Ayden Mayeri, Amira Casar and José Condessa in “Honeyjoon”
“Honeyjoon”
Directed by Lilian Mehrel
Some language in Portuguese with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place on the São Miguel island in Portugal’s Azores region, the dramatic film “Honeyjoon” features a Portuguese and Middle Eastern cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: An Iranian British widow and her U.S.-raised young adult daughter take a vacation together, and the women grapple with their grief and some unresolved issues between them.
Culture Audience: “Honeyjoon” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching competently acted dramas about mother-daughter relationships and how immigration affects people’s lives.
Ayden Mayeri, Amira Casar and José Condessa in “Honeyjoon”
The drama “Honeyjoon” takes a low-key approach to a mother and a daughter reconnecting during a vacation in Portugal, where they confront their emotional wounds. The pacing can get dull, but a friendly tour guide brings intrigue to the family dynamics. The movie also has thoughtful observations about the immigrant experience from the perspectives of an immigrant parent and a non-immigrant child.
Written and directed by Lilian T. Mehrel, “Honeyjoon” is her feature-film directorial debut. “Honeyjoon” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The movie was film takes place on the São Miguel island in Portugal’s Azores region, where “Honeyjoon” was filmed on location. The two family members who are at the center of the story are recently widowed Lela Mer (played by Amira Casar) and her bachelorette daughter June (played Ayden Mayeri), who have more differences than similarities in their personalities.
“Honeyjoon” is a conversation-driven movie that focuses only on a few characters, even though the locations are filled with other people. The movie skillfully conveys that even on this vacation trip, Lela and June prefer to keep to themselves. The circumstances of this trip are unusual because June (who is in her early 20s and who is Lela’s only child) didn’t expect to be on this vacation with Lela.
The trip was originally planned as a wedding anniversary celebration for Lela and her husband (June’s father), who unexpectedly died of cancer one year before this trip takes place. São Miguel holds special memories for Lela because it’s where she and her late husband spent some time during their courtship. Instead of canceling these vacation plans, Lela asks June to accompany her on this trip.
It’s mentioned at the beginning of the movie that Lela and June, who both live in the United States, don’t see each other in person very often because Lela lives on the East Coast, while June lives on the West Coast. But the distance between Lela and June has a lot more to do with emotional estrangement than physical locations. The conversations in the movie reveal that mother and daughter have had tensions for quite some time about Lela’s opinions of how June is living her life.
Lela thinks that June (who is a medical school dropout) needs to have more defined and planned goals for June’s career and personal life. June would rather have a “go with the flow” approach to her life and doesn’t want to put strict deadlines on herself. June mentions at one point in the movie that she’s taking a break from dating because she hasn’t had much luck in finding someone special, but she’s still open to finding true love.
Lela was born in Iran and is of Kurdish heritage. Lela was a child when she and her family fled Iran sometime during the Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution) period from February 1978 to January 1979, when the monarchical government was overthrown by a rebel faction that established the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lela and her refugee family settled in the United Kingdom (she still has a British accent), she met her future husband when she was in he 20s, and the couple lived in the United States, where June was born.
Early on in the movie, it’s easy to see how different Lela and June are from each other. Lela has brought a plastic pouch bag of her deceased husband’s hair with her and wants to give some of the hair to June. June declines the offer and thinks it’s morbid that Lela is carrying around this plastic bag of a dead person’s hair.
Lela is very much caught up in following news about the Women, Life, Freedom movement that advocates for women’s rights in Iran. It affects Lela emotionally when she sees news reports about women from the movement getting arrested. By contrast, June wants to tune out that type of news during this vacation because she thinks it’s too depressing.
“Honeyjoon” has a few moments of discomfort that are supposed to be somewhat amusing. The hotel booking for Lela was for a couple’s honeymoon-style accommodations, such as one bed in the room and activities such as couple’s massages. When Lela and June check into hotel, June has to explain the front desk clerk that she and Lela are not lovers but are actually mother and daughter.
June and Lela find out that the room that was booked for them has only one bed. They can’t switch rooms because the hotel is fully booked up, and it’s too late to cancel the booking because it would involve a hefty fee that Lela doesn’t want to pay. And so, June and Lela agree to make the best of these accommodations, including sharing the same bed.
June is much more uncomfortable about it than Lela, whose occasional farting in bed is supposed to bring some comic relief in the movie. But there’s a poignant scene when Lela (who has been having some nightmares) asks June to hold her in a comforting way in bed so Lela can try to go to sleep. It’s a moment when June sees firsthand the profound loneliness that Lela must be feeling to no longer have a spouse who can hold Lea to bring that comfort.
Rather than go on a big group tour, June decides that it’s better to pay extra for a more intimate and custom tour with just herself, Lela and a tour guide. The tour guide happens to be a handsome man named João (played by José Condessa), who drives June and Lela to various scenic locations and tells some history about these locations. João is an available bachelor who’s about the same age as June.
During the guided tour, which involves a lot of outdoor hiking and climbing, June is dressed in a long white dress, which isn’t exactly ideal for these outdoor activities. Lela is dressed more practically. During the guided tour, June and João have an unspoken attraction to each other, but June acts very reserved, as if she’s unsure about expressing this attraction to João while Lela is right there on the tour. Meanwhile, Lela is more talkative and friendly to João, and their instant rapport makes June feel like a third wheel.
Lela considers herself to be a supporter of the feminist movement in Iran, but some of her traditional upbringing seeps back into her conversations with June. For example, Lela gives some criticism to June for June’s choice of swimwear (which has a thong) when they get some unwanted catcall attention from men at a beach. June snaps back by reminding Lela that part of the women’s liberation movement is that women should be allowed to wear whatever they want.
João opens up to Lela and June about his fractured family: Both of his parents abandoned him when he was a child. There’s a sweet-natured part of the movie when João takes a detour and introduces Lela and June to his grandmother (played by Teresa Faria), who is living with dementia. June feels even closer to João when she sees that João knows what it’s like to have a family member with a deadly disease.
“Honeyjoon” doesn’t really build up to a major turning point in the story. It’s a “slice of life” movie that shows a series of vignettes during a period of a few days during this trip. As expected, “Honeyjoon” has some stunning scenes of the gorgeous São Miguel landscapes.
The rhythm of “Honeyjoon” has stops and starts with conversations that sometimes crackle with intensity and other times are very mundane. However, the performances of Casar and Mayeri are consistently solid and convincing as a mother and daughter who are navigating through their grief and other issues. Viewers will leave the movie knowing that this guided tour that Lela and June take outdoors is a way for mother and daughter to deal with their internal emotions that will have an impact that lasts longer than this vacation.
Pictured clockwise from top center: Aamir Khan, Rishi Shahani, Gopi Krishnan Varma, Ashish Pendse, Aayush Bhansali, Aroush Datta, Vedant Sharmaa, Simran Mangeshkar, Naman Misra, Samvit Desai, Rishi Shahani and Genelia D’Souza in “Sitaare Zameen Par” (Photo courtesy of AA Films)
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2025, in India, the comedy/drama film “Sitaare Zameen Par” (a remake of the 2018 Spanish movie “Champions”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: After getting convicted of drunk driving, a professional basketball coach is sentenced to a community service program where he has to coach a team of mentally disabled young adults and is ordered to help them win a national championship.
Culture Audience: “Sitaare Zameen Par” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the original “Champions” movies.
Aamir Khan and Genelia D’Souza in “Sitaare Zameen Par” (Photo courtesy of AA Films)
“Sitaare Zameen Par” is an enjoyable remake of the 2018 Spanish comedy/drama “Champions.” It’s certainly better than the clunky 2023 American version of the movie. Aamir Khan gives a winning performance as a basketball coach of young disabled players.
Directed by R. S. Prasanna and written by Divy Nidhi Sharma, “Sitaare Zameen Par” (which means “Stars on Earth” in Hindi) is much closer to the story in original Spanish movie, compared to the American version that made some awkward and needlessly complicated changes. The Spanish movie “Champions” has also been made into other international versions: In 2022, a Saudi Arabian version was released and a German version was released.
“Champions” was originally based on the true story of an American basketball coach namd Ron Jones, who wrote the 1990 non-fiction book “B-Ball: the Team that Never Lost a Game,” which was made into the 1991 American TV-movie “One Special Victory.” There’s also been a 2018 Spanish documentary about this story “Neither Different nor Different: Champions.” Clearly, this story has been mined several times for public consumption.
“Sitaare Zameen Par,” just like the original “Champions,” has many of the usual sports movie clichés of a grumpy coach who is assigned to lead a losing team and bring the team to a prominent championship competition. However, the both movies are not completely predictable and offer some heartfelt moments that have life lessons that go beyond basketball, such as treating disabled people with respect, not contempt or condescending pity.
In “Sitaare Zameen Par,” Gulshan Arora (played by Khan) is a grouchy assistant coach of a Delhi team for India’s National Basketball League. Although Khan was in his late 50s when he made this movie, he looks like he’s in his late 30, which is about the age that Gulshan is supposed to be in this story. He has a reputation of being a successful coach but he also frequently loses his temper and uses intimidation to get results.
During a basketball game, Gulshan physically attacks the team’s head coach. Gulshan, who abuses alcohol when he feels stressed-out, later gets arrested for a drunk-driving accident where he crashed into a police car. As a result, Gulshan is suspended from his job.
At a courtroom hearing for his case, Gulshan is found guilty of drunk driving. Because it’s his first major criminal offense, Judge Anupama (played by Tarana Raja) does not give him any prison time and instead sentences Gulshan to an unusual type of community service: Gulshan is ordered to coach a basketball team of “intellectually challenged” young adults who meet at a public community building called the Sarvodaya Centre, which has a limited budget.
The team members’ ages range from late teens to mid-20s. The judge says that Gulshan should make the team great enough to make it to the Aashaaien National Basketball Tournament, which is happening that year in Mumbai. It’s a major challenge because this team has been on a losing streak for years.
