Welcome to CFTCA’s monthly digest for July 2025, a roundup of recent reviews, features, interviews, and more by CTFCA critics.
Film Reviews
Superman | Reviewed by Konnor Beaulier | Read the Full Review
“…Gunn constructs a tremendous summer blockbuster and revitalizes the Superman character, adding in a wild ensemble of supporting characters that can be a gift and a curse for a slightly chaotic script.”
Find more of Konnor’s work on Film & Froth.
Together | Reviewed by Elizabeth Mulloy | Read the Full Review
“A body horror satire that will make some people gag, others outright vomit, and a few seriously reconsider their relationships, it is a wildly unhinged piece of cinema.”
Find more of Elizabeth’s work on The Celluloid Correspondent.
Videoheaven | Reviewed by Rick Chung | Read the Full Review
“Videoheaven thoughtfully explores home video culture’s relatively short-lived but large-scale lifespan through our relationship to the act of renting movies, told as a decades-spanning time capsule.”
Find more of Rick’s work on his website.
The Naked Gun | Reviewed by Mathew Simpson | Read the Full Review
“Luckily for us, after three decades of pale imitations, producer Seth McFarlane and director Akiva Schaffer have delivered the goods with The Naked Gun, a ridiculous spoof comedy that is as smart as it is dumb, and stars a dramatic actor to deliver ridiculous lines completely deadpan.”
Find more of Matthew’s work on Awesome Friday.
Jurassic World Rebirth | Reviewed by Dom Sinacola | Read the Full Review
“Completely gone is the awe of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Jurassic Park—gone is the cosmic terror and jubilation of seeing a dinosaur.”
Find more of Dom’s work in the Portland Mercury.
Every Heavy Thing | Reviewed by Dakota Arsenault | Read the Full Review
“This may be my first Mickey Reece film, but seeing what he can do with a modest budget, a lot of hard work and a great story to tell is more than enough to keep me coming back for more.”
Find more of Dakota’s work on Contra Zoom Pod.
Retrospectives
Inception’s 15th Anniversary: A Case For Nolan’s Best Film | By Ethan Simmie | Read the Full Piece
“It is the single strongest building block that Nolan constructed, has pulled from, and has experimented with that allowed him the confidence, creativity, and narrative know-how to make movies such as Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020), and yes, even Oppenheimer (2023).”
Find more of Ethan’s work on The Rolling Tape.
The Hills are Alive: On Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us | By Eric Zhu | Read the Full Piece
“I’m not sure why I skipped The Wind Will Carry Us when I first went through Kiarostami’s films, but this is clearly a major work, a synthesis of the director’s career up through the end of the millennium and also one of his most elegantly constructed masterpieces.”
Find more of Eric’s work on The Insert.
Andrzej Żuławski’s On the Silver Globe | By Marta Djordjevic | Read the Full Piece
“On the Silver Globe should have been Andrzej Żuławski’s magnum opus. It’s painful that he never got to complete it properly. Once you learn more about Żuławski’s life, the film’s sorrow hits harder. His own life and pain cut deep and bled into the movie.”
Find more of Marta’s work on Rewind and Revive.
Podcasts
Contra Zoom Pod Ep. #307: Best Films By City | Listen to the Podcast
Every year to celebrate Dakota’s birthday, he picks a topic and names his favorite films by that category. This year he picked the 10 most popular filming locations in North America, including NYC, Las Vegas, Chicago and more, and named the best film by these cities.
Find more episodes on the Contra Zoom Pod website.