aram, Nasser Adra, Harun Abu Aram, Kifah Adara
Summary:
Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community’s mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families – the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.
Why You Should See It
It’s very easy for everything to slide into a binary of good and evil and miss the shades of grey, especially when lives are lost. It’s far easier to hold on to old wounds and hurt others than do the necessary work to create peace. Though it’s been more than a year since the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023 in which innocent lives were lost and hostages taken (many of whom are still missing), one cannot deny the actions by the Israeli military in Gaza goes beyond simple retrieval and military retribution. In particular, if one does any exploration into Israel’s actions as a military power in the Middle East, questions do form as to whether or not they themselves have slipped into the comfort of colonization under the trappings of advanced protection from perceived enemies. What No Other Land does is show a few years in the life of Basel Adra, a young man living in a village that’s been slowly overtaken by the Israeli military using the power of Israeli courts to steal what’s not theirs and the perseverance of the villagers to try to stand against military and vigilantes who would forcibly remove them. In my education as a Reform Jew, I learned the stories of persecution from nearly every place the Hebrew people resettled, but rarely do we learn that, perhaps, the victimization complex has become a weaponized tool to grant permission for the state of Israel to harm others. This is why No Other Land matters — “Never Again” applies to all people, even and especially those not Hebrew.
In Los Angeles theaters and select theaters nationwide February 7th, 2025.
Zero
Directed By: Jean Luc Herbulot
Written By: Jean Luc Herbulot, Hus Miller
Cast: Moran Rosenblatt, Hus Miller, Annabelle Lengronne, Cameron McHarg, Roger Felmont Sallah, Angelique Mendes, Willem Dafoe
Summary:
From the director of the acclaimed TIFF Midnight Madness selected Saloum, comes a bold, visceral feature film. Two Americans searching for a sense of purpose wake up in Senegal with bombs strapped to their chests and ten hours to find out why. With their fates in the hands of an ominous voice on the end of a phone (Willem Dafoe), the two strangers complete a series of seemingly random missions, unwillingly terrorizing the city of Dakar in the process. With widespread protest against Western influence growing, the reluctant partners must work together in a mutual race for survival, and ultimately redemption.
In 2021, writer/director Jean Luc Herbulot released his supernatural thriller Saloum, and it made a mark on anyone who saw it. The story is of three mercs whose plan goes awry, yet places them exactly where they need to be in order to settle old scores. It’s a remarkable film with its own rhythm and energy that make you lean in from the first scene to the heartbreaking last. Herbulot’s latest project, Zero, is having its world premiere at Beyond Fest 2024 and is going to cause the same reaction as before. Co-written with actor Hus Miller (You Can’t Say No), Zero is a localized geo-political thriller with bite as its simple premise unleashes the kinds of questions upon its audience that require proper reflection to come to terms with as there is no peace as long as violence is done somewhere in the world.
Blue Finch Films releasing TBA.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Recommendation
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