In the original “Champions” movie, the convicted coach is given a choice of going to prison or taking the community service, and he chooses the community service. In “Sitaare Zameen Par,” the convicted coach doesn’t have a choice. It’s one of the more realistic changes that Sitaare Zameen Par” has in the movie.
Adding to his legal woes, Gulshan is also going through some turmoil in his personal life. He has left his loyal and loving wife Suneeta (played by Genelia D’Souza) and has moved in with his divorced mother Preeto (played by Dolly Ahluwalia), who is kind and open-minded. Why did Gulshan leave Suneeta?
About week after the separation, Gulshan and Suneeta see each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. Gulshan admits to Suneeta that he was so ashamed of being arrested for drunk driving, “I left before you could ask me to leave.” Suneeta tells Gulshan that she misses him and wants to get back together with him, but he refuses.
Gulshan and Suneeta have bigger issues in their marriage that led to this separation. Suneeta very much wants to start a family with him. Gulshan doesn’t want to have any children. They’ve reached a stalemate where both spouses will not change their minds about this issue.
It’s later revealed that Gulshan is afraid to become a father, due to having major abandonment issues because Gulshan’s father was a deadbeat dad who abandoned Gulshan and Preeto when Gulshan was a child. Gulshan also thinks that he and Suneeta (who is also in her late 30s) are getting too old to start a family. Gulshan later admits that he has a habit of rejecting people who are close to him before they can reject him.
Gulshan’s stubbornness is one of his major flaws. This obstinance extends to how he views his mother, who has not remarried since Gulshan’s father abandoned them. As far as Gulshan is concerned, he wants to think of Preeto as someone who should have lost interest in finding love again and should have her entire identity revolve around being a mother to him. Preeto’s kind and elderly neighbor Daulajit (played by Brijendra Kala) is her main companion. Gulshan approves of Daulajit because Guslhan thinks that Daulajit and Preeto have a strictly platonic relationship.
While Gulshan is living with his mother, and before he meets his community service basketball team, Gulshan has a conversation with her where he grumpily describes the mentally disabled basketball team members as being “crazy.” Gulshan says he is not qualified to deal with mentally ill people. Preeto corrects Gulshan and says that being mentally disabled is not the same thing as being mentally ill and advises him not to use. Gulshan complains about having to use politically correct language for people who are mentally “different.”
Before he meets his team members, Gulshan has an orientation meeting with the Sarvodaya Centre’s manager Kartar Paaji (played by Gurpal Singh), who is Gulshan’s boss for this job. Kartar explains to Gulshan that the basketball team members might be physically developed adults, but they have the mental capacities of children who are about 7 or 8 years old. Katar asks Gulshan if he has any children, and Gulshan abruptly says no becaue he doesn’t want children. Katar advises Gulshan to coach the team with the patience needed to coach children.
At first, the team is an all-male group of nine team members. But then, the team expands into 10 members when a young woman joins the group in the middle of the story. At first, Gulshan reluctantly does his job but he doesn’t have much hope that these uncoordinated team members can be transformed into a winning group. His dismissive attitude toward the team members starts to change after Kartar tells Gulshan a little bit about the personal backgrounds of each team member.
These are the people on the team that Gulshan coaches:
Guddu (played by Gopi Krishnan Varma), who seems to be on the autism spectrum, is fond of animals and works at an animal farm sanctuary. Guddu is afraid of being in water because he nearly drowned when he was a child. Because of this fear, Guddu doesn’t bathe or take showers, and his body odor causes a lot of comedic discomfort for Gulshan.
Sunil Gupta (played by Ashish Pendse), who is one of the more emotionally intelligent people on the team, has Down syndrome and likes to wear a bicycle helmet almost everywhere he goes.
Satbir (played by Aroush Datta) works as a mechanic and is one of the quieter people on the team.
Lotus (played by Aayush Bhansali), who works at a dye factory, is the team rebel and ha multicolored hair because of the dyes he gets at his job. Lotus also likes to brag that he’s sexually experienced and his girlfriend is a sex worker.
Bantu (played by Vedant Sharmaa) is the friendly nephew of Judge Anupama.
Kareem Qureshi (played by Samvit Desai) works in a hotel kitchen and has a fascination with trying to master the skill of making basketball free throws while standing backwards.
Sharmaji (played by Rishi Shahani), who is one of the more extroverted people on the team, is living with the skin condition vitiligo. Sharmaji lives with his uncle and works as a cashier in a cafe.
Raju (played by Rishabh Jain), who has an easygoing personality, works at his family’s flower nursery.
Hargovind (played by Naman Misra), who has autism, is the quietest and tallest member of the team. Gulshan has high hopes that Hargovind will be the team’s star player, but loner Hargovind quits the team early on in the story, for reasons that Hargovind later reveals to Gulshan.
Golu Khan (played by Simran Mangeshkar), who has Down syndrome and is an enthusiastic surfer, is the team’s only female member. She has a feisty personality and doesn’t make down from a fight when she’s challenged or insulted.
Galshan becomes so frustrated with the team members when he begins coaching them, he eventually tells Judge Anupama that he wants to quit. She tells Galsham that if he quits, she’ll sentence him to do community service of janitorial work in hospitals where there are patients who are victims of drunk drivers. Galsan quickly decides to keep coaching the team.
If you’ve seen enough movies about underdog sports teams who get a new coach who’s been hired to improve the team, then you know exactly how “Sitaare Zameen Par” is going to go. It should come as no surprise that the team starts to win games under Gulshan’s leadership. Suneeta attends the games as a show of support and eventually gets caught up in the excitement of the winning streak and accompanies Gulshan and the team to their games away from home.
The American version of “Champions” changed the story to make the coach (a divorcé with no children) have a relationship with the aunt of the team member who’s afraid of water. The relationship starts off as a one-night stand, turns into a “friend with benefits” relationship, and eventually becomes a romance. This type of relationship causes complications that drag down the story because the two lovers are still getting to know each other and are unsure of where their relationship is headed.
By contrast, “Sitaae Zameen Par” sticks to the original “Champions” story of having the coach as a married man who’s having marital problems because his wife wants to start a family with him, but he does not want any kids. By coaching this team, the coach is obviously going to learn what it might be like to be responsible for people who have the minds of children. And the experience predictably changes him as a person.
Gulshan thinks he knows it all when he starts coaching the team. But he learns many things from the team members whom he initially thought were much more inferior to him. There’s a scene where Guddu confronts his fear of water, with help from the team. Later, the team helps Gulshan confront a fear of elevators that Gulshan has had ever since Gulshan had the bad experience of getting stuck in an elevator. It’s a full-circle experience where Gulshan begins to see that he’s not the only teacher on this team.
“Sitaae Zameen Par” benefits from having great casting because all of the cast members give believable performances. A few of the plot points are the same in the Spanish, American and Indian versions of “Champions,” such as the kitchen worker having a cruel and exploitative boss, who won’t let this team member take time off from work to play in the basketball team’s games. In “Sitaae Zameen Par,” this obnoxious boss (who doesn’t have a name in the movie) is played by Jagbir Rathee.
The American version of “Champions” made the disabled team members into caricatures. For example, in the American version of “Champions,” the dye factory worker talks incessantly about his active sex life as a way for the movie to make him into a joke—as if it’s supposed to be amusing that disabled adults have active sex lives. In “Sitaae Zameen Par,” the dye factory worker’s sex life isn’t made into a cruel mockery and is mentioned only a few times in the movie.
One if the movie’s shortcomings is how it rushes all the basketball game scenes, except for the last basketball game shown in “Sitaae Zameen Par.” There needed to be a better depiction of how the team improved on the court, instead of cramming in these “winning streak” scenes with what amounts to quick montages. However, the movie gives a very good portrayal of the team’s camaraderie off the court.
“Sitaae Zameen Par” has a fantastic music score (by Ram Sampath) and terrific soundtrack (mostly by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy) that add to the movie’s intended joyous spirit. Khan (who is one of the producers of the movie) gives an effective performance in showing the evolution of Gulshan, which is really what makes “Sitaae Zameen Par” stand out as better than the American version of the movie. Gulshan is flawed and shows vulnernability without being too sappy and shows strength without being too harsh. When his eyes well up with tears, it doesn’t look forced or fake.
Yes, “Sitaae Zameen Par” can get a little preachy, such as in Preeto’s conversations with Gulshan about beng more compassionate to people who are “different” from Gulshan. Yes, “Sitaae Zameen Par” hits a lot of familiar beats in movies about underestimated athletes. But “Sitaae Zameen Par” hits these beats in mostly the right ways and results in a moviegoing experience that is both uplifting and entertaining.
AA Films released “Sitaare Zameen Par” in select U.S. cinemas and PVR Inox Pictures released “Sitaare Zameen Par” in India on June 20, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, from 2013 to 2021, the dramatic film “8 Vasantalu” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A young author and martial arts enthusiast goes through various ups and downs in her love life.
Culture Audience: “8 Vasantalu” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and soap opera-styled dramas that are cloying and lack imagination.
Pictured standing in center: Hanu Reddy and Ananthika Sanilkumar in “8 Vasantalu” (Photo courtesy of Mythri Movie Makers)
“8 Vasantalu” makes an effort to be an epic love story, but the movie’s editing and narrative are too choppy. Most of this drama is dreadfully boring. “8 Vasantalu” jumps around from storyline to storyline, leaving many questions unanswered. The movie is 135 minutes long but still manages to be trite and shallow in many areas.
Written and directed by Phanindra Narsetti, “8 Vasantalu” (which means “8 Springs” in Telugu) takes place in India from 2013 to 2021. However, the characters in the movie don’t look like they’ve aged during this eight-year span. It’s one of many things in “8 Vasantalu” that look too phony.
The protagonist of “8 Vasantalu” is Shuddhi Ayodhya (played by Ananthika Sanilkumar), an opinionated and independent woman who goes from ages 19 to 27 in the story. Shuddhi lives in a middle-class household with her widowed mother in Ooty, India. It’s shown in the beginning of the movie that at the age of 19, Shuddhi is not only a successful author—her first book is an inspirational collection of poetry called “RAYS (Rise Above Your Situation)” —but she’s also very talented in martial arts. Shiddhu is also very different from her peers because she doesn’t want to have a cell phone and she doesn’t want to be on social media.
There’s no backstory on how Shiddhu developed these skills. She’s never shown struggling to get her first book published or spending years in martial arts training. Shuddhi is depicted as exceptional without showing any of the real work it takes to get the type of recognition that she gets. The only obstacles that Shuddhi comes up against have to do with sexism, but “8 Vasantalu” is so ploddingly predictable, she’s able to easily defeat her opponents and critics.
An early scene in the movie takes place in a co-educational martial arts dojo, where the students are under the age of 18 and are mostly male. The dojo instructor is an arrogant and wealthy guy in his late teens named Varun (played by Hanu Reddy), who has a sexist attitude about martial arts. Varun announces to everyone in the class: “Martial arts is a man thing,” even though he’s teaching male and female students.
Shuddhi’s best friend Anita (played by Sanjana Hardageri) is an assistant in the class. Anita tells Varun that he’s wrong about martial arts only being for men, and she mentions that her friend Shuddhi can prove Varun that he’s wrong about this belief. And the next thing you know, Shuddhi walks into the room and proceeds to challenge Varun to a martial arts fight. Shuddhi wins, of course.
Varun is embarrassed but he’s also intrigued by Shuddhi. He thinks her beauty and confidence are very attractive. The next few times that Varun sees Shuddhi in public places, he flirts with her, but she makes it clear that she’s not really interested in dating him. Shuddhi playing “hard to get” makes Varun want her even more.
Shuddhi’s mother encourages Shuddhi to be herself, but she also expects Shuddhi to make practical decisions on who to date and marry. Not surprisingly, Shuddhi’s mother thinks Shuddhi should marry into a wealthy family if given the chance. Shuddhi wants to marry for love, regardless of the caste of her future husband.
Shuddhi doesn’t say the word “feminist” out loud, but she thinks and acts like a feminist. There’s a scene in the movie where she says, “I don’t want people to call me beautiful.” She adds that she would rather be complimented for being hard-working and brave. Shuddhi has already thought of the title of her next book: “The Goddess in You.”
One of the other problems in “8 Vasantalu” is there is no information on who inspired Shuddhi to become a writer. There’s no mention of when she started writing. She’s never shown interacting with any book agents or anyone from the company where she has a book publishing deal. The movie barely has any scenes of her writing after she becomes a published author because so much of the story is about Shiddhu’s issues in her love life.
As for Shuddhi’s fame as an author, “8 Vasantalu” has some poorly written scenes that are dropped in, with no meaningful follow-up. There’s a scene where a middle-aged man introduces himself to Shiddhu and tells her that “RAYS” helped him cope with his grief after his wife died. Shiddhu tells him that she wrote the book to cope with the death of her father, who died while in combat as a sniper in the Indian military.
The middle-aged fan then gives Shiddhu a diamond ring from famed jewelry company Tiffany. No one in the movie comments on Shiddhu getting this extravagant gift from a stranger. In real life, this type of gift from a middle-aged stranger to a 19-year-old would be considered unusual at best and creepy at worst and would definitely be talked about under these circumstances. It’s an example of the movie’s disconnect from reality that no one in the movie talks about this gift.
As for Shiddhu’s martial arts training, she has an instructor she calls Master, who is first seen in the story as being in a hospital with a terminal illness. He tells her doesn’t want to die without teaching her how to be a black belt in karate first. Later, some flashback scenes show Shiddhu training with Master, but they are very superficial montage scenes. The movie clumsily handles the storyline for Master and his terminal illness because it’s introduced abruptly and then not seen or mentioned again for a long stretch of the movie until it abruptly comes back into the story.
There’s also a lot of screen time given to Varun’s personal drama. Varun lives with his parents, who have various properties in multiple countries, including the United States, where Varun was living for several years in Texas. Varun and his parents are temporarily in India for about a year because Varun’s businessman father (played by Sumant Nitturkar) has some business dealings that he has to handle in person.
Varun has his own issues with family expectations. He’s the lead singer and multi-instrumentalist for a band called Nostalgia, which plays a combination of pop music and traditional Indian music. Anita is a guitarist in the band. A young man named Karthik (played by Kanna Pasunoori), who’s a mutual friend of Shiddhu and Anita, takes Shiddhu to see Nostalgia perform. Hoping to impress Shiddhu (who is standing in the front row), Varun sings a ballad directly to her and says it’s dedicated to “someone special in the audience.”
Varun has his own issues with family expectations. Varun’s father used to be a musician who wanted to go to the prestigious Berklee College of Music but didn’t get the opportunity. Varun’s father is putting Varun under enormous pressure to become a Berklee student. A significant part of the movie is about Varun waiting to find out whether or not he was accepted into Berklee.
Varun eventually tells Shiddhu that he’s sorry for how he was disrespectful to her during the first time they met in the dojo. Slowly but surely, Shiddhu warms up to Varun, who pursues her with persistence. They begin dating and eventually they declare their love for each other. Shiddhu and Vaun meet up every Sunday. The movie has a montage of their dates in the first two or three months of their romance.
There are complications, of course. Varun doesn’t want his parents to know that he’s dating Shiddhu because she comes from a lower caste, and he wants his parents to think that he’s focused on his aspiring music career. When he goes on dates with Shiddhu, Varun lies to his parents by saying that he’s taking music lessons in Chennai.
If you take into account Varun’s personality flaws and dishonesty, it can be easy to determine that Varun is the type of suitor who is more in love with pursuing Shiddhu because she’s a challenge or “forbidden” rather than having feelings of true love for Shiddhu. Varun can be charming and attentive though. Eventually, the relationship between Varum and Shiddhu is put to a major test.
“8 Vasantalu” has frustrating disconnects in the story that don’t make any sense. Varun and Shiddhu supposedly have this passionate love affair, but they don’t talk about what they want to do about their relationship if Varun gets accepted into Berklee. Early on in the relationship, Varun said that he and his parents were temporarily living in India, and they would eventually move back to the United States. However, Shiddhu acts like Varun will permanently stay in India because of her.
Most of “8 Vasantalu” is about the ups and downs in the relationship between Shidhhu and Varum. But there’s a bizarre sequence where all of a sudden, Shiddhu becomes an action hero who has to fight her way out of a kidnapping. It’s as if “8 Vasantalu” had to remind viewers that Shiddhu knows martial arts. The tonal shift is very mishandled.
“8 Vasantalu” also goes off on a tangent with a developing romance between Anita and Karthik. But then, that storyline goes away for a long stretch and is never adequately addressed again. Later in the movie, there’s a writer named Sanjay (played by Ravi Theja Duggirala) who shows up and has a backstory that is explained in a very long exposition-dump monologue that’s crammed in yet another awkwardly filmed sequence.
The performances in “8 Vasantalu” are adequate, with Sanilkumar doing her best to keep up with all the personality shifts that Shiddhu is supposed to have in the story. Is Shiddhu an outspoken and courageous feminist who wants to prove herself by having a career in a male-dominated field? Or is she a weepy co-dependent who wants to follow her boyfriend and make decisions about her life based on where her boyfriend wants to live? In “8 Vasatalu,” Shiddhu is presented as both of these types of very different women, which means that by the end of the movie, viewers won’t really feel like they know Shiddhu at all because she doesn’t really know herself.
Mythri Movie Makers released “8 Vasantalu” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on June 20, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Australia, the dramatic film “Inside” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class and are connected in some way to the Australian prison system.
Culture Clash: Three men living in an Australian prison have a collision course of personal entanglements inside and outside of the prison.
Culture Audience: “Inside” will appeal primarily to fans of the movie’s headliners and emotionally raw movies about people living in prison.
Cosmo Jarvis in “Inside” (Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution)
“Inside” is similar to other gritty prison dramas, such as 2009’s “Bronson” and and 2014’s “Starred Up,” where the performances are better than the absorbing but flawed screenplays. Redemption and punishment are open to intepretation. In other words, this is not the type of movie that gives easy answers or has a tidy ending.
Written and directed by Charles Williams, “Inside” is his feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “Inside” takes place in Australia, where the movie was filmed.
Inside focus on three main characters, who are all living at the Gadara Prison for men:
Mel Blight (played by Vincent Miller) is a brooding 17-year-old who has recently been transferred from a juvenile detention center. Mel has one year before he is eligible for a parole release. He is incarcerated for brutally assaulting a schoolmate when they were both about 12 years old, during a playground fight. The other boy died from his injuries. Mel has been incarcerated since he was 12.
Mark Shepard (played by Cosmo Jarvis), who is in his 30s, committed first-degree murder when he was 13 years old. He is perhaps the prison’s most notorious inmate. A TV news report describes Mark as committing “one of the worst crimes this country has ever seen.” What did Mark do? He raped and murdered an 11-year-old boy.
Warren Murfett (played by Guy Pearce), who is in his late 50s, has a long history of committing crimes. His most recent prison sentence has been for assault and drug possession. Warren, who is in recovery for addictions to meth and alcohol, has an upcoming parole hearing in the beginning of the movie. Warren is considered to be a “model prisoner” who’s capable of saying and doing the right things stay out of trouble in prison.
When Mel first arrives at the prison, he’s assigned to be Mark’s cellmate. It’s one of the flaws of the screenplay, because in real life, it’s highly unlikely that a murderer of Mark’s notoriety would be matched with a teenage newcomer for a cell mate. In the movie, Mark mixes freely with the prison’s general population. In real life, a murderer such as Mark would be kept in a more restrictive part of the prison, partly for punishment and partly for the prisoner’s own safety.
What “Inside” portrays accurately about the prison system is that inmates who are convicted of first-degree sexual murderers of children are considered the lowest of the low in prison hierarchy. These types of murderers often have targets on their backs to be singled out for assaults or worse by other inmates and/or prison employees. One of the subjective questions presented throughout “Inside” is whether not Mark is worthy of forgiveness. Without revealing too much of the movie’s plot, there’s a reason why the lives of Mel, Mark and Warren intertwine, other than the fact that they are all living in the same prison.
