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Best and Worst Films from May 2025

Best Films from May 2025:

3. A Writer’s Odyssey

A Writer’s Odyssey is this very unique and fun Chinese fantasy flick that more people need to see. The scenes in the real world were not as interesting as those in the fantasy realm, but the world building and VFX were excellent here. The highlights for me were its terrific humor focusing on a lot of enjoyable goofiness and the superbly executed action sequences that at times perfectly mirrored major boss fights in a video game.

2. Whale

Whale is a highly effective Bulgarian comedy featuring a story that is a very strong metaphor of communism and its many pitfalls. The primary situation made for a lot of exuberant fun, but the highlights for me were the smaller scenes and moments that made me chuckle due to amusing and very observational dialogue employed. It’s a technically inferior film, but one that was so well written and performed, making for a real hidden gem.

1. Forest of the Hanged

Forest of the Hanged is a classic Romanian film that is definitely slow in pace and overlong in runtime, but wonderfully acted, superbly directed by Liviu Ciulei, and thematically rich and sophisticated in its text. The highlight here is its evident technical craftsmanship – the cinematography is crisp and fluid, the score is haunting, and the overall atmosphere is positively somber and gloomy. This was the month when I went on my Eastern European cinematic journey and this first movie in that marathon remained the best one I watched.

Worst Films from May 2025:

3. In the Mouth of Madness

In the Mouth of Madness is a passable John Carpenter joint that could and should have been much better than it ended up being. The premise was great and a couple of moments were genuinely chilling. Sam Neill was very good in the main role himself. However, the second half was quite a big letdown plotwise and the movie never quite formed its own identity as the director tried to do way too many different things and ideas all at once.

2. Snow White

I did see the infamous Snow White this month as well and all of the controversies aside, this live-action remake is simply a film that had no reason to exist. It’s this weird hybrid between a faithful adaptation and a reimagining that changed the original text to an unrecognizable state. It is well performed by Zegler, but Gadot was horrendous. The musical numbers were solid, but the story changes were annoying. It’s a passable flick overall, but it is on this list for being one giant mess.

1. Warfare

The only truly bad movie I saw this month, Alex Garland’s Warfare is truly atrocious. Once again we get an American movie from the US soldiers’ perspective, a film that entirely ignores the Iraqi perspective and that evades to criticize American military in the slightest. It’s not directly nationalistic, but in its refusal to tackle these issues, it can certainly be thought of as such. It’s a thinly plotted, action-oriented war flick that felt entirely forgettable and unnecessary.