The Filmic 5: Everyone's A Critic Edition
Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley
I. Film Critics I Am Loving This Week
What a delight to come across the YouTube channel for FLICK CHICKS- a DIY film review channel shot post-movie entirely in their car while parked at their local theater. Per their channel descriptive, they are "...Two older-ish ladies who see a lot of movies! Many, many movies. Several a week. For years and years...probably for the last decade", and I could NOT be more delighted to discover them.
Is there a lot of film overlap between our reviews? Perhaps not a lot (although your indie film game is STRONG, ladies), but that is EXACTLY the point...our two delightful critics are OUT THERE DOING THE WORK every week, refusing to "gate-keep" their unabashed and authentic joy for finding- and curating- the films that meant something to them, and perhaps most importantly, have found each other (and US) to excitedly share just WHY this most beloved of mediums means so much to them and the world...and my god do we need that kind of enthusiasm more than ever. Enjoy their collective top 10 of 2025. Keep 'em coming, Chicks!
II. Film Recommendation List I Am Gushing About This Week
I recently had the great pleasure of contributing to a few "Best Films of the 21st Century" lists recently as a critic (and sticking to 10 was quite the Herculean task I assure you). However, I was SO excited to come across this curated list put together entirely by 56 great Spanish auteurs (Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, Oliver Laxe, Carla Simón, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi, and Isabel Coixet to name but a few).
While several of their combined Top 25 mirrored my own list (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS (Cristian Mungiu, 2007), THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Jonathan Glazer, 2023), A PROPHET (Jacques Audiard, 2009), UNDER THE SKIN (Jonathan Glazer, 2013), and A SEPARATION (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)) I was thrilled to discover some "blindspot" films that I have not yet encountered. I cannot WAIT to remedy that in 2026. Click HERE FOR THE FULL LIST and enjoy!
III. Historical Film Story That Flattened Me This Week
It was a wonderful reminder last week that every so often, a boxing match can UNITE the world, propel the dialogue, and radically shift the cultural zeitgeist (was there a better Christmas present to the world than the knockouts of two of our most toxic manosphere podcasters, courtesy of professional boxers?).
However, this was NOT the first time a boxing match had national consequences...our friends at VOX put together this brilliant short essay on the 1910 banned boxing film that literally changed the world.
IV. Film Essay I Am Championing This Week
During my recent annual "end-of-year Swedish death cleaning" day, I rediscovered some of my early directorial efforts from my time in film school in the 90s. Needless to say I will NOT subject you to them here outside of a still frame pictured above (you're welcome), but it DID remind me just how rabidly enamored I was at the time by the auteurs of the great Dogme 95 movement. Critic and writer Leo Goldsmith pens a marvelous essay for Criterion about WHY this Danish film movement changed the world.
Click here to read "Pixel Visions: Dogme 95 and the Emergence of Digital Cinema"
V. Critical Recovery I Am Thankful For This Week
Longing for the days of civility in disagreement, you say? In a year of multiple panels, film talkbacks, and public lectures I find GREAT comfort in the brilliant and genteel recovery of critic Bernard Levin after getting punched live on air for his review by Desmond Leslie in front of eleven million viewers on the BBC in 1963. And they say criticism is boring...
Get out there this year and have a divergent opinion on something in the public space...both the Flick Chicks and Bernard Levin would be proud. ;)
Jack Hanley is a film scholar, podcaster, and critic based in Boulder, CO. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, Slamdance's Indies Awards, and the Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast and the founder of the Reel Horrors Short Film Festival. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com