Mark has become a born-again Christian, who preaches at the prison chapel, but there are numerous people inside and outside the prison who despise him and want Mark to die. Australia does not have the death penalty. And some people who believe that Mark has changed for the better believe that he should be paroled because he committed the murder when he was a child. Mark also wants to be paroled, but he knows the odds are stacked against him.
Mel does not know what crimes Mark committed when Mel becomes Mark’s cellmate. However, Mel instinctively feels uneasy around Mark and asks to be transferred to another cell. In the meantime, Mel is careful not to do anything that might anger or offend Mark. For example, he agrees to play keyboards during Mark’s chapel services.
Mark shows Mel some illustrations that Mark made. These illustrations look like they were made by a child, which is an indication that Mark has some developmental issues. The point the movie is trying to make is that Mark might be a man physically, but emotionally, he has some child-like qualities. There are indications that Mark could be on the autism spectrum, but there is no discussions in the movie about Mark possibly having this medical condition.
Mark talks like he’s got a mouthful of marbles, but when he’s up on the chapel pulpit preaching, he has a commanding presence and gets people’s attention, even if some of that attention is jeering and heckling from some people in the audience. Mark also speaks in tongues and rants in Latin when “the Holy Spirit” overtakes him. Is Mark a fraud? Or has he genunly become a pious and remorseful person?
Meanwhile, prison officials decide that Warren would make a good mentor to troubled Mel, who is usually quiet but who occasionally lashes out with a violent temper. For example, there’s a scene where Mel has some type of angry meltdown and starts bashing a chair at a prison window that doesn’t break. Flashbacks and voiceover narration from Mel throughout the movie reveal that he has unresolved issues about his own father’s imprisonment. (Raif Weaver has the role of pre-teen Mel in these flashbacks. Angus Cerini has the role of Mel’s father.)
Warren and Mel develop a tentative friendship that is almost like a father/son relationship. Warren has his own parental issues, including an estrangement from his young adult son Adrian Murfett (played by Toby Wallace), who has a short but impactful scene in the movie. One of the things that Mel and Warren like to do on a regular basis is a game where Mel asks Warren trivia questions about pop culture, and Warren does his best to answer the questions correctly. These moments are some of the few comforting interactions in what is otherwise a depiction of an often-bleak and tension-filled existence.
Mel battles with feelings of self-hatred and doesn’t have much hope that he could be paroled early. He says in a voiceover: “People like us shouldn’t be released. We’re broken … You can see it in us, even as kids.” The movie subtly floats the ongoing “nature versus nurture” debate of whether or not hardcore criminals are born or made, without leaning more toward one side over the other.
Miller (who makes his feature-film debut in “Inside”) and Peace give authentically raw performances as the emotionally damaged Mel and Warren, who both have personal demons that they don’t like to discuss out loud. Mel has barely repressed rage issues that Mel doesn’t know how to handle. Warren has a world-weary attitude of regrets that he admits to but wants to forget. The performance of Jarvis as Mark is much more complex because it keeps people guessing about how sincere Mark is about being redeemed.
Many movies about prison depict a constant sense of danger and inmates with big personalities. “Inside” has those elements but also skillfully portrays the monotony of living on a regimented prison schedule and the ways that certain inmates build trust with each other in an environment that often teaches that no one can be trusted. As hopeless and grim as life can be in prison, “Inside” also shows in unflinching ways that prison reform can be difficult for some incarcerated people if life on the outside of prison is tougher to navigate than being inside prison.
Quiver Distribution released “Inside” in select U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025. The movie was released in Australia on February 27, 2025.
Daveed Diggs, Alexandra Daddario, Josh Gad and Ashley Park in “A Tree Fell in the Woods” (Photo by Jeff Leeds Cohn)
“A Tree Fell in the Woods”
Directed by Nora Kirkpatrick
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. state, the comedy/drama film “A Tree Fell in the Woods” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one African American and one Asian person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Two married couples go on a getaway New Year’s Eve trip at a remote cabin in the woods and have their lives turned upside down when it’s revealed that two of the spouses are cheating with someone in the other couple.
Culture Audience: “A Tree in the Woods” will appeal primarily to fans of the movie’s headliners and overly talkative comedy/dramas about spousal relationships that don’t have anything that’s interesting to say.
Watching the painfully unfunny comedy/drama “A Tree Fell in the Woods” is like being stuck in a cabin with four annoying people who say cringeworthy things, which is the movie’s basic plot about four spouses dealing with infidelity. The cast members try too hard to be funny. It just doesn’t work because everything in the movie looks and sounds overly contrived and unnatural.
Written and directed by Nora Kirkpatrick, “A Tree Fell in the Woods” is her feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “A Tree Fell in the Woods” takes place during a few days of a New Year’s Eve getaway trip in an unnamed U.S. state. (The movie was actually filmed in Utah.)
It feels like timeline in “A Tree Feel in the Woods” is much longer than a few days because “A Tree Fell in the Woods” quickly gets boring and repetitive with the mishandling of the movie’s one-joke premise: What would happen if two spouses found out that their respective spouses were cheating with the two other spouses while staying at the same cabin on a vacation trip, and they were snowed in for the rest of the trip?
That’s essentially the entire plot of this irritating drag of a movie, which would have been more tolerable if the dialogue had been witty and if the acting had been more natural. In “The Tree Fell in the Woods,” there are only five people who are seen on screen:
Mitch Dilpen (played by Josh Gad), who’s in his mid-40s, is a nerdy and insecure business executive in his mid-40s.
Melanie Dilpen (played by Ashley Park), who’s in her mid-30s, is materialistic chef who’s written a best-selling cookbook called “Emotional Eating.”
Josh (played by Daveed Diggs), who’s in his early 40s, is an egotistical photojournalist.
Debs (played by Alexandra Daddario), who’s in her mid-to-late-30s, is a high-strung book editor who is an aspiring author.
Gary (played by Kevin Pollak), who’s in his 60s, is the somewhat grouchy owner of the cabin.
Mitch and Melanie are married to each other. Josh and Debs are married to each other. Mitch and Debs have been platonic best friends for the past 15 years. However, Mitch has had an unrequited crush on Debs (whom he sometimes calls Debbie) for almost the entire time that they’ve known each other. You can bet that these feelings will come to the surface during the infidelity turmoil that happens during this trip.
In the beginning of the movie, it’s briefly mentioned that the four spouses are spending the New Year’s holiday with each other because they don’t want to be with their biological families. Mitch and Melanie are the first couple seen on screen, as they drive to the cabin in the woods. Mitch forgot to bring some turmeric that Melanie wanted for the trip, so he jokes that they should get divorced. Mitch and Melanie seem to have an easygoing banter with each other, but they don’t seem passionate about each other.
There’s no shortage of passion between Josh and Debs, who show public displays of affection, but they have some communication issues. Debs isn’t afraid to express her feelings about the relationship. However, she’s very insecure about finishing a novel that she’s been trying to write for the past several years and doesn’t like to talk about it with Josh.
Beneath the surface of both marriages are some deep-rooted problems that all of the spouses deal with in various degrees of discomfort or denial. Some of these probems have to do with how each spouse’s self-esteem is affected by their careers. Mitch doesn’t feel valued at his job and feels overshadowed by Melanie’s success. Melanie has become a semi-celebrity, which has inflated her ego. Josh is quick to take credit for other people’s work. Debs would rather be an author than a book editor.
On the first day of the trip, Mitch and Debs go for a walk in the snowy wooded area. They marvel at the sight of a deer nearby, right before a giant tree randomly falls down and narrowly misses falling on Mitch. Debs and Mitch are in shock and want to rush back to the cabin to tell their spouses what just happened.
As Debs and Mitch go toward the cabin, they’re in for an even bigger shock: Through an exposed window, they see Josh and Melanie having sex with each other. None of this is spoiler information because it happens within the first 15 minutes of the movie and serves as the catalyst for what happens next.
Mitch and Debs have very different reactions to discovering this betrayal. Debs immediately wants to angrily confront Josh and Melanie. Mitch begs Debs to delay this confrontation until they’ve had a chance to take some time to think about how to deal with this infidelity. Mitch tells Debs that he doesn’t want to ruin his marriage.
Debs agrees to Mitch’s request but says she’ll eventually have to have the confrontation, which happens the next morning. But just as the secret becomes out in the open, the four travelers find out that they are snowed in due to a blizzard, their cars can’t move, and no car service or taxi will be available to go to the cabin to take them away. They are all stuck with each other for the next few days.
Gary (who lives within walking distance of the cabin) is called to fix some utility problems in the cabin, but he’s reluctant to do it. Mitch eventually goes to meet Gary in person and discovers that Gary has a few bottles of very old bootleg liquor. Gary tells Mitch that the liquor very “dangerous” to drink. It’s easy to predict how this liquor will factor into the story.
The rest of “A Tree Fall in the Woods” is a series of angry, self-pitying and vapid conversations between the four spouses who have to confront the problems in their respective marriages and the problems within themselves. Josh and Melanie are mortified about their infidelity and express remorse. The movie shows whether or not Josh and Melanie want to stay in their respective marriages.
Mitch has conflicting feelings about ending his marriage to Melanie, but he’s sure that Debs should end her marriage to Josh. Here’s an example of the terrible dialogue in the movie when Mitch tries to persuade Debs to break up with Josh: “He’s ketamine. You’re cocaine. He’s a rusty sword. You’re an atomic bomb. You’re a real-live person. He’s an asshole.”
After a while, these phony-sounding conversations and some of the shenanigans that ensue become tedious to watch. “A Tree Fell in the Woods” might have been better as a short film. But it still wouldn’t erase the irredeemable problem of the movie being about obnoxious people who say and do a lot of stupid things.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Egypt, the dramatic film “Happy Birthday” features an Egyptian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An 8-year-old girl, who has been illegally hired as a maid for a wealthy family, faces various obstacles when she wants to attend the birthday party of her employer’s daughter, who will turn 9 years old on this birthday.
