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Movie: Anniversary (2025)
Production Companies: Fifth Season, Chockstone Pictures, Metropolitan Films International
Distributed by: Lionsgate
Producers: Nick Wechsler, p.g.a., Steve Schwartz, p.g.a., Paula Mae Schwartz, p.g.a., Kate Churchill, p.g.a.
Directed by: Jan Komasa
Written by: Lori Rosene-Gambino
Starring: Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Madeline Brewer, Zoey Deutch, Phoebe Dynevor, Mckenna Grace, Daryl McCormack, Dylan O’Brien
Review by: Kirk Dulin
Review Type: SPOILER FREE

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Movies are the artistic reflection of our daily circumstances surrounding relationships, culture, religion, and politics. Movies pierce through our perception of the world and help us see other perspectives.

And that is why the “Political Thriller” movie sub-genre will always be around…if they’re done right.

In Anniversary (2025), we first meet the Taylor family in their lavish, American Dream-esque (RIP) backyard. Paul and Ellen (Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane) are seated at the enormous head table toasting to their 25th wedding anniversary. Joining them is their children – three daughters, one son – along with their respective significant others and spouses. What begins as a gleeful gathering quickly spirals into a familial civil war. 

The split begins when Ellen, a decorated University Professor, greets her son, Josh (Dylan O’Brien) and his new girlfriend, Liz (Phoebe Dyvenor). If you watch the trailer for this film, the initial confrontation transpires EXACTLY as viewed in its marketing. The confrontation? Liz is a former student of Ellen’s, and she has radical beliefs that differ from the Taylor family. The premise is fine, but the execution is too rapid to keep up with, alienating the audience. 

STRIKE ONE:

Whenever I witness the exact same scene in the official viewing of the film precisely as it is presented in the trailer, I am disengaged.  It’s information I already know, and I am immediately transported to where I was and what I was doing when I watched the trailer. 

Relatively quickly, Ellen escalates the story’s exposition to her husband in a “creative-enough” scene to set us up for the rest of the movie; Kyle Chandler plays an impressively tipsy husband trying to console his concerned wife in this moment. 

STRIKE TWO:

Immediately following this scene, and throughout the film, we are struck with completely irrelevant transitional shots to show the passing of time – all in an attempt to keep the weak theme of “anniversary”, marking not only a family’s celebration but their gradual destruction. 

A stronger screenplay would have creatively established this theming in montages or season changes. A stronger production team would’ve drastically changed the camera lenses and color grading. A stronger director would have changed the style in which we dance around these characters through the different phases of their demise. Instead, we receive hair cuts and color changes, slightly different clothes, despite DRASTIC surface level character development. 

STRIKE THREE: (and perhaps the film’s greatest obstacle)

The political arguments on either side of the family’s differing stances are so vague, that you cannot even cheer for any single person as an audience member. Some characters also waffle between the unnamed political parties so much that you quickly disregard their power to the plot entirely. 

Juxtaposing this lack of specificity to Alex Garland’s polarizing “Civil War (2024)” film: In Garland’s fillm, we don’t know what the exact conflict is, but we see the consequences of those decisions play out in front of us. Anniversary slips all of its puzzling turmoil into philosophical debates between siblings and parents, and they neither grow nor demolish those relationships because of them. There’s no forward momentum to these conversations, which leads to a jarring, yet, disconnected finale. 

My Letterboxd Stats page reminds me that “Thrillers” is one of my top rated genres, and, sadly, Anniversary will never be part of that statistic. Upon further review the film’s production fell victim to the SAG-AFTRA strike, and it is terribly evident. Whenever there is a stacked cast such as this one, I am weary of it’s 50/50 shot at critical acclaim or blemish on ones filmography.

Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutsch, Phoebe Dynevor, and Mckenna Grace – whose careers are seemingly impenetrable the past few years – ALL shine brightly in specific characters, uniquely shaping this family, but are dimmed by the screenplay shortfalls.

TLDR; the requirements of a Political Thriller are easy: state your politics, make a bold choice, and invite the audience for the ride. This film never makes it out of the driveway.

Score: 2.8/10 kernels

Review by: Kirk Dulin