Supreme Cinema
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Ingmar Bergman
17 min read
The article describes Gustav as a 'Bergman-esque film director' and Sentimental Value is directed by Joachim Trier, a Scandinavian auteur clearly working in Bergman's tradition. Understanding Bergman's filmmaking style, themes of family trauma, and influence on Nordic cinema provides essential context for appreciating both the fictional Gustav character and Trier's directorial approach.
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Paul Thomas Anderson
18 min read
The article discusses Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' and calls him 'the greatest working American filmmaker.' Understanding his filmography, techniques, and critical reception provides context for evaluating this bold claim and the debates around his new film that the critic describes.
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Safdie brothers
17 min read
Josh Safdie's 'Marty Supreme' is praised as one of the two best films of 2025. The article describes Safdie's style as 'lurid, frenetic, exhausting' - understanding the Safdie brothers' previous work (Uncut Gems, Good Time) and their distinctive approach to filmmaking illuminates why this new film represents 'great cinema' in the critic's view.
In my brief tenure as critic here, I’ve been pretty clearly pessimistic about the current state of the cinema. Discerning readers will note that the only film I’ve reviewed positively so far was released 50 years ago. They’ll note, too, that I’ve been entirely ambivalent about the overall quality of this past year’s cinematic output. I took the chance in my Superman review to air my exhaustion with the whole superhero genre (a sentiment that at least seems somewhat shared by the general moviegoing public — for now). On the back of Seth Rogen’s The Studio, I waved away any talk about 2025 being a banner year for the return of good cinema, opining that most of the highest-grossing movies every year continue to be films aimed at children. Then I wrote about finding Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein only fitfully interesting; I wrote about Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams, and why what passes for adult cinema in the world of small-sized and “independent” films — though far better than the average blockbuster — is still, on the whole, much duller than it ought be.
On the one hand, I think it’s appropriate to opine like so when given the right stage. Ours is an elegiac century, down to its bones. The subject of “serious” arts these days is most often a barely-suppressed, ongoing reckoning with the anxiety unleashed by the last century, and with the weight of all our self-conscious failures to live up to its most sterling achievements in popular culture. To add to this general, mournful air is, to some readers, understandably, the veritable flogging of the dead historical horse—one we’re all quite aware has long since passed away beneath us. Still, on the other hand, to do otherwise would mean telling a lie. And that is the work of artists, not critics.
So as we head into 2026, I owe it to my readers to finally bestow some genuine praise on the best films of 2025. And there were plenty of good movies, though in general I found myself most excited by the ones everybody else seemed ambivalent about. I loved Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt; found Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon charming and admired Eva Victor’s debut Sorry, Baby. I was surprised by the punk rock digital garishness of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which
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