The Best Films of 2025
Like life itself in these times the visceral, the absurd, and the morbid all take their rightful place in our eclectic compilation of Best Films 2025.
Matt Mahler
The Best DVDs of 2025
The Best DVDs of 2025 are the works of serious auteurs whose films will stick in your brain like haunting melodies – or shards of glass.
Yves Jarvis Raises His Voice for Captivating Album
Yves Jarvis beefs up the Polaris Prize-winning album All Cylinders with more songs for a new release. It’s the sound of the experimental becoming accessible.
‘Red Planet’ Gets Lost in Its Own Dust Storm
Arrow Video’s 4K release of the Val Kilmer sci-fi flick Red Planet is gorgeous. Too bad the story gets lost in its own dust storm.
Outland’s Labor Politics Are As Brutal as Jupiter’s Moon
Sci-fi western Outland is literal in its depiction of corrupt corporations and worker exploitation, but it won’t give easy answers.
Tom Waits’ Perfect Performance 50 Years Later
Nighthawks at the Diner has received a 50th anniversary reissue. It remains a jazzy, captivating portrait of a young Tom Waits deep in character.
Three Robert Hossein Films Evoke Harold Pinter
The three Robert Hossein films in Wicked Games exhibit gender-based power struggles and existentialist tendencies with a touch of absurdism.
‘Peter Hujar’s Day’ Finds and Makes Meaning in the Mundane
Ben Whishaw achieves something close to dialectical mesmerism in Peter Hujar’s Day; his performance is simultaneously monumental and mundane.
Three Japanese Horror Classics Haunted by Women’s Agony
If there’s an undercurrent throughout the Japanese horror in Daiei Gothic Vol. 2, it’s how women’s suffering is so embedded in Japanese folklore.
Gothic Nightmare ‘Malpertuis’ Seems Tailored for Orson Welles
In Harry Kümel’s newly restored, surreal gothic horror Malpertuis, Orson Welles gives a memorably cantankerous performance as a dying man bequeathing his estate to those he utterly loathes
‘Extended Stimulation’ Remixes Will Blow Out Speakers in Style
The epic Extended Stimulation set collects remixes of often overlooked 1980s songs, and you’ve never heard them this way before.
Indie Pop Legends Saint Etienne Discuss Their Retirement Party
Saint Etienne discuss their career and philosophy amidst the release of their final album, International. They move your body as much as your mind.