Scene These Reviews

2025 brought many highs; I became a member of the Portland Critics Association, we launched Scene This, our weekly movie podcast that has survived its first year, I attended my first film festival (TIFF), and lastly, the year 2025 gifted me the most new releases films from any given year that I've ever seen. Of the 370 films I watched this year, 130 of them were released in 2025. For the top 25 of 2025, there is a mix of big studio films, independent films and a variety of un

“Father, I often think about the wind, how it moves things and how God moves the wind to bring everything where it should be, where it belongs.” These opening words in Karla Badillo’s debut feature OCA  set the tone for everything that follows, a meditation on faith, doubt, and the mysterious ways belief shapes human lives. Photo Courtesy of Cinema Tropical The film follows Rafaela, a nun who claims to receive visions from God, visions that often come true, though those aroun

I’m usually the first to champion an abstract film that leans on allegory, but If I Had Legs I’d Kick You  is a big swing with too many...

The Smashing Machine  attempts to deliver a hard-hitting portrait of Mark Kerr, the legendary mixed martial artist whose career was...

The Great Eleanor  sets out to be sweet, charming, witty, and historically resonant, but its lack of dynamism leaves it striking only a...

Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk  breathes life into Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) , a spiritual love story that fuses history, culture,...

Spanish filmmaker Ulises Porra’s latest film is a tense and moving exploration of colonialism in the early 19th-century Caribbean. At its...

I’ll be the first to admit, I love a good nature documentary. When I sit down for one, I want to learn something new, be swept away by...

Little Lorraine  sets up a promising premise: a coal miner whose opportunities have dried up reluctantly turns to his shady uncle’s...