I like films. I love to write about the films I watch, both the good and the bad. It helps me process them and make up my mind about whether I like them or not, so my introverted brain doesn’t freak out whenever someone asks me what I thought about a certain film.
With that in mind, here's a quick succession of thoughts on films I have watched recently (and others not so recently but I just felt like sharing):
Note: I regularly post thoughts like this on my Letterboxd, in case you’re interested!
The Housemaid (2025)
The plot is so clumsily told and full of cliches, I could tell how it was going to end 5 minutes in. No, that is not a flex.
Sorry, but Sydney Sweeney can't act if her life depended on it. I haven't seen this level of terrible acting since Gal Gadot doing the same intense stare in every movie she's in. Michele Morrone apparently only knows how to pose as if he was in a Gucci photoshoot.
The saving grace goes to Amanda Seyfried, who actually did the best she could with the horrible material she was given. I suppose there was some intention to tell a female-empowering story. This is not it. Please watch Thelma & Louise instead.
Perfect Days (2023)
Why do the Japanese have a word specifically for the shadows created by the sunlight hitting leaves that move with the wind? What is it about komorebi that fascinates us?
I’d venture most people would find it boring. Some people, however, understand that it’s not meant to be understood, that if you look at it long enough, a sudden wave of emotions will gently caress your soul, perhaps even contradictory ones. Some people choose to keep looking anyway, because there’s nothing quite like it.
Hirayama is one of those people, and I’m glad to have had the blessing of witnessing a slice of his life.
Frankenstein (2025)
A visual spectacle, as is to be expected from Del Toro. Loved all the Creature storyline.
May be an unpopular opinion, but I think Oscar Isaac was miscast as Victor Frankenstein. He doesn’t convince me as a mad genius well enough, kinda took me out of the film for a bit.
Fortunately, Jacob Elordi’s turn as the Creature salvaged the film as a whole for me.
A House of Dynamite (2025)
One of the most pretentious films I have ever seen.
It tries to do something interesting with the whole “different perspectives” song and dance, but it never really gets anywhere substantial. It desperately wants you to reflect on nuclear war but denies you the tools to do so, resorting to telling you what to think and feel straight to your face instead of… you know, showing you something so you can make up your mind. Idris Elba’s POTUS even wastes precious seconds of decision making, in the face of nuclear annihilation, so he can reminisce about a podcast he heard once where the film’s title is explained.
Oh well… this IS a Netflix film, after all.
Sentimental Value (2025)
In a rather dull year for films, Joachim Trier stands as a shining beacon of seemingly unfaltering filmmaking prowess.
I felt a meta-narrative quality to the film that had me thinking about the tension between artistic pursuits and our personal bonds, filial or not. Is a complete dedication to a craft as visceral as filmmaking mutually exclusive with the emotional obligations of family?
Like in “The Worst Person In The World” before it, the ending doesn’t feel like it offers any definitive answers. I’m not even sure they exist. It does, however, leave you with a profound sense of hope.
PD: I adore the cinematography in this film.
A Poet (2025)
As a Colombian used to stories about drug trafficking and armed conflict, this film is a welcome departure from those themes, choosing instead to focus on fatherly love and the power of poetry in our daily lives.
Embers of Victor Gaviria’s hyperrealism show up in interesting ways.
Jeannette’s “Corazón de Poeta” lives rent free in my head.
Sexual Drive (2021)
A peculiar tryptich of vignettes dealing with sexual-like frustrations in everyday life. Felt like a Murakami short story collection brought to film.
A fun watch overall!
The Worst Person In The World (2021)
I grew up believing that melancholy and longing for simpler times only happened at old age. After all, it is what western cinema has always depicted: silver-haired, alcoholic, action-oriented men devoid of words to express what they feel.
This film, on the other hand, discards that myth and strives for something real, almost viscerally so. It’s unsurprising some audiences find it slow; it feels more like a fragment of a biographical observational documentary than a tightly structured fiction, and yet still allowing itself moments of magical realism, which paradoxically speak even more to our inner, most uncomfortably realistic versions of ourselves.
The result is what I consider to be the most profound depiction of mid-20s existential dread and yearning for meaning I have personally experienced.
Joker (2019)
Yes, Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy do what this film tries to do, but better.
Yes, you should watch those and not this wildly overrated sadness porn fantasy.
No, mental illness is not that cut and dry. I thought we had transcended the point of misrepresenting mental conditions as inextricably linked to heinous acts of violence, but hey, here we are.
Brother (2000)
Ending with this classic I rewatched last February.
Hana-Bi is Kitano’s finest, but Brother is the film I enjoy the most out of his filmography.
I vividly remember supplementing my first watch with a small BTS documentary on YouTube, where Kitano explained how efficiently he worked when shooting. If an actor wasn’t giving him what he wanted after a couple of takes, he changed the camera positioning to be behind the actor. Editing the film was a much more enjoyable and freeing process for him as a filmmaker.
You can feel it when watching Brother. Violent scenes play out with quick cuts and creative sound design. Flashbacks eschew basic transitions and opt to trust the audience can figure out the timeline for themselves. Kitano understands, both at a very instinctive level and as a consequence of his quirks, that a visual medium isn’t about what you show but about what you choose to hide. Images can be expository, but they can also be especially suggestive, if done right.
The ending always manages to tug at my heartstrings precisely because of this. The last image before the credits roll leaves a lingering aroma, an echo of feelings that populate your soul like no other artform can.
Well, that’s it for thoughts… for now!