October 29, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Jan Komasa
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area, from 2024 to 2029, the dramatic film “Anniversary” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A tight-knit family is disrupted when a woman, who eventually marries into the family, writes a best-selling book that becomes the bible of a cult-like movement that turns the United States into a totalitarian nation that punishes people for dissenting.
Culture Audience: “Anniversary” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and heavy-handed, soap-opera-type dramas about people in an oppressive society.
“Anniversary” has a provocative concept about a family affected by the U.S. becoming a massive cult that’s ruled by a totalitarian government. This misguided drama turns into a clumsy mess with hokey and insipid plot twists rushed into the last 20 minutes. The plot twists are not ridiculous on their own, but ridiculous in how they are presented.
The plot twists happen so quickly and melodramatically in the story, it kind of ruins the movie. Meanwhile other parts of the story have huge gaps of missing information that should be in the film. “Anniversary” has the benefit of a talented cast (most of whom give serviceable yet often over-wrought performances), but the cast members are stuck in a movie that is determined to hammer home its points while frequently dropping the hammer.
Directed by Jan Komasa and written by Lori Rosene-Gambino, “Anniversary” takes place from 2024 to 2029, in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area. The movie was actually filmed in Ireland. “Anniversary” has some big ideas, but the movie is quite lazy in developing most of the characters in the family at the center of the story.
“Anniversary” begins by showing a woman in her late 20s rehearsing a greeting in front of a mirror. Her name is Elizabeth “Liz” Nettles (played by Phoebe Dynevor), and she is practicing what she is going to say when she meets the married parents of her boyfriend at the parents’ 25th wedding anniversary party, which will be held at the parents’ Maryland home. “It’s lovely to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor” Liz says in her rehearsed speech, as she adds a congratulations on the spouses’ 25th wedding anniversary.
The way this opening scene plays out, it’s very much like a Lifetime movie, where you know immediately that this seemingly demure and soft-spoken woman is cold and calculating with a devious plan. In other words, “Anniversary” makes it obvious from the beginning that Liz is up to no good and is going to be the main instigator of the chaos in this family. Liz isn’t seen for more than half of “Anniversary,” but that’s not the movie’s only problem.
The next scene shows Georgetown University sociology professor Ellen Taylor (played by Diane Lane) giving a lecture to a classroom of students. The title of the lecture is “What Is Culture?” Ellen says, “I am neither a liberal or a conservative. I prefer to be a free artist and nothing more—free from violence and lies.”
Ellen then talks about the absurdity of human conditions when people are forced to confront realities that contradict their world views. “Does that sound familiar to anyone in here?” Ellen smirks. “America today, perhaps?” There’s muttering in the audience that implies many of her students agree with her.
Ellen is one-half of the couple celebrating this 25th wedding anniversary. Ellen’s husband is Paul Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler), who owns a restaurant that is frequented by powerful politicians and bureaucrats. Unlike his often-blunt and confrontational wife Ellen, Paul prefers to be non-confrontational and diplomatic.
Paul’s tendency to want to diffuse conflicts is evident in Paul’s first scene in “Anniversary.” Two customers named Senator Coyle (played by Carl Austin) and Senator Hunt (played by Phelim Drew) are having lunch together at Paul’s restaurant. After Paul warmly greets these two senators, they ask Paul to settle a debate: Does New York or Chicago have better pizza? The senators name a New York restaurant and a Chicago restaurant as an example. Paul tactfully answers that one restaurant has better sauce, while the other restaurant has better pizza crust.
The Taylor couple’s anniversary dinner party has about 50 to 75 people in attendance and is held mainly in the backyard of the couple’s home. All four of the couple’s children are in attendance. Several friends and colleagues of Paul and Ellen are also at the party. During the party, the various dynamics in the family are seen and will have an effect on many things that happen later in the movie.
These are four children of Paul and Ellen:
- Cynthia Taylor (played by Zoey Deutch) is a high-strung attorney who is very focused on her career. Cynthia and her image-conscious attorney husband Rob Thompson (played by Daryl McCormack) are both environmental lawyers. Rob is eager to start a family, but Cynthia doesn’t think it’s the right time and doesn’t seem to like children at all.
