The President’s Cake (2025) takes place in the early 1990s, just after the first Gulf War. Said President is Saddam Hussein. Directed and scripted by Hasan Hadi, the film concerns poverty—and, to a lesser extent, the consequences of war—in Saddam’s Iraq. Baneen Ahmed Nayyef is compelling and touching as 9-year-old Lamia, required at school to bake tyrannical Saddam a birthday cake. But she and her grandmother may be unable to find and purchase ingredients for it, and in any case a more serious matter has arisen in that Granny has grown too old to properly care for Lamia.

The film’s narrative is well-written, absorbing. There is suspense in an unsettling scene where a sinister watch seller tries to lure Lamia into a room in which a movie is allegedly being shown. Technically accomplished, Cake offers smart cinematography (for a grave picture) by Tudor Vladimir Panduru and is effectively directed and edited. It is an outstanding work. I don’t care that it was a Cannes favorite, only that it is one of my favorites for ’25.

Filmmaker Cyrus Nowrasteh has a low opinion of Islamist militants. No wonder. In his 2019 action film Infidel, they kidnap and torture an American journalist (Jim Caviezel) after he publicly remarks that Jesus Christ is God. Nowrasteh’s disturbing The Stoning of Soraya M. is set in Iran; this movie is set in Cairo but involves Iranian terrorists. The director is of Iranian descent, and to him Iran is a dreadful, far-reaching enemy. . . Infidel has limited appeal, but I think it’s enjoyable. Caviezel is one among many spot-on actors here. It is, in addition, an un-preachy Christian film and entertainment.

It can be nice to hear lies about oneself, bad to hear incivility. In Nicole Holofcener‘s You Hurt My Feelings (2023), people certifiably hear both.

Herein: “A novelist’s longstanding marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book” (imdb).

But Holofcener, who wrote and directed this comedy-drama, is not pretentious. She declines to make the “upending” worse than it actually would be and is intent to frequently amuse us. We do shake our heads over human behavior, though. Feelings is seamlessly made with appealing performances by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Arian Moayed and plenty of others. It’s better written, I believe, than the director’s Please Give. The film reminds us that human approval is not easily had; ah, but the piece easily has mine.

Ella MaCay (2025) is about a female politician, likely a Democrat, who is smart but also harried and dissatisfied in her relationships with other people. Probably it could have been shaped into a palatable movie, but no: it’s insipid, dopey, sentimental, and pushy. James Brooks didn’t know what he was doing.