Hamnet (2025)
Shakespeare still crushing it in 2025.
Presentation:
When a film forces Terrence Malick out of hibernation to praise it, you know it’s something special. It’s spiritual even for Malick, but will it be for you? Chloe Zhao creates her best film yet on grief through a Shakespearean lens. It’s an overlooked angle, but Zhao makes the perspective work and intimately human. The presentation is beautiful implementing a tasteful color palette and wardrobe. The cinematography is impressively nuanced and the performances are phenomenal where even the children are even better than Paul Mescal. Mark my words, they are destined for great things. This is proper British acting, the profound theatre kind with dramatic gravitas. The poetic narrative ultimately delivers a deeply emotional story that I found to have more depth than Sentimental Value. This is in my opinion the best film of the year.
Conclusion:
I don’t particularly like Shakespeare, but this is the first time I found it fascinating in cinema. So much so, that I grew a newfound appreciation for writing. This is a film perfectly balanced in pacing, writing, performance, visuals and execution. The only possible critiques would be that the emotional payoff can feel like a manufactured moment, everything else reverse engineered. Also, maybe sensitive movies around this topic won’t be the cup of Starbucks for younger audiences. But it moved me to tears and its universal themes were more inspiring than any film I’ve seen in months. If you want a spiritual cleansing, let this film’s beauty overwhelm you and take you to another place.
Recommendations
Shakespeare still crushing it in 2025.