‘Hedda’ Review: DaCosta and Thompson Offer Up Their Own Spin on Ibsen

October 20, 2025

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A still of 3 women in a movie called Hedda (CREDIT: Parisa Taghizadeh/Amazon Content Services LLC)

Starring: Tessa Thompson, Imogen Poots, Nina Hoss, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock, Finbar Lynch, Mirren Mack, Jamael Westman, Saffron Hocking, Kathryn Hunter

Director: Nia DaCosta

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Rating: R for The Typical Party Vices, Including a Little Bit of Skin

Release Date: October 22, 2025 (Select Theaters)/October 29, 2025 (Amazon Prime Video)

What’s It About?: By all outward appearances, Hedda Gabler (Tessa Thompson) seems to have a pretty charmed life. She’s got a decent husband (Tom Bateman), she lives in a massive house,  and she gets to host some wild shindigs. But there’s a powder keg just waiting to be lit. And it all goes kaboom over the course of one of those bacchanals. That’s because on that night, a couple of ladies with their own agendas (Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots) return to force Hedda to reap what she’s been sowing. And so, forbidden romance, professional jealousies, and general pettiness all converge for a deadly disaster that none of the guests will soon forget.

What Made an Impression?: The Scandinavia of It All: 2025’s Hedda is just the latest in a long line of adaptations of the 1891 Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler. Before watching this version, I only knew it by name and was totally unfamiliar with the plot. But I have encountered Ibsen’s most famous work (A Doll’s House), so I had some idea of what he’s all about. Writer-director Nia DaCosta has fully queered up the story, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if that element were already present in the original. Which is to say, it’s a natural fit.
We’re All Trapped: If I had to select one word to sum up Hedda, it would be … “claustrophobic.” There’s no escaping this party! Or maybe there is, though it would probably require these characters to totally redefine their perspectives of their current life situations. As the viewer, I felt similarly boxed in. If you find yourself in the same boat as me, you could always walk out of the theater or press stop on your remote. That is, unless you relish anxiety-inducing moviegoing experiences.
She’s So Petty: Tessa Thompson is a pretty dang great actor, and Hedda only reinforces that truth. But her version of the titular scamp (and perhaps most versions) is not a very pleasant person to be around. In fact, I would even go so far as to call her a sociopath. Maybe if I had prepared myself a bit more before going to know what I would be getting into, I might have been entertained by all of her manipulative behavior. But only to a point. Ultimately, this is one of those movies that I found kind of middling, even though I got the sense that the people making it probably did exactly what they wanted to do.

Hedda is Recommended If You Like: Hot messes throughout the decade

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Secrets

The Comforting Confusion of ‘The Father’

April 15, 2021

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The Father (CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics/YouTube Screenshot)

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss

Director: Florian Zeller

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: February 26, 2021

Whenever I think about The Father, I can’t help but pronounce it the way that Mike Myers does when he encounters Marv Albert in the “Dieter’s Dream” SNL sketch (“Fah-thuh!”, although for some reason I add a “z” i.e., “Fah-zhuh”). Weirdly enough, that’s an apt comparison, as Florian Zeller’s film is pretty much equally surreal as the avant-garde German talk show host’s trip into the subconscious. Apparently, the way to make a movie about dementia exciting instead of a total bummer is to arrange it according to the whims of the dementia-addled mind. It’s rough to see Anthony (Hopkins) losing his sense of reality, but it’s fascinating to be bent back and forth by the facial mismatches and temporal-spatial distortions he’s experiencing. In the absence of a cure, maybe embracing the absurdity is the best way to handle something as disorienting as dementia. At the very least, it worked for this movie.

Grade: 4.0 out of Dec. 31 Missing Watches

‘Black Christmas,’ You Need to Get Down with Your Supernatural Self

December 17, 2019

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CREDIT: Kirsty Griffin/Universal Pictures

Okay, Black Christmas 2019 Remake Version, I understand that you want to be a feminist takedown of rape culture in addition to being a bona fide slasher flick. I heard you the first 100 times, you didn’t need to tell me 100 more! I’ll allow you some leeway with your college setting, as that is a place where more people than usual will combine academic and activist language in their conversations on a regular basis. But at a certain point, you need to trust that your audience is familiar with the ideas you’re working with and get on with your own unique contribution. And honestly, when you do get around to explaining why the frat boy misogyny is a little more aggressive than usual, it’s actually interesting (it just takes too dang long to get there). There is a supernatural undercurrent that offers a terrifying vision of the insidiousness that fuels the attacks on the sorority and pairs well with Professor Cary Elwes’ devious grin.

Horror movies of the world, please take this note: don’t hide your big idea as a third-act twist when it should be the main premise.

I give Black Christmas 10 Arrows Shot Back with a Note Asking to Speed Things Up.