Cannes Film Festival 2025: Our Expert Reviews of the Best and Worst Films

Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. Every year, it brings together some of the best cinematic works. In 2025, the festival featured a diverse range of films. They varied from intense dramas to experimental narratives. Our experts have navigated through this cinematic landscape. We offer reviews of the most talked-about films. This article provides a comprehensive guide. It helps film enthusiasts discover both hidden gems and major disappointments.

From Lynne Ramsay’s gripping ‘Die My Love’ to Richard Linklater’s nostalgic ‘Nouvelle Vague,’ we delve into each film. We highlight their strengths, weaknesses, and overall impact. We also cover Harris Dickinson’s ‘Urchin,’ Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington,’ and Kristen Stewart’s ‘The Chronology of Water.’ Join us as we dissect these films. We uncover the hits and misses of Cannes 2025.

Die My Love ★★★★☆

Jennifer Lawrence delivers a powerful performance in ‘Die My Love.’ She showcases raw emotion and rage. The film explores the complexities of motherhood. It delves into postpartum depression. It’s adapted from Ariana Harwicz’s novella and directed by Lynne Ramsay. This film reasserts Ramsay’s stylistic precision.

Lynne Ramsay’s hallucinatory precision makes her a one-off stylist. There’s less plot than Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. The vibes – hormonal chaos rather than creeping dread – are differently bad.

“No one does bored rage quite like Jennifer Lawrence. Her role in Die My Love is a delirious showcase: prowling, feral, clawing at the walls.”</blockquote

Grace (Lawrence) and her partner Jackson (Robert Pattinson) move into a farmhouse in Montana. The film delves into their rough-and-tumble sex life. It explores the dissatisfaction after their baby arrives. Grace begins barking at their dog all day long. The couple’s domestic strife takes on a Looney Tunes quality.

Nouvelle Vague ★★★

Richard Linklater’s ‘Nouvelle Vague’ is a brisk movie set during the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless in 1960. It captures the vibe of mid-century Paris. The film is shot in speckled monochrome. The dialogue is almost entirely in French. It bottles a time, place and vibe.

This wasn’t quite the first film in the French New Wave. It brought that revolutionary movement crashing into the global movie-going consciousness. Savouring the blithe build-up to that era-defining event is a vintage Linklater move.

“Richard Linklater is often drawn not to formative moments, but the moments before them.”</blockquote

The period detailing is meticulous. Linklater’s camerawork uncannily replicates Godard’s own early style. With the exception of Zoey Deutch, the cast is made up of little-known French performers. This is a film for an audience who will chuckle at the thought of Roberto Rossellini snaffling sandwiches.

Urchin ★★★★☆

Harris Dickinson’s ‘Urchin’ is a tale of a homeless young Londoner getting back on his feet. It stars Frank Dillane, who commands the screen as Mike. The film swerves the po-faced hallmarks of social realism. It uses experimental flourishes. This open-ended effect showcases Dickinson’s seriousness about the medium.

Fidgeting and slouching with his scarecrow hair and puckish good looks, Dillane commands the screen with hapless ennui as Mike, a down-and-out in east London, who wakes up on the street nearly penniless.

“Dickinson proves he’s intensely serious about this medium while deftly swerving the po-faced hallmarks of social realism as if they were traffic cones.”</blockquote

The film questions whether Mike can shape up. All the tools of rehab are shoved in his lap. Put up at a hostel, he becomes a useless sous chef. He makes a semi-girlfriend on the job. The scenario is so familiar it could have been the same old story, but the texture of all this street life gives it rather a special shine.

Eddington ★★★☆☆

Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ is a small-town political comedy-thriller. It features conspiracy theories and Joaquin Phoenix. The film wants to diagnose the craziness of America in May 2020. It plonks us down in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico. Sheriff Joe Cross (Phoenix) has had enough.

Joe thinks Covid fears are nonsense. He strides around mask-less. His home life is stagnant. He’s married to Lou (Emma Stone), but she’s a depressive hermit. There’s a Three-Billboards-ness to Eddington’s whole set-up.

“Aster is out to prove that the loudest voices are often the least sincere.”</blockquote

Phoenix helps the film along by meeting Joe on the level. Aster is out to prove that the loudest voices are often the least sincere. The shot of Joe scrolling through his Instagram feed crisply spoofs the lemming mentality defining both ends of America’s culture wars. It’s clever, serrated, and not bad, but you wouldn’t call it Aster at full mad tilt.

The Chronology of Water ★★★★☆

Kristen Stewart’s ‘The Chronology of Water’ adapts a memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch. It’s a memory piece that behaves exactly as memory does. Some sequences are blissed-out baths of pleasure. Others are jaggedly painful bits of self-excavation.

As a teenager, Lidia escapes her sexually abusive father through swimming. She loses herself in drink, (bi)sexuality and drugs. Love and loss follow, as does a creative writing course led by Ken Kesey.

“Cinema managers might think about nailing that sentiment above the screen during showings of this equal-parts ravishing and bloodcurdling new film from Kristen Stewart.”</blockquote

Lidia’s literary talent allows her to come to terms with her past. Stewart’s greatest asset is Imogen Poots, whose performance is career-best work. Playing Lidia from her teens well into adulthood, she convinces at every age and juncture.

Additional Reviews

• Bono: Stories of Surrender ★☆☆☆☆: A dramatic recital of segments from Bono’s 2022 memoir.
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ★★★★★: An awe-inspiringly bananas piece of work and a dazzlingly ambitious studio project.
• Leave One Day ★☆☆☆☆: A “realistic musical” that is neither of those things, a haplessly cobbled fiasco.
• Sirat ★★★★★: A sun-torn survival thriller from Oliver Laxe, stretching the audience’s nerves to banjo-string tightness.
• Case 137 ★★★★☆: A rattlingly good yarn ripped from the headlines, tackling bitter attitudes to policing within France.
• Two Prosecutors ★★★★☆: A jet-black bureaucratic nightmare set at the peak of the Stalinist terrors in 1937 Bryansk.
• Enzo ★★★★☆: A coming-of-age tale set in the sunstruck French south, straying into quietly thrilling existential terrain.

The Cannes Film Festival 2025 presented a wide array of cinematic experiences. Highlights included Jennifer Lawrence’s powerful performance in ‘Die My Love’ and Richard Linklater’s nostalgic ‘Nouvelle Vague’. Harris Dickinson’s ‘Urchin’ offered a unique take on social realism. Kristen Stewart’s ‘The Chronology of Water’ provided a deeply personal narrative.

These films have demonstrated the power of cinema to explore complex themes. They range from personal struggles to societal issues. While some films like ‘Leave One Day’ missed the mark, the festival overall delivered a rich and diverse set of stories. These stories captivated audiences and critics alike. Cannes Film Festival 2025 continues to be a vital platform. It showcases the ever-evolving art of filmmaking. It sets the stage for future cinematic innovations.