Contains spoilers for the films “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” and “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2”
Even though a quarter of 2025 has already passed, I am still catching up on 2024’s biggest films.
After March’s Oscar Awards, I vowed to better keep up with new movies—in a somewhat timely fashion. That being said, before fully diving into 2025, I’ve needed to complete 2024’s most popular titles. After mixed feelings on the abnormal entity that is Emilia Pérez, I chose a slightly more promising story, Sean Baker’s Anora.
Anora
For the first time in years, I didn’t just have moderate to negative reviews of a movie: I genuinely loved one. Out of all movies released in the 2020s, I believe that Anora falls in the top three.
The movie centers around the life of sex worker Anora (Mikey Madison) as she falls into a dreamlike romance with the son of a Russian elite, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). However, as their relationship progresses, Anora discovers that her “Prince Charming” is more like a scared little boy than she initially thought (and not just because he looks like he’s 15 years old).
Throughout the movie, Madison does an excellent job of showcasing Anora’s pure emotion, both in times of excitement and devastation, and evoking empathy in the viewer. As an audience member, I could feel what Anora was going through as if I were experiencing it myself. I was still rooting for her, even though she was blatantly naive. If Anora were a real person, I would wish that she had stronger rational thinking skills. However, for the sake of cinema, the creation of a somewhat idealistic main character made the movie’s storyline powerful. Her innocent, blind hope pushed the audience to root for her, despite the odds being against her happy ending.
Despite Anora’s misfortune, the movie isn’t somber, though it easily could have been. It retains a lighthearted tone—for the most part—because of its humor. I found this to be one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in 2025, as it was filled with sarcastic remarks and moments of dry humor. Specifically, the jokes made by Ivan’s Russian “guardians” (who essentially fill the space of his absent parents) made their characters enjoyable to watch, even though they were technically the antagonists.
The way the characters spoke made the movie lovable as well. For me, New York accents and Russian accents are some of the most entertaining to hear. Therefore, together, they made an exquisite combination. In addition, the overall New York-ness of Anora specifically was emphasized by her fiery emotions and strong opinions, further making the story feel genuine.
The Virgin Suicides
No director can create a beautiful film like Sofia Coppola can. In her repertoire, The Virgin Suicides is the crown jewel.
The movie was Coppola’s first, released in 1999 and based on the book of the same name. Its plot revolves around those of the Lisbon sisters, five teenagers living sheltered lives under their parents’ strict rule in 1970s Detroit. As the title foreshadows, the film ends tragically.
The movie easily became my favorite after my first watch over a year ago. Naturally, as the same time of year rolled around in 2025, I felt a compulsion to rewatch it with a fresh mind.
It was a masterpiece, of course. But, with a second viewing, it began to sink in just how depressing the film really is. On my initial watch, I had been swept away by the light aesthetics and the main girls’ charm. Kirsten Dunst’s awe-inspiring performance as the alluring Lux Lisbon had distracted me from her character’s inner despair. I had failed to note how much of a downer the movie really is, once it is separated from its pastel, feminine exterior.
I cannot say that I would ever watch this if I were looking for a pick-me-up. Even so, virtually every frame of this film remains absolutely stunning. I am hesitant to make hyperbolic statements, but this is the most beautiful movie I have ever seen. I believe that if you randomly pause the movie anywhere, the image you stop at will be aesthetically pleasing. (And, the behind-the-scenes images from the movie are even more captivating, pictured in the book, Sofia Coppola Archive.)
The somber and slow soundtrack complements the visuals of the film excellently. The majority of songs are done by the early 2000s band, Air. Even though most tracks are without words, the girls’ aimlessness and depression are captured perfectly solely with the soft instrumentals. Outside of the movie, the songs provide an ideal soundtrack for light studying or writing with my window open in the warming spring weather.
In addition to the aesthetics, the historical context of the film enticed me once more. Taking place in the outskirts of a deteriorating Motor City, the movie captures the average American experience of a “traditional” 20th-century family. As a Michigander who also lives in the suburbs, I saw my own experiences and lifestyle reflected in the film, despite the time difference. To a lesser extent, I found the storyline of Cecilia Lisbon (Hanna R. Hall) and her love for the family’s front-yard tree to be intriguing: in the 1970s, Detroit was plagued by the Dutch elm disease, killing hundreds of thousands of trees, including the Lisbon’s. While this is a minor storyline, I appreciate Coppola’s historical accuracy.