Culture Audience: “Happy Birthday” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching well-acted portrayals of how classism affects children.
“Happy Birthday” is a superbly acted portrayal of the harsh realities of classism, poverty and child worker exploitation experienced by a vibrant 8-year-old girl. Doha Ramadan gives an unforgettable performance in this impactful drama. It’s one of the best child actor performances you could see in a movie this year.
Directed by Sarah Goher (who co-wrote the “Happy Birthday” screenplay with Mohamed Diab), “Happy Birthday” is Goher’s feature-film directorial debut. “Happy Birthday” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, where it won three prizes: Best International Narrative Feature; Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature; and the Nora Ephron Award, a prize given to a female writer or director “whose work embodies the spirit and vision of the late filmmaker and writer Nora Ephron,” according to a Tribeca Festival description.
In “Happy Birthday” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Egypt), 8-year-old Toha (played by Ramadan), whose full name is Taheya, works illegally as a live-in maid for a wealthy family where the spouses are separated and headed for divorce. The movie (which takes place over a 24-hour-period) doesn’t announce right away that Toha is a maid because the first few scenes of “Happy Birthday” make it look like Toha could be a foster child who is being raised like a sister to the family’s only daughter Nelly (played by Khadija Ahmed), who turns 9 years old on this day.
The opening scene shows Toha being woken up that morning by Nelly because Nelly is excited that it’s Nelly’s birthday. The two girls play dress-up and do some arts and crafts, as Toha helps Nelly get ready for the birthday party that’s been planned for Nelly that evening. Nelly, who is fun-loving and a little spoiled, has become accustomed to having a big birthday party every year.
Toha, who has been living with Nelly for an unspecified period of time (definitely less than a year), is looking forward to being at this party. Where are Toha’s parents? And why was Toha sold into this illegal form of employment? Those questions are answered in the movie.
Toha is a spirited and occasionally mischievous child, but she is not as image-conscious as Nelly is. A difference between the two girls is shown in the movie’s opening scene, when Nelly tries on her party dress and asks Toha if Toha thinks anyone will notice that Nelly will be wearing a dress that she’s worn before. Toha cheerfully tells her that no one will notice.
This is the first year that Nelly is having a birthday party since Nelly’s parents separated. Nelly currently lives with her mother Laila (played by Nelly Karim) and Laila’s mother Teta (played by Hanan Youssef), who have no qualms about exploiting Toha for illegal child labor. The first indications that Toha isn’t a foster child or a regular house guest are when Teta orders Toha to give Teta’s diabetic supplies to Teta, and when Toha is seen doing some of the cleaning in the house.
The reasons why Laila and her estranged husband Asser (played by Sherif Salama) have split up aren’t made explicitly clear in the movie, but it’s hinted that he cheated on Laila. It’s obvious that Laila broke up with him, and she’s not interested in a reconciliation, because she says so multiple times in the movie. Teta hopes that Laila (who is a homemaker) and Asser (whose occupation is not stated in the movie) will get back together.
When Asser’s name is mentioned, Toha chirps that a neighbor puts a spell on men who cheat on their wives. Teta scolds Toha to just follow orders and to not comment on what’s happening in the household. Teta says that Toha should just keep quiet and observe, like someone watches a movie. Toha replies that when she watches a movie, she likes to dance along to what the actors are doing.
Nelly adores her father Asser, who seems to be somewhat emotionally neglectful, but Nelly overlooks or doesn’t want to acknowledge his flaws. Laila is upset that Asser hasn’t called Nelly by the middle of the day to wish Nelly a happy birthday. Laila is reluctant to call Asser, but Teta pressures Laila to call Asser to remind him that it’s Nelly’s birthday.
This marital separation has taken a financial toll on Laila. She has decided to move her family to a new place. The house is filled with boxes that are already packed for this relocation.
Laila has tried to shield Nelly from all of these problems, but on this birthday, Laila has a secret that she can no longer hide: She tells Nelly that the birthday party is going to be canceled because they will be too busy moving. Nelly gets very upset by this news.
However, Laila changes her mind about canceling Nelly’s birthday party because Laila tells Teta that she doesn’t want Asser to think that Laila can no longer afford to give Nelly the type of birthday party that Nelly has always had. And so, Laila, Toha and Teta unpack many of the boxes and decorate the house to get it ready for the party. Laila also takes Toha with her to go shopping for some more decorations and other things for the party.
Toha is a resourceful child who thinks quickly. When she and Laila go to a bakery, Laila asks the employee who’s behind the counter (played by Hazem Ehab) if she can buy a custom-made cake with Nelly’s photo on it because they need the cake for a party that night. The bakery employee says he would need at least one week’s advance notice for this type of cake. He advises Laila to look at other cakes that they have on display that can be purchased immediately.
When Laila is out of hearing range, Toha lies to the bakery employee by telling him that Nelly is terminally ill and this might be Nelly’s last birthday. Toha says that Laila doesn’t like to talk about Nelly’s “illness.” The bakery employee hears this sob story and changes his mind. He says to Laila that he can have the custom-made cake ready in time for the party and asks her to email Nelly’s photo to him.
Toha doesn’t know it yet but that Laila is also planning to terminate Toha’s employment and send Toha back to her family’s home before the party happens that night. It’s not just because Laila’s financial budget has changed. The bigger reason is that Laila doesn’t want “lower-class” Toha to be seen at the party. Teta knows about this plan and agrees that Toha needs to be out of their lives.
The movie shows what happens when Toha’s teenage sister Fatma (played by Jomana Ibrahim) arrives and takes Toha back to live with their family. Their widowed mother Nadia (played by Hanan Motawie) is living in poverty with Toha’s five underage siblings (one who is an infant) and makes money by catching and selling fish. Toha’s family is so poor, they live in an encampment with no indoor plumbing.
Nadia is overwhelmed with the responsibilities of supporting several children and expects Toha to immediately start working with her for fishing duties. However, Toha is determined to go to Nelly’s birthday party that evening because Toha thinks she’s still invited. Nadia tells Toha that she can’t go the party and warns her that Toha won’t be welcome there. Toha has other ideas.
It becomes Toha’s entire goal for the day to go to this party not just because she wants to have fun or because she wants to see her friend Nelly again. It’s also because Toha instinctively feels that this party is a test to prove her self-worth. Toha wants to prove to herself that she wasn’t a disposable employee to Nelly’s family, even though certain adults treat Toha as disposable.
Goher’s direction of “Happy Birthday” skillfully mixes the whimsical tone of a child’s perspective with the realistic tone of adult problems. Toha is aware that she comes from a poor family, but she finds pleasure in little things, such as escaping into an empty swimming pool, lying on back and drifting in her own fantasies, maybe that she’s swimming freely in an ocean. Toha is at an age where she knows about social class prejudice but she thinks her friendship with Nelly is an example of how this prejudice doesn’t apply to all relationships.
Although all of the cast members do well in their roles, “Happy Birthday” would not be as special without Ramadan’s terrific performance, because Toha is the heart and soul of the movie. Toha embraces joy wherever she can find it. But even she cannot escape the deterioration of childhood innocence when she sees how some people use social classes and elitism as ways to divide and degrade others.
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Houston-Galveston area, the dramatic film “Charliebird” features a predominantly white and Latin cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A music therapist, who works in the children’s ward of a hospital, forms a tension-filled friendship with a moody teenage girl who has kidney problems.
Culture Audience: “Charliebird” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching realistic portrayals of chronically ill teenagers and the adults in their lives.
Beautifully understated and never cloying, “Charliebird” is a tender and sometimes emotionally raw drama about a hospital’s music therapist who befriends a teenage girl living with kidney issues. The movie’s direction and performances are not flashy but are grounded with an authentic tone. Viewers who are expecting a formulaic movie depiction of friendships that can develop between a hospital employee and a hospital patient might be disappointed that “Charliebird” doesn’t have sweeping dramatic moments or brisk pacing. But for people who are looking for a “slice of life” drama that doesn’t pretend to have all of life’s answers, “Charliebird” is worth watching.
Directed by Libby Ewing and written by Samantha Smart, “Charliebird” is Ewing’s feature-film directorial debut. “Charliebird” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, where it won two prizes: the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature and Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature. Gabriela Ochoa Perez won the latter prize for her portrayal of the teenage patient who is one of the two central characters in the story. “Charliebird” screenwriter Smart portrays the other central character.
In “Charliebird” (which takes place in the Houston-Galveston area of Texas), Smart portrays Al (whose real name is Alyse), a music therapist who works with child patients in a hospital. Most of Al’s group therapy consists of doing sing-alongs with patients, as she plays acoustic guitar, as seen in the movie’s opening scene. She will do one-on-one therapy with patients who really need it.
Al (who is a bachelorette with no children) lives a quiet life with her reclusive father Fred (played by Jeffrey Grover), who seems to be depressed. It’s implied that he’s depressed over something that happened to Al’s sister. Al has visions and flashbacks of something from her childhood that has caused her to have unresolved trauma about something that happened to her sister when they were both about 8 to 10 years old. The movie doesn’t give all the details, but it drops enough hints about what happened.
Al is assigned to work one-on-one with 17-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” Reese (played by Ochoa Perez), who has spent the past few years living in hospitals because of her kidney issues. Charlie turns 18 during the course of the movie. At first, Charlie is very hostile to Al. However, Al doesn’t coddle Charlie or treat her with pity.
Slowly but surely, Charlie and bond over music and then bond as friends. Al has a small turntable where she plays a blues record that Charlie seems to like. It isn’t long before Charlie share some of the hip-hop music with Al, who doesn’t mind when Charlie makes fun of Al for awkward dancing when the music is played.
