Sorry, Baby is the directing debut of offbeat comedic actor Eva Victor (of “Shithouse” fame), and one of the best-crafted comedy films of the 2020s. The film is a sincere comedy-drama with a wonderfully flat sense of humor. Victor stars in her own film and delivers an incredible leading performance. Sorry, Baby tells the story of an awkwardly quiet grad school student, Agnes (Eva Victor), in a non-linear fashion. The film is divided into thirds: one set in the year after graduate school, one in her final year of graduate school, and the last two years after graduate school. This ingenious ordering allows the viewer to uncover the details of Agnes’s life in a fresh and engaging way. Sorry, Baby presents everything desired in a modern-day comedy: witty, humorous, sensitive, and thematic, and the film successfully achieves everything it strives to be.

Rating: ★★★★

Weapons made headlines this summer with its throwback marketing style (akin to The Dark Knight or The Blair Witch Project) that featured a crafted website and a documentary-style trailer. Beyond this, the lack of knowledge surrounding the project caused horror fans to flock to the theater to uncover its mystery (to the tune of over $100 million domestically). Zach Cregger is the mastermind behind Weapons‘ success; the film is his second written-directed feature. The unraveling of the plot is a key part of the film’s viewing experience, so it’s best to go into the film as blind as possible. Like Sinners, Weapons is a big, bold original horror film, a rare luxury in today’s cinematic landscape. A funny, frightening, thrill-ride of a movie, Weapons is one of the best viewing experiences available in theaters.

Rating: ★★★★

Not unlike Weapons, 28 Years Later is a chilling and bold horror film, with an incredible array of thematic depth. The film is a follow-up to 2002’s 28 Days Later from the original writer-director pair of Alex Garland and Danny Boyle. The film ignores the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, as it is widely considered a poor and unworthy continuation, with none of the original team involved. The film cleverly twists and diverts the viewers’ every expectation, and provides a truly one-of-a-kind experience. As gory as it is hilarious, and as frightening as it is heartfelt, the project hits every cinematic beat. It features several twists and turns, with each one being more unexpected than the next, yet it feels like a cohesive and completed narrative. Continuing 2025’s trend of striking and authentic horror films (Weapons, Sinners, Bring Her Back, and to a lesser extent, Together), 28 Years Later is one of the best zombie stories ever told.

Rating: ★★★★½

Adored by its very own cult, Ari Aster’s new film, Eddington, had controversially massive expectations, and it blew every single one of those out of the water. A fresh take on the long-dead Western genre, Aster takes classic Western tropes and puts them inside a Covid-ridden, modern-day small town in New Mexico. Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal are at the helm of this new quasi-avant-garde pandemic thriller, playing the roles of the town’s sheriff and mayor, respectively. Aster brilliantly demonstrates the social disconnection and false sympathy displayed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and uses a large cast of famed character actors to tell his narrative. Like his past projects (Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau is Afraid), the film has received a large mix of critical reception, with reviews ranging from sensational to abysmal. This is part of Aster’s goal, as emerging debates prove his point. The film is a remarkable achievement of cinematic filmmaking that cannot be overstated.

Rating: ★★★★½

Cloud is the latest pessimistic action-thriller from Japanese genre master Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who has an impressively deep catalog of single-word thrilling masterpieces (Cure, Pulse, Creepy, Chime, and Retribution). Although Cloud has been advertised more as a hard-boiled action film, the finished product is more of a methodical, uneasy paranoid thriller, with bits of action spaced apart. Cloud continues Kurosawa’s criticism of late-stage capitalism that he started all the way back in the flawless Cure, and also picks up the thematics of digital disconnection and modern-world isolationism from his unsettling 2001 horror film, Pulse. It is a film best seen with no prior knowledge of the plot, as its absurd unraveling only adds to its depravity. Among the boldest decisions that Kurosawa makes, his decision not to quiet the sound of gunfire is one of the most brilliant. Most modern action films dramatically tone down the sound of gunshots for the audience’s ease of watching. Still, Kurosawa’s choice not to do this only emphasizes the shocking effect of each bullet. The viewer is forced to flinch at every bullet, and flinch once again when the effects are shown. It’s the only contemporary action shoot-it-up film to despise the very form of violence it’s using. Cloud isn’t only the most brilliant film of the year (so far), but one of the best action-thrillers of the 21st century.

Rating: ★★★★½