Rewatching the movie allowed for true appreciation of its symbolism, foreshadowing, and attention to detail. Having sufficiently researched the movie since my initial watch, I was able to point out some of Coppola’s small inclusions that made the movie complex, for example, the neighbor boys’ dream sequences of traveling the world with the sisters. If nothing else, this is my encouragement to you to rewatch your favorite movie and analyze it.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 & The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
I love the Twilight saga. I’ve claimed to love the movies “ironically,” but I’ve honestly surpassed that to the point where I just love them period.
The first two movies are easily 10/10s. The third was a solid 7/10. But the fourth and fifth? The two segments of Breaking Dawn? Those are the parts of the saga I prefer not to think too much about.
While I’ll spare the details—believe me, I have a lot of details on hand about this subject—I believe that the main issue with the last two movies arises because of the change in directors. Each of the films in the series is directed by someone different, excluding the two Breaking Dawn movies that were directed by the same man, Bill Condon. As the saga progresses, the directors worsen.
The original Twilight and its sequel, New Moon, retained the stormy, mysterious ambiance of the books by Stephenie Meyer. However, the remaining films increasingly become more and more like action movies, similar to Marvel. Once past New Moon, the films lose their originality to fit the basic Hollywood movie format. Whereas the originals put the viewer right into the dismal setting of Forks, Washington, the last few merely include some fighting and subpar dialogue, and then call it a day.
Despite my established opposition, I went to see the final two films at a local theater for a double feature. After a combined four hours of Breaking Dawn, I can confidently say that this story could have been compressed into a single two-hour movie. I cannot explain why they needed to split the movie into two sections, other than for more revenue. It was a money-grab, I promise you.
The first Breaking Dawn encompasses the highly anticipated wedding of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) and the struggle that results from the couple’s unnaturally fast pregnancy. (The struggle being because Bella, as a human, is not fit to carry a half-vampire baby.) That’s essentially the entire movie. The film ends with a close-up shot of Bella opening her blood-red eyes, for she has finally been turned into a vampire. Disregarding the plot, this scene created anticipation for the fifth film, making it an excellent note to end on.
Similar to the first segment, the second movie contained mostly filler content. By the last movie, there isn’t too much that the characters talk about that hasn’t already been discussed. Virtually every conversation was (still) either about the rivalry between vampires and werewolves or the never-ending argument about whether or not Bella should be human.
In the last half hour, the movie becomes more suspenseful and most similar to the Marvel franchise. Essentially, the series concludes with the “good” vampires and their diverse group of magical friends fighting the “bad” vampire leaders. (This is summarized for the sake of simplicity.) The fighting scenes seemed to drag on, but that might just be because I’m not a big action-movie fan and had been sitting for three and a half hours already. However, the scenes would have been acceptable—except that they weren’t, because they weren’t even real. The whole battle montage of the entire saga’s conclusion is simply a vision. No actual fighting happens between the characters: it is all in their imaginations. The two groups basically retreated and said, “Oh, well, we wouldn’t want to start a full-blown war. The end!”
Come on: a first grader could have written that.
Moving past the plot, the movie has its highs and lows in production, particularly when it comes to special effects. In these two movies, vampire Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene) looks no less AI-generated than she did in New Moon and Eclipse. I like Alice in concept, but she looks like she was made by a computer for almost the entirety of the saga. Similarly, the baby that Bella eventually gives birth to is a monstrosity. For some reason, the production team saw it fit to use a baby doll overlaid with CGI for a face instead of a real baby. It’s about as unrealistic and terrifying as one would expect. However, despite these failures, the team did a fantastic job with Stewart’s appearance. As she is dying in Part 1, she looks utterly sickly to the point where it’s painful to watch her.
In spite of my many criticisms for the disappointing end to the saga, I rate the two films as 3.5/5 and 3/5 stars, respectively. After all, these are the follow-ups to the beloved original Twilight, a movie which I could never speak badly about.
On the whole, March brought a fun amalgamation of both new movies I had never seen before and old movies that I returned to rewatch. As the spring carries on, I look forward to watching a few of 2025’s latest releases alongside some highly-ranked Letterboxd cult-classics.