Charlie has loving and supportive parents named Frank (played by Gabe Fazio) and Elena (played by Maria Peyramaure), who want the best for Charlie. However, Charlie is in the rebellious teenage phase where she’s embarrassed by her parents and wants to assert more of her independence. There’s a very good scene where Elena and Al talk privately, and Elena candidly expresses her feelings about the toll it can take on a parent to have a child with Charlie’s issues.
“Charliebird” is filmed in a boxy aspect ratio that resembles home movies filmed on a phone. There’s an intimacy to the story that can be considered mundane at times but the movie can be admired for not indulging in melodrama. Smart and Ochoa Perez give admirable performances that brim with genuine camaraderie. Mostly, “Charliebird” (whose title is explained in the last 15 minutes of the film) succeeds in showing that even though Al is a therapist, she and Charlie each learn from each other what it means to experience some emotional healing in tough situations.
The following is a press release from the Tribeca Festival:
The 24th annual Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced competition winners with Charliebird, Happy Birthday, and Natchez taking top honors in the U.S. Narrative, International Narrative, and Documentary competitions, respectively. Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn shared the Performance Award for Dragonfly, leading a strong showing by women who claimed top honors across the majority of categories at the ceremony held at Racket NYC. The awards also highlighted breakthrough achievements by first-time feature directors and a notable presence of Latin American cinema throughout the competition. The Competition categories represent the breadth of Tribeca’s programming with awards for U.S. Narrative, International Narrative, Documentary, Viewpoints, Nora Ephron, Short Film, Best New Directors, Audio Storytelling, Games, AT&T Untold Stories, and Tribeca X. The Festival concludes on June 15 in New York City.
“Every year at Tribeca we set out to spotlight the most exciting new voices from around the world,” said Tribeca Festival Director and SVP of Programming Cara Cusumano. “We are thrilled our jury honored this mission with winners that brilliantly represent the vibrancy and diversity of global independent storytelling today.”
All winning films in the U.S. Narrative category are first-time directors, including Libby Ewing for Charliebird, Cristian Carretero and Lorraine Jones Molina for Esta Isla (This Island), who also won the Best New Narrative Director Award, and Isabel Hagen for On a String. Other first-time filmmakers include The Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director honorees Augusto Zegarra for Runa Simi and Rowan Haber for We Are Pat, and Walter Thompson-Hernandez who took home the Viewpoints Award for Kites.
Sarah Goher, also a first-time filmmaker, earned three awards on behalf of her film Happy Birthday, including Best International Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature and the prestigious Nora Ephron Award, which honors exceptional female filmmakers who represent the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer. Meanwhile, Latin American cinema made its mark with award winners A Bright Future, Cuerpo Celeste, Runa Simi, and Kites.
Select categories receive the unique Tribeca Festival Art Award from a selection of artists led by curator Zoe Lukov. Supported by CHANEL, the world-class artists donated work to honored filmmakers.
Winners of the Audience Award, which are determined by audience votes throughout the Festival, will be announced at a later date.
2025 Winners and Special Jury Mentions, as selected by the 2025 Festival Jury, are as follows:
U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION
Samantha Smart in “Charliebird”
Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: Charliebird, director Libby Ewing (United States) – World Premiere. Jury Statement: “A deeply affecting portrait featuring grounded and complex performances, this film is an assured and well-crafted debut.“ This award is presented by OKX.
Special Jury Mention for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: Esta Isla (This Island), directors Cristian Carretero and Lorraine Jones Molina (Puerto Rico) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “A compelling depiction of a place, this film is a lush and stunningly realized reckoning with class, love and history.”
Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature: Gabriela Ochoa Perez for Charliebird (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “This actor delivers a fresh performance that is at once ferocious and vulnerable. She grounds a young woman’s painful journey in humanity and truth.”
Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature: Isabel Hagen for On a String (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “A nimble, witty and accomplished story that chronicles the ups and downs of a young woman who has to face the music.”
Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature: Cedric Cheung-Lau for Esta Isla (This Island) (Puerto Rico) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “Beautifully lensed, this film is full of unforgettable and evocative imagery. Lovingly rendered, it is equally adept at capturing the intimate details and grandest vistas.”
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION
Doha Ramadan in “Happy Birthday”
Best International Narrative Feature: Happy Birthday, director Sarah Goher (Egypt) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “For its authentic and complex portrayal of class, motherhood, and loss of innocence, along with outstanding performances – especially by its young star – and its brilliant nuanced writing.”
Special Jury Mention for International Narrative Feature: Cuerpo Celeste, director Nayra Ilic García (Chile, Italy) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “For its fantastic central performance, arresting visuals, and subtle storytelling that touches on both a changing political landscape and the aftermath of grief.”
Best Performance in an International Narrative Feature: Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn for Dragonfly (United Kingdom) – World Premiere. “For an audience, there is nothing as exciting as watching actors bravely and fully immerse themselves in characters who leave us filled with both empathy and dread – and so for their daring and electrifying turns, we are thrilled to present Best Performance in and International Film to Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn.”
Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature: Mohamed Diab and Sarah Goher for Happy Birthday (Egypt) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “For its profound and yet economical storytelling, compelling characters, and wonderfully crafted dialogue.”
Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature: Lev Predan Kowarski for Little Trouble Girls (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia) – North American Premiere. Jury statement: “For its evocative tone and rich sensual texture, which conjured the fragility of a singular summer.”
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
A scene from “Natchez”
Best Documentary Feature: Natchez, director Suzannah Herbert (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “Who tells America’s story? In a country where the rewriting and abject erasure of African American history threatens a truthful understanding of who we are, the jury applauds this film’s focus on a southern town, once one of America’s largest slave markets, whose economic mainstay is now historic tours. The film’s incisive, razor-sharp craft, its deft navigation of myriad participants without ever losing clarity, its timeliness, its humor, its confrontation of naked racism, yet its refusal to flatten its Mississippian storytellers—however flawed—into easy villains, for being artful, honest, and deeply compassionate, the jury—unanimously and unequivocally—awards a film that brings us hope not for an America that can agree, but one that might understand each other.”
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature: An Eye for an Eye, directors Tanaz Eshaghian and Farzad Jafari (Denmark, Iran, United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “At a time when women’s rights are eroding globally, the jury would be remiss if we did not recognize the courageous, unflinching, gut wrenching, verité virtuosity of a film set in a society that severely limits women’s rights, even those of victims of extreme domestic violence. The story unfolds in real time with life and death hanging in the balance, leaving the audience breathlessly invested in the outcome.”
Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature: Chance Falkner and Johnny Friday for The Last Dive (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “After a passionate debate, we award a film which immersed us in a natural world where the meeting between man and animal literally changes the course of preservation history, and the redemption of a broken soul. For its sweeping aerial and underwater footage, shocking archival witness, and intimate portrait of a person confronting morality.”
Special Jury Mention for Cinematography in a Documentary Feature: Noah Collier for Natchez (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “For its idiosyncratic visual storytelling, masterfully timed and restrained camerawork, and photography as close, wide and open as the film’s curious heart.”
Best Editing in a Documentary Feature: Soren B. Ebbe and Hayedeh Safiyari for An Eye for an Eye (Denmark, Iran, United States) – World Premiere. “For its narrative precision, for locking us inside a moral crucible without relief, and for weaving a multigenerational, deeply personal story that gives equal weight to all participants with searing emotional impact, and for the clarity and courage of its storytelling. Not one frame feels gratuitous as the film barrels relentlessly towards its conclusion.”
Special Jury Mention for Editing in a Documentary Feature: Pablo Proenza for Natchez (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “The editing seamlessly balances all the elements of an extremely complicated story, and delivers a powerful impact that resonates long after the film concludes.”
VIEWPOINTS AWARD
Martina Passeggi in “A Bright Future”
A Bright Future, director Lucia Garibaldi (Uruguay, Argentina, Germany) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “This year’s Viewpoints award goes to a film driven by an original, inventive voice. The filmmaker creates a seamless world that is captivating, thought-provoking, fresh and increasingly relevant. Weaving themes of the fetishization of youth, the timeless pursuit of dreams, and what makes us human, and anchored by a pitch perfect performance from their lead actress, we are pleased to award this year’s Viewpoint prize to A Bright Future. We believe Lucia Garibaldi has a very bright future.”
Special Jury Mention for Viewpoints: Kites, director Walter Thompson-Hernandez (Brazil) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “Special Jury Prize goes to a film with astounding cinematography that balances verite with magical realism and upends conventional story structure. The love the filmmaker has for his characters and their community writ large was infectious. We all think we have time but the angels let us know we have to hurry and become the people who want to be.”
BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR AWARD
Zion Ortiz and Fabiola in “Esta Isla (This Island)” (Photo by Cedric Cheung-Lau)
Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero for Esta Isla (This Island) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “The award for Best New Narrative Director goes to a film that straddles crime fiction and ethnography; it balances poetic imagery, lush landscapes, and cinematic tension; it takes audiences deep into the crisis of survival of a young man on an island that’s both a paradise and a prison.” This award is presented by Canva.
ALBERT MAYSLES AWARD FOR BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR
Fernando Valencia and Dylan Valencia in “Runa Simi”
Augusto Zegarra for Runa Simi (Peru) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “This award goes to a film that takes us on a seemingly lighthearted journey while tackling an essential question: why storytelling matters. From the casting, to the frame, to the editorial pacing, this director creates the total cinematic package, revealing one man’s fight to preserve his people’s culture.”
Special Jury Mention for New Documentary Director: Rowan Haber for We Are Pat (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “This award goes to a film that tackles a morally urgent issue with a fresh and unique directorial vision that made us think, cry, and most unexpectedly laugh. For powerfully centering the voices of the community it represents, inventive visual approach, and for helping us see a complex pop cultural figure in a new way.”
NORA EPHRON AWARD
Doha Ramadan in “Happy Birthday”
The Nora Ephron Award will honor an exceptional female filmmaker who represents the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer.
Sara Goher for Happy Birthday (Egypt) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “This film was not only compelling as an audience experience, but like all great works of art, it did not confine itself to the story, and was resonant on a larger canvas. It explored the intersection of innocence and class from the eyes of a child longing for a birthday party and reluctantly understanding her place in society, being on the outside, and longing to be invited to the inside.”
