July 2025 — Reviews Roundup

On paper, July was — and is usually — a month earmarked for studios to make their mint, with blockbusters of varying quality demanding half of multiplexes’ screens, including: James Gunn’s Superman (pretty decent), the introduction of the first official Fantastic Four entry into the MCU (a mediocre film that nonetheless was the best Feige and co. have delivered in maybe years), and whatever entry Rebirth was into the Jurassic Park/World franchise (baaaad, with the big creative decision this time being to swap out Chris Pratt for Scarlett Johansson). It was also the month for major streamers to drop their summer-minded “tentpole” fare, which includes films like Amazon Prime’s Heads of State, Netflix’s Happy Gilmore 2, and others. But nestled amidst this FilmTokers’ wet dream slate of titles were a bevy of inspired programming choices, excellent films destined to stand among the best of the year in a few month’s time: Alexandra Simpson’s No Sleep Till, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Sarah Jessica Rinland’s Collective Monologue. Marking the midpoint between Cannes and NYFF, with the likes of Locarno and Venice on the horizon, and excellent underrated fests like FIDMarseille and NYAFF having just wrapped, the last wisps of July typically hold the promise of better film days to come. This year surprised in that there was plenty of surprising quality to savor in real time. Below, we highlight everything we watched: big and small, wheat and chaff, unicorns and Unicorns.