Nathaniel's "Best" of 2025 (Part 2)

by Nathaniel R

THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

Consider today's list of abundance a sequel to Tuesday's overflowing cup of film joy. We previously covered honorable mentions which featured films from Brazil, Argentina, France, Vietnam, the American indie scene and Hollywood. Today we move on to the cream of the crop. Herewith a baker's favourite dozen films of the year. I heartly recommend seeing each and every one of them.

My absolute favourites of the year proved to be largely contemporary pictures coincidentally set in the only two countries I happen to have ever lived in: the US and Norway. The latter country arguably had their best film year ever with not one but five multiple award-winning pictures (Sentimental Value, The Ugly Stepsister, Dreams, Sex, Love) in international release. That said, this best / favourite list cannot be so easily pinned down to two countries in the present day. The best movies of 2025 transcend time and place just like that phenomenal "I Lied to You" sequence in Sinners, to include turn of the century England (17th century to be precise), the Jim Crow era South (rural Mississippi in October of 1932 to be exact), and the corner of 42nd and Madison here in New York City... albeit in some alternate universe where it's both now and also the 1960s. Aside from those detours and contemporary peaks at life and lives in the US, UK, and Norway, this list runs through a bustling night market in Taiwan, and holds tight to a dream home in South Korea that is really far more than its owners can responsibly afford.  Let's go to the movies...

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Interview: Gaspar Noé on Shooting in 3D and How 'Love' is Like a Musical

Karl Glusman and Aomi Muyock star in "Love"

Jose here. When I show up to meet Gaspar Noé, he offers me a cigarette. I gladly accept it and we sit by a window where we puff the smoke to the beat of the sounds of a construction site below us. For a moment I feel like a teenager and remember having to wait to have the house all to myself so I could watchIrréversible when I was 16, without having people constantly interrupt me. For all its provocation and controversy, Noé’s oeuvre isn’t as much about shock value as it is about finding deep connections between people. This is a filmmaker who literally goes under the skin to uncover the miracle of life, how we’re made, how similar we are to each other.

In Love, he takes this concept to a place of utter sublimity as he chronicles the ups and downs of the relationship between Murphy (Karl Glusman) and Electra (Aomi Muyock), two young people who despite being enraptured by all-consuming passion, grow apart due to jealousy and secrets. To bring us closer to the characters Noé shot the film in 3D and he uses the medium playfully and sensually. Squeamish audience members might find themselves wishing they’d brought a poncho during some of the film’s most explicit moments, but Noé also finds true beauty in the curves of breasts, the pearls of sweat that appear on the backs of lovers during intercourse, and in the alien-like quality of tongues tangled in a kiss. As much as his films shock and alienate people, he just wants us to get closer. As we sit by the window he says “we’re in closer company because of the cigarette”, then he smiles.

More on Love after the jump.

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TIFF: French Sexy Time Movies

Nathaniel, reporting from TIFF, where the French still love la petite mort. Due to the graphic nature of these films the reviews of Gaspar Noé's 3D explicit sex movie Love and the French teens-gone-wild Bang Gang: a modern love story (which is about exactly what it sounds like it's about) are both hidden after the jump where naughty things must go... Think of the children!

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Beauty Break: Will Karl Glusman Break Out at Cannes?

Cannes is as high profile as film festivals get so your first starring role in a buzzy feature could really make waves. Consider... Karl Glusman. He's the male star of Gaspar Noé's Love, the already buzzy sex film that gets a special screening at Cannes. He has a few credits in shorts and several on stage, plus voice work in a Starship Troopers film but he's still an unknown quantity. 2015 will be his first year in the movies proper so it could well start with a bang.

Gaspar Noé calls him

...the collest actor I have ever met. He is daring, joyful and intelligent. He has love scenes throughout the whole movie. He is the ultimate 3D baby maker."

Glusman photos (one NSFW) and videos after the jump...

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