- Anna Taylor (played by Madeline Brewer) is a famous stand-up comedian who is brash, bawdy and very outspoken. Anna, who is queer or a lesbian, has a tendency to get sexually involved with her female personal assistants. Anna can also be a verbal bully when she wants to feel superior to someone.
- Josh Taylor (played by Dylan O’Brien) is an aspiring writer who feels like a failure because his first book (a sci-fi novel) has recently been rejected by every publisher where it was pitched. Many people in the family are aware that Josh feels insecure because he’s perceived as not as successful as his over-achieving sisters. Josh has brought his new girlfriend Liz (also known as the future troublemaker) as his date to this party, where Liz will meet Josh’s family for the first time.
- Birdie Taylor (played by Mckenna Grace), the youngest sibling, is a quiet loner who is an aspiring biologist. (She has a mini-scientific lab that she set up in her bedroom.) In the beginning of the movie, Birdie is about 16 or 17 years old and living with her parents. Birdie has a mutual crush on a schoolmate named Moses Ho (played by Sky Yang), whose immigrant mother does some housework for the Taylor family.
It’s mentioned later on in the movie that Paul and Ellen had their children after getting married. One of the disconcerting things about “Anniversary” is that, except for Birdie, none of these adult children look like they’re under the age of 25 when the 25th anniversary party happens. Cynthia, Anna and Josh all look like they’re in their early-to-mid-30s, as were all the cast members playing these characters when they filmed this movie.
The movie never explains how Cynthia is an attorney if she’s under age 25. Although it’s possible in the U.S. to be a practicing attorney who’s under the age of 25, it’s very rare. In other words, the “Anniversary” filmmakers needed to do a better job of casting people who convincingly look like the ages they’re supposed to be in the movie.
“Anniversary” takes place over five years, but in the beginning of the movie, the adult children look too old for people who are supposed to be in their early-to-mid 20s. There was no effort to change how these characters looked over the years, except for changing some of their hairstyles and wardrobe choices. It’s a failure of imagination from the movie’s director and the movie’s makeup department.
The anniversary party goes smoothly except for some tense moments that involve (you guessed it) newcomer Liz. She gives her rehearsed speech when Josh introduces Liz to his parents. Ellen is polite but a little standoffish to Liz. And there’s a reason why, which the movie reveals in a roundabout way: From 2013 to 2016, Liz was a student at Georgetown University, where Ellen was one of Liz’s professors. Liz dropped out of Georgetown because of a feud she had with Ellen.
The feud started because Ellen took offense to an assignment thesis that Liz wrote about how the United States should have only one political party, in order to increase unity among U.S. citizens. Ellen felt that this thesis was very inflammatory and anti-democratic. Ellen flagged the thesis as problematic, which caused some turmoil with Liz’s academic status at the university. Liz argued that she didn’t do anything wrong, but she seemingly backed off from the fight when she dropped out of Georgetown. Ellen didn’t see Liz again until the anniversary party.
When Josh introduces Liz to his parents, he excitedly tells them that he’s helping Liz work on her upcoming book, which Liz describes as a “self-organizing guide.” Ellen eventually tells Liz at the party that she remembers Liz from when Liz was a Georgetown student. Ellen makes it clear to Liz that she still doesn’t trust Liz because of Liz’s controversial thesis. When Ellen privately tries to warn Josh about Liz, Josh responds by telling Ellen that Liz already told him about the past conflicts between Ellen and Liz, and he wants Ellen to move past any grudges and treat Liz with respect.
Ellen suspects that Liz deliberately got involved with Josh as some kind of revenge against Ellen. She also thinks that Liz has dangerously radical ideas and doesn’t want Josh to be brainwashed by these ideas. Ellen voices these concerns to Paul, who tells Ellen that Ellen is being paranoid. Paul is more willing to accept Liz, whom he thinks is harmless. Paul sees that Liz seems to make Josh happy. And for now, that’s all that matters to Paul, when it comes to Liz.
As the relationship between Liz and Josh gets more serious, Liz sends Ellen a gift in the mail: Liz’s published book. It’s called “Change: The New Social Construct.” Ellen notices that the book’s forward is dedicated to “the haters, the doubters, academic stranglers.” Ellen wryly laughs because she thinks the “academic stranglers” description is a thinly veiled dig at Ellen.
