Three films. Underrated.

While there were enough great films in 2025 that got universal acclaim, these three deserved more. 

Anniversary (2025) dir. by Jan Komasa 

I have already written a full review of this, but I would like to stress once again that Anniversary by the Polish director behind Corpus Christi is one of the most unjustly ignored films of 2025. Due to its explosive content (prescient, horrific), the film received next to no publicity. A shame, really, because this dystopian story of American future (present?) is frankly devastating.

Yes, there are certain problems here (mainly with the tone which is a little patchy), but overall this produces one hell of an impression. And again, I admire Komasa's guts for going to the US and doing this. Also, I don't think it is physically possible to hate anyone more than you will hate Dylan O'Brien while watching this film. 

Blue Moon (2025) dir. by Richard Linklater

The most surprising thing about this film is that it is not, in fact, a play. Blue Moon looks very much like something you would see in a theatre. Basically, the whole film revolves around one evening in a bar, a few characters and a heartbreaking unraveling of one man. Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart, the famous lyricist who made up one part of the legendary Rodgers-Hart songwriting duo. It is early spring in 1943, and Hart is there to meet his songwriting partner who is currently working with a different lyricist (Oscar Hammerstein II) and who is about to celebrate the great success of his new musical Oklahoma!

A talkative, foul-mouthed Hart is willing to speak to anyone who wouldn't mind listening. A barman, a journalist, a guy who delivers flowers, a girl he thinks is in love with him, a young aspiring pianist playing nearby. There is a lot of bitterness here, and false hopes, and failed romance, and love for art and music. The conversations with Rodgers (played by Andrew Scott), when we get to them, are painful and revealing, but a certain hope is always there. You want him to succeed, against all odds. He is the man, after all, who wrote the lyrics of "My Funny Valentine". A powerful little film, and Ethan Hawke deserves every award for this performance.

Hallow Road (2025) dir. by Babak Anvari

Again, a somewhat subdued, almost intimate piece that was overshadowed by much flashier films in 2025. But I loved this to bits. Hallow Road is a psychological thriller that manages to mess up with your mind in a very creative manner (watch the end credits). 

A couple (played by Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys) receive a distressed phone call from their daughter with whom they had just had an awful row. Apparently, she got into a terrible car accident and needs their help. We do not even get to see the young woman, just hear her voice. Naturally, Pike's and Rhys's characters drive through the night to save her, and all kinds of bizarre things come to light on their way. 

Hallow Road is just 80 minutes long, and it is so fucking tense it won't let you relax for one second. Again, a brilliant little film, with quite an ending.

Cult albums: COLOUR GREEN by Sibylle Baier

Colour Green is a very deceptive title. After all, there is nothing especially 'green' about this album, whether we are talking about the sepia-imbued cover or the actual musical content. And yet the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. First, the colour in question invokes the cover of Nick Drake's classic debut Five Leaves Left from 1969 (which was surely an inspiration for Colour Green). Second, it creates a certain out-of-sync and out-of-time feeling that is further backed up by the story behind this album's release.

Sibylle Baier is a German folk singer and actress, and yet it is quite hard to say either of those things with full confidence. After all, she recorded but one album, and her only acting credit is a minor appearance in Wim Wenders's Alice In The Cities (1973). Colour Green was recorded in her home in Germany between 1970 and 1973 but remained unknown and unreleased until 30 years later when her son compiled the scattered recordings on a CD and gave it to J Mascis of the American alternative band Dinosaur Jr. J Mascis was so impressed that he passed the songs to the Orange Twin Records label who promptly released them in 2006. Since then, the album has achieved a legendary status and a cult following. 

It is a great story, of course, but it wouldn't be nearly as interesting if the music wasn't special. After all, we have heard enough cult albums where the context overshadows the actual music. Colour Green is not one of those albums. Instead, it is a self-contained world of pastoral elegance and melodic brilliance that is sustained all through its brief, but magical, 33 minutes. Colour Green is a world unto itself.

In a nutshell, Colour Green is a haunting guitar-based folk album. It is mostly made up of short ballad-like vignettes which are both evocative and disarmingly beautiful. The material is very even. "Tonight" is the album's most famous tune, but that is perhaps because it comes first. After all, songs like "Remember the Day" and "Forget About" (possibly the most achingly gorgeous thing ever written) are hardly any worse. There is very little variation on the album, although one could argue that "Softly" is almost upbeat and "Wim" is almost playful. Oh and the closing "Give Me a Smile" features an orchestrated string section and an electronic organ (apparently Baier plays a steel-string guitar here instead of a nylon-strung one). 

I don't remember who it was who said that February is a Tuesday of the year. Ever since I first heard this album ten or fifteen years ago, I've always felt this was a perfect Tuesday album. "Tonight, as I get back from work...". There is a certain wistfulness to Colour Green, a certain melancholy, but once in a while you encounter beauty that transcends sadness, and gives hope. Colour Green is precisely that.