The History of Sound (2025)

Direction: Oliver Hermanus
Country: USA

South African helmer Oliver Hermanus, best known for the dramas Beauty (2011) and Living (2022), returns with The History of Sound, a bittersweet love story between two men bound by their passion for folk music in early 20th-century America. Based on two short stories by screenwriter Ben Shattuck, the film unfolds in sepia hues and dusky textures, yet takes too long to develop, ultimately struggling to find the emotional perspective and dramatic momentum necessary to fully engage.

The story follows Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal), who leaves his family farm in Kentucky to pursue his dream of becoming a folk singer. At the New England Conservatory in Boston, he meets David White (Josh O'Connor), whose passion lies in collecting folk songs from rural communities. The two are involuntarily separated by World War I, reconnecting in Maine two years later, only to drift apart once more after a year of unanswered letters.

While the narrative remains frustratingly superficial—technically polished yet dramatically inert, most of the film feels trapped in repetition, particularly during the musical interludes, which tend to weaken rather than deepen the emotional current. Hermanus’ direction is elegant and controlled, but also strangely hollow, leaving key emotional threads to dissolve into the surrounding fog. Hermanus and Shattuck clearly approach the material with sincerity, yet the result rarely cuts deeply. Likewise, despite the undeniable talent of Mescal and O’Connor, neither is given the opportunity to deliver truly memorable work here. It’s a disappointing outcome.

Hamnet (2025)

Direction: Chloé Zhao
Country: USA 

Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s fictional novel of the same name—adapted for the screen by the author alongside director Chloé Zhao (The Rider, 2017; Nomadland, 2020)—Hamnet emerges as a grievous, moody, and faintly mystical historical drama, hampered by torpid narrative development and muted dramatic contours.

In need of greater dramatic maturation from beginning to end, the film is set in England in 1580 and follows the young Latin tutor William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), who marries Agnes (Jessie Buckley), a free-spirited woman endowed with an enigmatic bond to the natural world. Despite strong opposition from their families, the couple builds a contented life together with their three children. This fragile harmony is shattered by the sudden death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet—an event that would later inspire Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Hamlet, written at the turn of the 17th century.

Although Buckley and Mescal work earnestly to anchor the emotional weight, the film rarely achieves the depth or intensity it promises. There is something curiously generic and over-polished about its execution, as if the individual elements never quite ignite into something greater. After an opening stretch that sparks curiosity with its atmospheric hints and suggestive mysteries, Hamnet slowly contracts into a dutiful, emotionally distant pseudo-epic in which everything feels pale and overly restrained.

Zhao struggles to overcome the dramatic inertia of a sluggish, lifeless script, and the film trudges forward without accumulating force. By the time it reaches its conclusion, it is too little and too late to recalibrate expectations. Even the ending—clearly designed as an emotional crescendo—lands with disappointing shallowness. A thin narrative spine and awkwardly staged theatrics prevent Hamnet from forging a meaningful emotional connection, leaving it more inert than affecting.

Gladiator II (2024)

Direction: Ridley Scott
Country: USA 

Ridley Scott cements his reputation as a master of epic cinema with Gladiator II, an arguably unnecessary but undeniably entertaining action spectacle that revels in physical clashes and dramatic intensity. Written by David Scarpa, this sequel introduces Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus Aurelius, the son of Maximus (played by Russell Crowe in the original).

Fifteen years after Maximus’ death, Lucius returns to a corrupt Rome after the Roman army's brutal campaign in Numidia, North Africa. Haunted by the murder of his wife, he vows vengeance, reconnects with his mother, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), and finds himself under the tutelage of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave with ambitions to rule Rome. 

While it breaks no new ground narratively, this colossal production builds momentum as it unfolds, eventually drawing viewers into its dramatic core. It is a visceral, blood-soaked exploration of power, war, revenge, and emancipation, holding the audience captive with its steamy visuals and audacious premise. The fight sequences erupt with the force of a volcano, and Scott elicits compelling performances from his cast. 

Despite its shortcomings, Gladiator II delivers a full-bodied adventure that skillfully balances responsiveness to its audience’s expectations with a reverence for the epic grandeur of its predecessor.