Cinema Snapshots: October 2025
What I watched last month...
Welcome to this month’s Cinema Snapshots! At the beginning of each month, I reflect on what I watched the prior month and provide a quick “snapshot” of my thoughts on those films. So without further ado, here are my Cinema Snapshots for October 2025.
Christy
Christy Martin never imagined life beyond her small-town roots in West Virginia—until she discovered a knack for punching people. Fueled by grit, raw determination, and an unshakable desire to win, she charges into the world of boxing under the guidance of her trainer and manager-turned-husband, Jim. But while Christy flaunts a fiery persona in the ring, her toughest battles unfold outside it—confronting family, identity, and a relationship that just might become life-or-death.
Christy is predictable, over-long, and underdeveloped. The screenplay hops from scene to scene, showing us moments in Christy Martin’s life but very rarely showing us who Christy Martin actually is.
That said, Sydney Sweeney is the glue holding this film together. She overcomes the screenplay’s lack of depth by delivering a lived-in and committed performance. The makeup department doesn’t do much to adequately age her from the teenage years to 40+ years old, but as the film progresses her performance evolves in subtle and impressive ways.
I probably won’t revisit this, but it was a worthwhile watch for Sweeney’s performance alone. Also, shoutout to Antony Partos’s music, a tender and motivational piano-based score that was unexpected and moving.
★★★☆☆
A House of Dynamite
A House of Dynamite is everything you’d expect from a Kathryn Bigelow film. The terrific ensemble cast, razor sharp editing, and handheld camerawork up the tension every step of the way, and the film’s unique structure keeps the ticking time bomb narrative urgent and fast-paced. Some of the dialogue is a bit stiff and unnatural, but the script overall is strong. And a great score from Volker Bertelmann!
The immensely unsatisfying ending is the film’s greatest flaw, to the point where a 4 star review might be generous. But the more I reflect on it:
The ending isn’t the point, the journey is more important than the destination.
I’m really not sure how I would end this in a satisfying way. That’s not an excuse for the filmmakers, but this was never a simple story to finish.
★★★★☆
The Perfect Neighbor
Police bodycam footage reveals how a long-running neighborhood dispute turned fatal in this documentary about fear, prejudice and Stand Your Ground laws.
Geeta Gandbhir’s new documentary on Netflix is a remarkable and inventive use of the documentary format, relying (almost) entirely on police bodycam footage to reveal how a long-running neighborhood dispute turned fatal. Similar to fictional found footage films, the use of bodycam footage transforms the viewer from a detached watcher to an active participant in the events. It’s shocking, sad, and deeply emotional to see these events captured on camera, and a feat of editing from Gandbhir and her team to tell this story over 100 minutes without any traditional documentary interviews.
★★★★☆
The Woman in Cabin 10
On a lavish yacht for an assignment, a journalist sees a passenger go overboard. But when no one believes her, she risks her life to uncover the truth.
I hate to call movies boring because that term gets thrown around for any film that loses people’s attention two seconds in. But The Woman In Cabin 10 is just … boring. Based on a novel of the same name, the film somehow uses an intriguing and exciting premise and takes 90 agonizingly long minutes to pay it off in the most lackluster fashion. Great cast, good filmmakers behind the camera, but just a total whiff unfortunately.
★★☆☆☆
The Lost Bus
A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire.
Disaster films (especially those based on a true story) have to walk a fine line between making us care about the characters while also getting to the action and spectacle audiences expect.
This year’s Last Breath jumped into the story so quickly that I barely knew the characters’ names, let alone their background and motivations. But The Lost Bus swings a bit too far in the opposite direction. It’s well over 45 minutes into the film before our main character Kevin (Matthew McConaughey) is drawn into the conflict, far too late in a film that’s barely over two hours.
It sounds like I hated The Lost Bus, but it really isn’t a bad film. McConaughey is dependable as always and plays well alongside America Ferrara. Paul Greengrass brings his expected visual style to create compelling and tense sequences (even if it relies a bit too much on CGI). And while the film is perhaps a bit long, once the story kicks into gear each scene is a flurry of excitement and thrills.
★★★☆☆
Forrest Gump’s Musical Destiny
Lastly, I’m proud to announce that this month I started as a regular contributor for Film Fisher, a website much like mine focused on in-depth Christian analyses of films. Feel free to check out my first article for them:
