Joaquin Phoenix is superlative, never making a misstep, as a small-town sheriff in Ari Aster‘s Eddington (2025), set in Covid Year 2020. The themes include the adequacy and inadequacy of legal and personal reaction to epidemics, internet deceit and folly, political fury and violence, marital thoughtlessness. It’s a pretty sturdy, and weird, tragicomedy until the last third of it serves up an unsavory, nihilistic mess. Semi-good work, then, from Aster; very palatable work from actors Deirdre O’Connell, Emma Stone and Austin Butler.

It may be that in the 1970s, men and women were not quite sure what to do about marriage. The divorce rate was rising and they were perhaps fearful. Many started living together. The humorous I Will . . . I Will . . . For Now (1976) may reflect this uncertainty. In the film, “A divorced couple tries reconciliation through a legal contract instead of remarriage . . .” (imdb.com). They finally find themselves undergoing inane sex therapy, but are bereft of real solutions.

Directed and co-written by “Golden Age” Hollywood veteran, Norman Panama, with the help of old-time TV writer Albert E. Lewin, this flick, as a romantic comedy, is monumentally unmemorable. It might have been funny had it contained some true wit, but I don’t recall any. Elliott Gould and Diane Keaton enact the couple, Gould failing to be a thespian of taste while Keaton is bland. Victoria Principal was given a worthless role but is fine in it—and almost as beautiful as she was in Dallas. Paul Sorvino more or less succeeds but with Panama’s trivial script working against him. I’d like to see some of Panama’s other movies; maybe I Will is simply not Panamanian enough.

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.