Liz’s “Change” book has the same radical ideas that Liz had in her university thesis. The book touts a belief that society is more likely to be unified and peaceful if there weren’t divisions (such as political parties) and if decisions were made for the common good instead of individual freedoms. Liz’s “Change” book is celebrated and taught as a mission by a mysterious think-tank corporation called the Cumberland Company, where Josh and Liz are hired and eventually become wealthy high-ranking leaders.
“Change” ends up selling 10 million copies and has a widespread fan base that becomes a cult for the ideas preached in the book. The “Change” cult ideology becomes so huge, it takes over all aspects of the U.S. government. All political parties are abolished. Government surveillance is everywhere and is used as evidence to persecute people who don’t follow the “Change” groupthink ideology.
Freedom rights for individuals are discouraged or outlawed. People who question, give criticism, or protest against government policies are put on a government watch list or arrested and often falsely accused of serious crimes. Even the American flag is altered, so that the block of stars is in the middle of the flag instead of the side. The last two-thirds of “Anniversary” are about how these drastic changes in America affect the Taylor family.
One of the Taylor family members goes into hiding, out of fear of being arrested. This disappearance serves as a catalyst for most of the trauma cram that happens near the end of the movie. It should come as no surprise which of the family members are the most resistant to the “Change” cult mentality/lifestyle. However, the movie has a very superficial way of presenting these characters, who are mostly underdeveloped.
Ellen has a meltdown that seems to last for the entire five years, where she is seen becoming addicted to smoking marijuana and posting anti-government rants on the Internet. (Not surprisingly, Ellen gets fired from Georgetown University after she did something “un-American” that was caught on video and went viral.) Paul continues to be passive for most of the story until a certain part where he finally shows some backbone, but it might be too late.
Just as Ellen feared would happen, Josh gets married to Liz, starts a family with Liz, and becomes completely sucked into the “Change” lifestyle and cult beliefs. And yet for all of Ellen’s warnings about Liz, this manipulative “mastermind” isn’t seen for most of the movie. Hardly anything is revealed about Liz’s life before her conflicts with Ellen, which means there’s no explanation for why Liz is the way that she is. The only thing that is told about Liz’s personal background is when Liz and Ellen are talking at the 25th anniversary party, and Liz mentions that she’s an “only child by way of a nasty divorce” and that her rage fuels her writing.
Liz being such a mystery just makes the movie look cowardly or unimaginative about depicting someone who is supposed to be the story’s chief villain. A better movie would’ve shown how Liz was able to quickly grow this empire, in order to make the story more believable. Leaders of large cults almost always have some type of magnetic charisma, but the way Liz is written and portrayed in this movie, she’s as dull as a worn-out dishrag.
It’s never depicted on screen whatever Liz did (besides write a book) in her rapid ascent to not just become a leader of the “Change” cult but also a powerful influencer in government policies. She’s never seen actually “working” or hobnobbing with the highest-ranking people in the U.S. government. (Appearing in commercials for the Cumberland Company doesn’t count.) This vagueness about Liz is an example of how “Anniversary” lacks creativity in having memorable characters.
Instead, “Anniversary” wastes time showing several Taylor family arguments in the consecutive yearly increments portraying what happens in the five-year period since Ellen and Paul’s 25th anniversary party. Ellen and Paul’s wedding anniversary is the marking point for each of the years depicted in the movie. As prickly and perceptive Ellen, Lane gives enough humanity that’s needed for her role. Unfortunately, the other characters in the Taylor family are mostly hollow. O’Brien gives a committed performance as Josh, but the character is written as a sad-sack-turned-villain caricature.
The movie’s greatest disservice is in how it doesn’t show enough of the interior lives of the Taylor sisters. Birdie goes through a transformation that is hinted at early in the movie but never explored in a believable way. The story arcs for Cynthia and Anna are also disjointed and look like brief glimpses of their lives instead of making them look like fully formed human beings with lives worth watching. The pacing of “Anniversary” drags in some areas before the movie careens into a very phony-looking, hysteria-filled climax that is more likely to induce eye-rolling disappointment from viewers instead of the intended mind-blowing awe.
Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released “Anniversary” in U.S. cinemas on October 29, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 21, 2025.