SHORTS COMPETITION
“Beyond Silence”
Best Narrative Short: Beyond Silence, director Marnie Blok (Netherlands) – International Premiere. Jury statement: “Covering an enormous subject with beautiful minimalism, brilliant performances combine with a skillful script to give new meaning to ‘finding your voice.’ Raw and devastating. Impressive and emotional.”
Special Jury Mention for Narrative Short: Chasing the Party, director Jessie Komitor (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “With a compelling combination of character and world, this nostalgic look at young hope on a wild night is filled with surprises of fantasy and nightmare. We’ll be thinking of this fresh, provocative film for a long time and cannot wait to see what this director does next.”
Best Documentary Short: I hope this email finds you well, director Asia Zughaiar (Palestine) – World Premiere. Jury Statement: “Our choice for the Best Short Documentary Award poses the question: what even is a documentary? A documentary can be anything that allows the viewer to connect with what the filmmaker has experienced. We believe this film helps us not only see, but feel.”
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Short: Natasha, directors Mark Franchetti and Andrew Meier (Italy, Russia) – World Premiere. Jury Statement: “In times like these, it’s important to honor those who came before us, those who fought to make the world a more just and livable place. Our Special Jury choice reflects on one such hidden figure, whose legacy left an outsized impact on the world we live in today.”
Best Animated Short: Playing God, director Matteo Burani (Italy, France) – New York Premiere. Jury statement: “Visceral and experimental, using the form to its greatest abilities — this beautiful exploration of existential turmoil is at the heart of cinema — why are we here, how did we get here, what would it be like to have the thumb of god in your hand, and what is the price when one yearns to be free?”
Special Jury Mention for Animated Short: Petra and the Sun, directors Malu Furche and Stefania Malacchini(Chile) – North American Premiere. Jury statement: “The attention to detail, the specificity of longing and loneliness, and the immersive quality of this stop-motion character study created a moving experience. The texture and visible traces of the human hand brought a delicate realism in this story about an unusual and unforgettable chance encounter.”
Best Music Video: “Rock The Bells” – LL COOL J, director Gregory Brunkalla (United Stated). Jury statement: “To honor our first-ever Music Video Jury Competition winner, we found it only fitting to celebrate the great city of New York—with a music video that captures the style, swag, and sound of Tribeca’s hometown.”
Student Visionary Award: Manya Glassman for How I Learned to Die (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “Our choice for the Student Visionary Award manages to make a capital-M Movie out of a short student film. We, the jury, believe this film is filled with ambition, hope, and personality—paired with complex, emotional subject matter that touches on something we will all experience: death.
Special Jury Mention for Student Visionary: Jiayi Li for āyí (United States) – World Premiere. Jury statement: “Sometimes, the people who are the fabric of our lives are the ones most often forgotten. With this film, we catch a glimpse of what it feels like to be overlooked—but not erased. We would like to give a Special Jury Mention.”
TRIBECA GAMES AWARD
Cairn (France) – New York Premiere. Jury Statement: “All the nominated games represent a wide, healthy range of what games can aspire to be, and how games can tell stories through both traditional elements but more importantly through gameplay interactions. The chosen winner among this amazing group of nominees was compelling, immersive, and reminds us that every choice we make is meaningful. The jury loved the dedication to simulation, the cohesion of the project, and the ambition. This game is bigger than climbing done right; it is imbued with substance beyond the physical act.”
AT&T PRESENTS UNTOLD STORIES
Liz Sargent for Take Me Home
TRIBECA X AWARD COMPETITION
Best Feature: Abnormal Beauty Company from The Ordinary, directed by Aref Mahabadi
Best Short: First Speech by Reporters without Borders, directed by Giordano Maestrelli
Best Commercial: Century of Cravings from Uber Eats, directed by Jim Jenkins
Best Episodic: A New York Minute from Mejuri, directed by Gia Coppola
Best Content Creator/Influencer: A Robot’s Guide to Happiness from Brilliant Labs, directed by Lucas Rizzotto
Best Games/Immersive: WICKED RP: The Official Experience on Roblox from Wicked & NBCU, creative directed by Ben Caro
Best Audio/Podcast: Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance from Electronic Arts, BioWare, directed by Matt Sav
Social Impact Award: Daniel Really Suits You from Human Rights Campaign, directed by Karimah Zakia Issa
Environmental Impact Award: A Vital Sun from Fordham University, directed by Alison Bartlett
June 14, 2025 UPDATE:
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Dominique Jackson and Tomás Matos in “Queens of the Dead”
About the Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and immersive. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is synonymous with creative expression and entertainment. Tribeca champions emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning talent, curates innovative experiences, and introduces new ideas through exclusive premieres, exhibitions, conversations, and live performances.
The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The annual Tribeca Festival will celebrate its 24th year from June 4–15, 2025 in New York City.
In 2019, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems bought a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, bringing together Rosenthal, De Niro, and Murdoch to grow the enterprise.
About the 2025 Tribeca Festival Partners The 2025 Tribeca Festival is presented by OKX and with the support of our partners: AT&T, Audible, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Canva, CHANEL, City National Bank, DIRECTV, Don Julio Tequila, FIJI Water, Indeed, iQIYI, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, NBC4 and Telemundo 47, NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, National CineMedia, New York Magazine, Purina, Spring Studios New York, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, Vulture, and Whalar.
Culture Representation: Taking place in New York state, the dramatic film “Materialists” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people and one black person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A workaholic matchmaker has to decide between two suitors for herself: an attentive millionaire and her financially broke ex-boyfriend.
Culture Audience: “Materialists” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Celine Song and predictable romantic movies.
Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in “Materialists” (Photo by Atsushi Nishijima/A24)
Good performances save “Materialists” from being a trite and unrealistic version of dating in New York City. People who are black, Asian, plus-sized or ugly are rarely seen in “Materialists.” The movie delivers if you want to see a romantic fantasy. “Materialists” is the type of movie that will appeal to fans of the HBO comedy series “Sex and the City” and New York City-based romantic movies from filmmakers Nancy Meyers, Nora Ephron and Woody Allen—no matter how flawed these on-screen stories are in misrepresenting and/or excluding much of the city’s diversity. “Materialists” takes place in the 2020s, but the movie copies from the template of popular romance-oriented movies and TV shows that were made from the 1980s to 2000s.
Written and directed by Celine Song, “Materialists” is a somewhat disappointing follow-up to her excellent 2023 feature-film directorial debut “Past Lives,” a semi-autobiographical drama for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. “Past Lives” was also Oscar-nominated for Best Picture. Just like in “Past Lives,” there’s a love triangle in “Materialists” that plays out in New York City. And just like in both movies, the female protagonist has to choose between passion and practicality, as represented by the two men who are rivals for her love. Don’t assume that the outcomes of both movies are similar.
In “Materialists,” protagonist Lucy Mason (played by Dakota Johnson) is an ambitious workaholic matchmaker who works at Adore Matchmaking, a dating agency for affluent people. Lucy, who is in her mid-30s, is a never-married bachelorette with no children. She’s been so busy with her job, Lucy says she doesn’t have time for a love life. In the beginning of the movie, she describes herself as “voluntary celibate.”
In other words, Lucy is good at finding love for other people, but not so good at finding love for herself. She’s also good at giving emotional support to her clients, but she treats her matchmaking like a stockbroker treats the stock market. She even describes the dating scene as a “marketplace” and people as “investments.”
Not much else is revealed about Lucy except in her own words: She grew up poor, she had a “shitty family” with divorced parents, and if she gets married, the number-one requirement is that her husband has to be filthy rich. She smokes cigarettes as if she thinks she’s in a Lauren Bacall movie. It should come as no surprise that Lucy used to be an aspiring actress, but she quit pursuing acting because she couldn’t find enough work as an actress to have the income that she wants.
This matchmaking job is the first job Lucy has had where she feels she can support herself in a middle-class lifestyle, although Lucy’s $80,000 annual salary is too low for someone who’s supposedly the star employee at this New York City matchmaking agency for affluent people. Lucy is completely estranged from her family—it’s hinted that this estrangement was her choice—but the movie gives no details about what caused Lucy to want to cut herself off from her family.
As Lucy says in the movie, being poor or financially unstable for most of her life has fueled her goal to eventually marry a rich man. When she talks about any future husband she might have, she only talks about materialistic or surface-level things that she wants him to have. Of course, in a movie like “Materialists,” you know from the way that Lucy blathers on about wealth and net worth for any potential suitors for her and her clients, you can tell deep down, Lucy just wants a good old-fashioned (stereotypical) romance for herself.
“Materialists” is partially inspired by Song’s real-life past experience as a matchmaker at a dating agency for affluent people. But if you believe everything that’s in “Materialists,” you’d have to believe that these types of dating agencies in New York City mostly have young, physically attractive women as matchmakers, the women are all slender, and they all act like sorority sisters who giggle and go from room to room in a pack. You’d also have to believe that almost all women want or should want to get married as a life goal.
Lucy is depicted as the agency’s most successful matchmaker, who is both admired and envied by her colleagues. She keeps herself at just enough of an emotional distance not to have any close friends in her co-worker group. Lucy’s boss Violet (played by Marin Ireland) only cares about Lucy in terms of Lucy’s ability to make money for the company.
You’d also have to believe that clients of elite matchmaker agencies in New York City are all in their 20s, 30s or 40s, and they set shallow and often-unrealistic goals for what they want in a potential lover or spouse. Several montages in “Materialists” show very irritating conversations where clients list their demands and requirements, as if they’re ordering items off of a menu or looking to fill a job position. A big part of Lucy’s job is to not give harsh criticism to her clients but also manage her clients’ expectations.
What all the male clients have in common is that they only want women who are thin, pretty and in their 20s. What the female clients have in common is they want men who are tall, good-looking and rich. (The only exception is a black lesbian/queer woman, who’s in the movie for less than a minute in a very token role.) As it stands, “Materialists” makes almost all of the workers and clients in the New York City matchmaking business look like vain caricatures who are too self-absorbed to notice their hollow personalities.
