You believe you’ve seen all the movies worth seeing, and then you scan the “best-of” lists and realize with excitement and consternation what you’ve missed. Such is the situation you, a dedicated moviegoer, face in this era of digital abundance.
Fortunately, the Brattle Theatre affords all of us the opportunity to catch up, courtesy of (Some of) The Best of 2025. On Friday, the series features two horror comedies: “The Monkey” and “Final Destinations: Bloodlines.” On Saturday, a second double feature consists of contemporary satires “Bugonia” (by Yorgos Lanthimos) and “Eddington”(Ari Aster). On Sunday evening, a third screens some phantasmagorical fright in “Weapons“ and “Fréwaka.” Wednesday flickers with maternal stress in “Die My Love” and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”
There are also single features in the series, no less worthy, include Sarah Friedland’s quiet, devastating Alzheimer’s drama “Familiar Touch” (Sunday and Monday), Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby” (Monday), and Alain Guiraudie’s psychodrama “Misericordia” (Tuesday). To my taste, the most intriguing is Jan. 29’s showings of “Nouvelle Vague,” Richard Linklater’s love letter to the French New Wave, and “Vulcanizadora,” indie kingpin Joel Potrykus’s midnight-movie dramedy. Both are hand-selected and introduced by film critic A.S. Hamrah. The series continues next week.
On Saturday, the Harvard Film Archive spotlights the university’s 2025-2026 Norton Professor of Poetry Steve McQueen with a rare screening of one of the director’s most ambitious works. “Occupied City” stands out among World War II documentaries by eschewing stock footage and talking-head interviews. The story of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam comes through narration by photographer Melanie Hyams, as adapted from Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945 by Bianca Stitger, who happens to be McQueen’s wife. McQueen juxtaposes her words against images of modern Amsterdam in a way that allows the audience to make their own connections sometimes depicting seemingly unrelated locations to what’s being cited in the narration, sometimes serving as counterpoint. “Occupied City” clocks in at four-and-a-half hours. It’s a bold experiment in historical filmmaking, equal to Jonathan Glazer’s film “The Zone of Interest.” (This free screening is fully booked, but you might be able to avail rush admission at the door).
On Sunday, RPM Fest returns to the Brattle with “Crossing Lines.” The program selects nearly a dozen films from Massachusetts-raised Raymond Rea’s four-decade career. Rea’s experimental work challenges cinematic conventions and gender norms through a signature aesthetic of 16mm, analog video and digital video. After the screening, Genevieve Carmel — director of the nonprofit LEF Foundation — will talk to Rea about his work. Hang around, and you, too, can ask him questions at this showcase of a pioneering artist.
On Monday, the Harvard Film Archive’s repertory series “From the Collection: Antonioni/Bertolucci/Olmi” continues with another Italian master. Although you may know Bernardo Bertolucci for “The Last Emperor” (1987) or “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), “The Conformist” (1970) shows his greater audacity. HFA screens an archival print. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays Marcello, a seemingly mild-mannered academic in Mussolini’s Italy who becomes an assassin for the fascist secret police. Tasked with a mission to eliminate a former professor (a relationship loosely modeled on Bertolucci’s mentor Jean-Luc Godard), the role juxtaposes the release of murderous impulses with the repression of sexuality. The psychic tension in “The Conformist” has inspired countless filmmakers. Francis Ford Coppola cited it as an influence on “The Godfather.” The relevance of the overt theme — conformity in a time of fascism — needs no elaboration. You might not have seen the film. But you already feel the tension.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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