The 2025 awards season is shaping up to be quite the spectacle, darlings — and not just because of the usual parade of designer gowns and carefully crafted acceptance speeches. Two distinctly different directors are bringing something rather special to our screens, and it’s about time we talked about it.
Remember Bradley Cooper’s stunning transformation into Leonard Bernstein? Well, he’s not done surprising us just yet. The actor-turned-director is stepping behind the camera again — and this time he’s bringing Will Arnett along for what might be the most intriguing mid-life crisis ever captured on film. “Is This Thing On?” nabbed that coveted closing night slot at the New York Film Festival, and honestly? The buzz is absolutely deafening.
Cooper’s taken his perfectionism to new heights, darlings. Not content with merely directing, he’s actually joined the cinematographers’ union to operate the camera himself. “We went down to Chinatown and it’s been amazing,” he shared on “The Pat McAfee Show,” sounding every bit like a kid who just got his hands on the coolest new toy. The film pairs Arnett with Laura Dern — and really, has there ever been a more perfectly matched on-screen duo?
Meanwhile, Chloé Zhao’s doing something rather unexpected after her cosmic adventure with “Eternals.” She’s trading space suits for doublets and ruffs with “Hamnet” — and before you roll your eyes at another Shakespeare adaptation, trust me, this one’s different. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are bringing William and Agnes Shakespeare to life in what’s already being whispered about as the tear-jerker of the season.
The first trailer alone is enough to give you goosebumps. “Tell me a story,” Buckley’s Agnes asks, with Mescal’s Shakespeare responding, “What story would you like?” Her answer? “Something that moves me.” Simple words, perhaps, but delivered with such raw emotion that you might want to stock up on tissues now.
Speaking of heavy hitters — Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes aren’t just putting their names on this project; they’re throwing their full producing weight behind it. Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel (you know, the one that’s sold a casual 2 million copies), “Hamnet” promises to peel back the curtain on the personal tragedy that might have inspired Shakespeare’s most famous work.
Both films are positioning themselves for the 2025 awards race — “Is This Thing On?” hits select theaters December 19, while “Hamnet” begins its theatrical run on November 27 before going wide December 12. With cinematographers like Matthew Libatique and Łukasz Żal involved, we’re in for quite the visual feast.
But here’s the thing about these films — they’re not just award-season fodder. They’re reminders of why we still brave the crowds and overpriced popcorn to sit in dark theaters. Sometimes, between all the superhero landings and CGI explosions, we need stories that simply show us ourselves — messy, complicated, and utterly human.
And really, isn’t that what we’re all craving right now? Stories that remind us we’re not alone in our struggles, our losses, our awkward attempts at reinvention? If early whispers are anything to go by, these films might just be exactly what we need to close out 2024 and welcome 2025 with open arms — and maybe a few tears.
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