“Materialists” isn’t a comedy, so none of these extreme stereotypes can really be counted as satire. Some of it is uncomfortable to watch, like you’re watching filmmakers say they despise what “Sex and the City” represents and they want to make something more “elevated,” but they secretly want to live like the characters in “Sex and the City.” There is so much “Sex and the City” influence in “Materialists,” the writers of “Sex and the City” deserve a thank you credit in “Materialists.”
Lucy often has to listen with sympathetic patience when her clients are whiny, rude or neurotic. She gives advice, but it’s always advice with an agenda: Lucy doesn’t want the client to do anything that will make Lucy look like a bad matchmaker. Because so much of Lucy’s life revolves around her job, her self-esteem is very tied up in her reputation as a matchmaker.
There’s a wedding scene where the bride is a matchmaker client named Charlotte (played by Louisa Jacobson), who has a crying meltdown in a private room because she’s having doubts about getting married just minutes before the ceremony is about to start. Lucy says all the right things to make Charlotte secure enough with the decision to have the wedding as planned. Coincidence or not, the “Sex and the City” bachelorette character who was the most desperate and most insecure about getting married is also named Charlotte.
At the wedding reception, Lucy meets the groom’s bachelor brother Harry Castillo (played by Pedro Pascal), a multimillionaire financier who’s about 15 years older than Lucy. Harry introduces himself to Lucy and “checks all the boxes” of what Lucy and many of her female clients want in a potential husband: He’s good-looking, tall, rich, polite, intelligent, attentive and very romantic. Harry also comes from a close-knit and loving family. Harry works for his mother’s financial company, although that situation might be a turnoff to some potential romantic partners who think that this mother/son business relationship is too close for comfort.
Predictably, Harry is immediately smitten with Lucy and starts flirting with her when they’re at the same table. And just look who happens to be their table server at the wedding: Lucy’s ex-boyfriend John (played by Chris Evans), who works for the catering company that was hired for the wedding. John is also single, available, and has no children. Being a catering employee is just a way for John to pay his bills. What John really wants to do with his life is be a professional actor. He hasn’t had much luck and is still struggling to find steady work as an actor.
In the meantime, 37-year-old John is financially broke, he lives in a cramped apartment with two roommates whom he doesn’t like very much, and he’s still not over his breakup from Lucy, who dumped him several years ago because she got tired of John not being able to afford to give her what she wants. When John and Lucy see each other at this wedding, there’s still tension between them. It’s the type of tension that signals unresolved feelings for each other. You know where all of this is going, of course.
“Materialists” has scenes that sometimes overflow with pretentious dialogue, but other scenes have genuine zest, are touching, or ring true. The movie looks glamorous, but the romantic scenes needed more sizzle. In “Materialists,” people talk about love more than they show love. A minimal amount of information is given about Lucy’s personal background, but even less is told about John, who doesn’t have any close friends or family members in his life for emotional support. It’s briefly mentioned that John—just like Lucy—comes from a working-class family with divorced parents.
An “unlucky in love” client of Lucy’s named Sophie (played by Zoë Winters) has a subplot in “Materialists” that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, but this subplot is sometimes clumsily handled in the movie, even though Winters gives a standout performance. It’s mentioned more than once that Lucy considers Sophie to be a special client because Lucy feels more emotionally invested in Sophie than Lucy feels for most of Lucy’s other clients. But the movie keeps it vague on what this emotional attachment really means for Lucy, who has no friends outside of her job.
Johnson portrays Lucy as someone who is a mess of contradictions: Lucy is soft-spoken, but her attitude is often hard and cynical. She’s sometimes arrogant but sometimes self-loathing. Lucy frequently tells people that she’s an uncompromising gold digger but her romantic interest in John says otherwise. And it’s pretty sad that Lucy thinks she’s too old for Harry because she thinks all rich heterosexual bachelors over the age of 40 only want girlfriends in their 20s. An experienced matchmaker in real life would know that stereotype isn’t always true.
Whether or not you’re fully rooting for Lucy when watching “Materialists” will depend on how much you like Johnson’s performance. Lucy is supposed to be a jaded social climber, but Johnson plays Lucy as a little too calm and mellow for someone with Lucy’s burning ambitions. One of the movie’s biggest shortcomings is that not enough is told or shown about Lucy’s other past relationships to give a better picture of who she really is as a romantic partner and what patterns or habits she seems to have when it comes to choosing a romantic partner.
“Materialists” has a few flashbacks to what Lucy and John were like when they were a couple. They frequently argued over money. If you have enough life experience or know anything about couples’ psychology, these flashbacks won’t make you feel good about the chances of Lucy and John staying together if they reunite and start dating each other again.
John still has the same financial issues and still feels “stuck” in his life, which is why Lucy broke up with him in the first place. John says to Lucy that he sees himself having kids who look like Lucy, but “Materialists” never reveals if Lucy wants to have kids. It’s an example of a few disconnects that don’t make “Materialists” entirely convincing that Lucy and John could be “soul mates” who are right for each other.
Evans has played this type of sarcastic underachiever many times before in other movies about romance where the female main character is supposed to fall for his character’s rouge-ish charm. And there’s nothing wrong with Evans’ performance, but he’s not doing anything that’s truly unique or special in this movie. Pascal doesn’t have much to work with for the Harry character, who’s supposed to be the “perfect catch” for many bachelorettes. Harry’s only noticeable flaw is that Harry tells little lies about himself to impress Lucy.
“Materialists” is a mixed bag of a film. It’s escapist and fluffy entertainment pretending to be an insightful and clever look at 2020s romance. The truth is that “Materialists” isn’t complex or innovative because it follows the same formulas of other love triangle movies that are told from the perspective of a female protagonist. You know exactly what the end result will be, but the journey getting there in “Materialists” is uneven because it’s sometimes enjoyable and sometimes annoying.
Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn in “Dragonfly”
“Dragonfly” (2025)
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in England, the dramatic film “Dragonfly” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A lonely woman volunteers to be the home caregiver for her elderly next-door neighbor, but things turn out much differently than what both women expect.
Culture Audience: “Dragonfly” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in “slow burn” psychological dramas.
Dixie and Andrea Riseborough in “Dragonfly”
“Dragonfly” isn’t just a “slow burn” psychological drama. This well-acted movie about two lonely people and home caregiving takes an extreme turn in the last 20 minutes to a shocking ending that’s sure to be divisive. It’s the type of movie that sneaks up on you and lingers in your memory long after the movie ends.
Written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams, “Dragonfly” takes place in an unnamed city in England, but this story could have taken place in almost anywhere where it’s common for middle-class elderly people to have home care services. “Dragonfly” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The movie was filmed in West Yorkshire, England.
Various characters come and go in “Dragonfly,” but the two main characters are 35-year-old bachelorette Colleen (played by Andrea Riseborough) and her elderly disabled next-door widowed neighbor Elsie (played by Brenda Blethyn), who are both living lonely and isolated lives. Colleen, who has no children, has a female mixed-breed pit bull named Saber (played by Dixie) for companionship. Colleen treats Saber like her best friend.
Elsie’s only visitors are the various home care aides that go to her home to give her meals and take care of her hygiene needs. Elsie is not bedridden, but she has difficulty walking and needs assistance to take showers and baths. Elsie has a middle-aged son named John (played by Jason Watkins), who has his own family. Elsie tells John that she wishes that he visited her more, but he tells her that he’s too busy.
Saber is usually a polite and obedient dog but can occasionally get rowdy and seems to get separation anxiety if Colleen leaves Saber home alone. One day, Saber tears up the flower bed in the front of Elsie’s house. Colleen gets upset and makes a profuse apology to Elsie, who is understanding and takes this mishap in stride. Colleen personally buys new flowers and plants them in Elsie’s yard. It’s the start of an unlikely friendship.
On another day, Colleen notes that one of the health care aides has left after only 15 minutes into a shift that was supposed to be a 60-minute shift. Colleen scolds this health care aide, who is defensive but leaves anyway. Colleen then decides to volunteer to be Elsie’s unpaid home care aide, even though Colleen has no training or previous experience as a home care aide.
It’s explained in a conversation in the movie that Colleen is living off of disability benefits that she gets from the government, which also paid for Colleen’s house. Colleen doesn’t reveal much about her past, but she hints that she had a troubled childhood when she mentions to Elsie that she grew up in foster care. Colleen spends most of her days at home watching TV and not showing any indication that she wants a career in anything.
Colleen, who is moody and introverted, doesn’t seem interested in having friends or a love life. She also seems to have a lot of automatic mistrust of people. By contrast, Elsie is an optimist who is generally trusting and open with her feelings. However, both women know that they are lonely, and they enjoy each other’s company.
“Dragonfly” keeps people guessing on whether or not Colleen will take advantage of Elsie’s trust by stealing from her. Elsie has given Colleen access to Elsie’s debit card and personal identification number to use the debit card when Colleen goes grocery shopping for Elsie. There’s also more than one scene where Colleen is alone in Elsie’s bedroom and looks through Colleen’s dresser drawers and sees a jewelry box.
The story is told mainly from Colleen’s perspective because she has more scenes, and there’s more of insight into how empty her life is when she’s at home. Meanwhile, John is wary when Elsie tells him about Colleen volunteering to be Elsie’s unpaid home care aide. John is curious about Colleen, so one day he shows up unannounced when he goes to visit Elsie and to meet Colleen in person. What happens next is when the movie goes from slightly mundane to spiraling into an unexpected turn of events.
The performances of Blethyn and Riseborough, who received Oscar nominations for other movies, are able to maintain viewer interest when the movie tends to drag with not much going on in the first third of the film. The writing and directing in “Dragonfly” sufficiently build some of the tension that follows in the story. The movie’s concluding moments pack an enormous emotional punch. And it’s enough to say that Riseborough’s riveting performance won’t be forgotten by anyone who sees this unsettling movie.