2025 has felt like a strange year at the movies. After coming into it with so much hope, and often so much hype, only a handful of films have emerged to dominate the conversation, the box office, or both. The defining tone of the year so far seems to be that feeling of liking something when you had hoped you would love it.

I had expected the fall festival season to clear up that air of gentle disappointment. Instead, Venice, Telluride, and Toronto only fueled this narrative.

Of the high-profile awards hopefuls that premiered over the past few weeks, Hamnet has been the defining film. After being the talk of Telluride, Chloé Zhao's adaptation of a heartrending 2020 novel carried its momentum over to TIFF, where it took home the coveted Audience Award. With enough juicy narratives t

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