Best of Fantastic Fest 2025: Part 2
Another year, another Fantastic Fest in the books. Here are the best films I watched at the fest this year…
One Battle After Another
One of the surprise screenings at Fantastic Fest turned out to be the second time a Paul Thomas Anderson film played at the Fest (the first was There Will Be Blood in 2007). The earlier reviews have already been stellar for Anderson’s 10th feature film (take that Quentin Tarantino) and, even despite the Festival Fatigue (a very real thing, trust me), it’s clear Anderson has made another grand American epic. While it may not reach the heights of his earlier work, there’s no denying that one of the best directors working today continues his decades-long streak of masterful filmmaking. I have a feeling I’ll be revisiting this one a few more times over the next few months. It may not be the best film, instead it might just be the definitive “film of the year”.
Bugonia
The new Yorgos Lanthimos-Emma Stone collaboration was another secret screening at Fantastic Fest. This is a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, a film I just so happened to watch at the Alamo Drafthouse as part of their Weird Wednesday programming earlier this year. The remake is a great adaptation, taking the framework of the original and adding Lanthimos’ trademark style, with some of the best performances of the year from Stone and Jesse Plemons. I have a feeling some may find this irritating; it’s big and loud and never subtle. I’m all in with what Lanthimos has to offer lately, though, and this is another winner in my book.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Surprise, surprise, another secret screening won me over at Fantastic Fest this year. This one was Mike P. Nelson’s remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night, starring Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends). I’m on the side of the angels when it comes to appreciating Campbell’s work in Halloween Ends; he was fantastic playing a killer weirdo. Thankfully, this new Silent Night, Deadly Night remake makes good use of an actor I want to see as a new horror film star staple. There are some clever twists here, and the kills are inventive and fun. This one is a winner and should be the next Christmas horror classic.
Fantastic Fest 2025 - Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani Q&A
Reflection in a Dead Diamond
I watched and loved directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s previous film, Let the Corpses Tan, when it played Fantastic Fest in 2017. That film was a hallucinogenic take on Westerns. Their new film, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, is their take on the spy film. The film shifts back and forth between the past and present life of an aging spy. But nothing is what it seems; sequences we think are real turn on a dime and become fantastical and dreamlike. Like their past work, they use old-fashioned filmmaking techniques to recreate the distinct feel of the genre films they’re riffing on (shades of Danger: Diabolik abound). On top of the style, the film is also a critique of James Bond-esque toxic masculinity that ran through the veins of the ‘70s espionage genre. A standout.
More coverage:
Best of Fantastic Fest 2025: Part 1
Best of Fantastic Fest 2025: Part 3
