Film Gate Reviews: September 2025

Sunday, September 28, 2025

A genuine appreciation for birding with Hallmark’s typical romance.

Adventures in Love & Birding merges the perfect hobby with Hallmark’s romance and fall theme. While I’m not a birder myself, I appreciate birding, and I suspect many of Hallmark’s audience is either an avid birder themselves or at least an enjoyer from afar. Complete with some bird photography, bird puns and trivia, it’s a whole-hearted push on the hobby.		2025 Directed by: Michael Robison Screenplay by: Nicole Baxter, Sarah T. Dubb Starring: Andrew Walker, Rachel Boston

Today’s politics but in a purely entertaining, hilarious and exhilarating thrill ride.

There’s a line from one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s earlier movies, Revolutionary Road, that I love and was reminded of during this movie. “I can never remember, are you the young Wheelers on Revolutionary Road, or the young revolutionaries on Wheeler Road?” And for the sake of One Battle After Another, it is indeed the young revolutionaries. Revolutionaries who fought the man, committed crimes, had a baby and grew up.		2025 Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson Screenplay by: Paul Thomas Anderson Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Infiniti Chase, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn

An amusing and fun story of Scottish rappers.

James McAvoy is making his directorial debut with a based on a true story that I would love to say is too crazy to be true, but instead, it’s the exact right level to be believable. Two rappers from Dundee, Scotland who are desperate to be famous with many cold calls going unanswered finally land an audition for a talent scout from London (or as Billy says “London, England? Where the English people are?”).		2025 Directed by: James McAvoy Screenplay by: Elaine Gracie, Archie Thomson Based on the story by Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd Starring: Seamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley

One fence, one conversation and very little of anything else.

The one thing that is instantly clear about The Fence is that it is based on a play. It takes place in one location with a limited number of characters. The whole movie is a conversation between Alboury (Isaach de Bankolé), a brother of an African man killed on site of a British construction company, and on the other side of the fence, Horn (Matt Dillon), the supervisor of the British construction company.		2025 Directed by: Claire Denis Screenplay by: Claire Denis, Suzanne Lindon, Andrew Litvack Starring: Matt Dillon, Isaach de Bankolé

A unique and powerful film about identity and the war in Venezuela.

The power of It Would Be Night in Caracas sneaks up on you. A story so important and universal, you very slowly get more and more enraptured until you’re left shaking marvelling at what you have just watched. It’s a story that affects approximately 8 million Venezuelans living in exile that the rest of the world might not realize the depths of the horror because it is not actually considered war, even though that is exactly what it is.		2025 Directed by: Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugas Screenplay by: Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugas, and Karina Sainz Borgo Starring: Natalia Reyes, Edgar Ramirez

A sweet and genuine rom-com that becomes tiring instead of funny.

Grace (Barbie Ferreira) is a young, idealistic music critic who is moving from Toronto to Montreal to make it big and because Montreal is cool and Toronto is not cool. That’s me paraphrasing the main character who is as immature and self-absorbed as coming-of-age rom-com heroines are. There’s a reason this type of low-confidence but high-selfishness protagonist is popular – because they’re funny.		2025 Directed by: Chandler Levack Screenplay by: Chandler Levack Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Stanley Simons

A wonderfully engaging story which pairs the supernatural belief with real-life corruption.

10-year-old Rabia (Nazualiya Arsalan) is getting ready for school and remarks that her uniform is too short. They don’t have money for a new one, so just rip out the bottom hem stitches and it will appear longer, her mother suggests. That works for Rabia, a very sweet, courteous and inquisitive young girl who loves school. When she arrives at school, it’s closed, an official is telling everyone that the teacher has fallen ill because the school is haunted so it has to shut down.		2025 Directed by: Seemab Gul Screenplay by: Seemab Gul Starring: Nazualiya Arsalan

Historical chaos.

For Colombians or for anybody with a personal connection to the November 6, 1985 Palace of Justice siege, Noviembre is likely a very powerful movie. However for the rest of us, this is just a chaotic capture of one moment in history with a lot of screaming and crying for an hour and a half. I would love to paint you a clearer picture, but there really isn’t one – both on purpose and to the detriment of the film.		2025 Directed by: Tomás Corredor Screenplay by: Tomás Corredor, Jorge Goldenberg, Xenia Rivery Starring: Santiago Alarcón, Natalia Reyes