Film

The Baltimorons
Director: Jay Duplass
Duplass Brothers Productions
In Theaters: 9.12.2025

I’m the kind of guy who starts getting the Christmas decorations primed and ready in late October, but even I must admit that September is jumping the gun to start ringing in the holiday movie season. However, for that reason, it’s a good thing that The Baltimorons isn’t necessarily selling itself as a holiday film, and it’s more a festival film than a festive one. Nevertheless, this indie comedy romance has the makings of a minor new Christmas classic.

On Christmas Eve, Cliff Cashin (Michael Strassner, Young Rock), a once-suicidal recovering alcoholic and former improv comic, is headed to dinner with the family of his fiancée, Brittany (Olilvia Luccardi, Money Monster, Orange is the New Black), when he chips a tooth. In a desperate search for a dentist who is willing to work on Christmas Eve, Cliff finds Dr. Didi Daw (Liz Larsen, Madoff, Mr. Robot), a brassy, no-nonsense woman in her early 60s whose own holiday has been upended by her ex-husband’s remarriage. What should have been a quick fix unravels into a night of comic misadventures: a towed car, a run-in with Cliff’s old comedy circle and an uncomfortable detour to Didi’s family gathering. Along the way, Cliff’s quick wit and raw honesty clash with, and eventually soften, Didi’s guarded exterior. As the two navigate Baltimore’s chaos together, these two lonely misfits find themselves finding an unexpected and welcome gift they didn’t even know they needed: a kindred spirit.

The Baltimorons, which takes its title from an improv sketch that Cliff used to perform back in his heyday, is a quirky two-hander character comedy and May-December romance that plays a bit like a mashup between Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Before Sunset. It’s neither as broadly laugh-out-loud funny as the former or as traditionally romantic as the latter (Strassner and Larsen aren’t exactly Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy circa 1995), but it’s the simplicity and real-world, blue collar reliability of it all that makes it so infectiously charming. The screenplay by Strassner and director Jay Duplass (Jeff, Who Lives At Home) is well-structured, lively and sensitive and it puts the character into situations that make for a memorable whirlwind night without feeling contrived or ridiculous. 

The centerpiece of the evening comes when the emerging duo decide to stop at an improv performance that Cliff’s friend is involved in. When Cliff gets pulled on stage, it’s the first time he has tried to perform improv in front of an audience since the event that caused him to attempt suicide. Now, it’s a longstanding pet peeve of mine that when it comes to movies about standup comedians, the routines we witness are rarely actually funny, and it would be easy enough to make that complaint here, especially if you’ve never done improv before. While we don’t get nearly as strong a sense of whether or not Cliff is particularly funny on stage as we do off, that’s not the point of the scene. It’s about returning to the scene of a traumatic event, and saying, “Yes, and” to life with a scene partner who is willing to stick it out even if they bomb. 

The Baltimorons is an actor’s movie all the way, and it’s the unconventionally captivating presence of the leads that makes it special. Strassner brings a great deal of heart and vulnerability to Cliff, but it’s Larsen who had me repeatedly checking IMDb, certain that I must have heard of her before, because she most certainly had to be a recognized star at some point (she wasn’t). While it’s hard to say whether the vehicle she’s been given will lead to that stardom at this point in her life and career, it gives her one film where she gets to be a leading lady with whom I couldn’t help but fall in love. 

The Baltimorons is a pleasant and likeable little film that provides a refreshing alternative to a lot of the dark and heavy fare that tends to hit theaters in the fall. It’s definitely too early for Christmas, but it’s a nice and hopeful gift nonetheless. —Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews by Patrick Gibbs:
Film Review: Spinal Tap II: The End Continues 
Film Review: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Reactions to the new Elvis movie by Baz Luhrmann are beginning to roll in, praising the upcoming documentary about the iconic musician.

What are people saying about Baz Luhrmann’s new Elvis movie?

Luhrmann’s newest movie based on Presley isn’t like the the 2022 biopic he made that starred Austin Butler. Instead, his new documentary, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, features long-lost footage of Presley from his residency in Las Vegas from 1969 and through the 1970s, as well as previously unseen footage from other tours from Presley’s life.

The film recently had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and according to those who have seen it, it’s one of the more exciting concert films ever made. According to Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, the movie is “a revelation,” and captures “just how intoxicating Elvis Presley was when he began to perform live in Las Vegas in 1969 and the early ’70s.”

TheWrap’s Steve Pond echoed those sentiments, calling the documentary “not revelatory for people who’ve seen the existing films from the era, it’s the most imaginative, generous and entertaining look at a time in which Elvis’ comeback still had real life to it.”

The New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski also had high praise for the movie, calling it a “rousing musical act” that also dives into the persona of Elvis as well. “For those who do not have a room in the house devoted to Elvis memorabilia, or care a lick about the guy, EPiC is still an energizing experience. To my mind, there’s nothing better than observing the greatest artists of all time do what they do best — unvarnished.”

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert has no official wide release information as of yet.

Sydney Sweeney transforms into a boxing pioneer in David Michôd’s Christy, a real-life drama shamelessly engineered to attract Academy attention.

Sydney Sweeney plays Christy Martin (née Salters) across several decades, from her humble beginnings in West Virginia to the top of the female boxing world. Originally a basketball player, her victory in a strongwoman competition garners the attention of a local boxing trainer, who quickly realises he has something special on his hands. Cue a move to Florida, a change of coach, and the beginning of a historic career as one of the greatest ever professional female boxers. Along the way, she struggles through toxic relationships, drug addiction and a fight for fair pay as she almost single-handedly puts the women’s sport on the map. 

Sweeney’s performance will be the one on everybody’s lips, and not without good reason; her physical transformation is pretty remarkable and Christy’s brash attitude and propensity for foul language are quite the gear change from the star’s demure public persona. She’s especially endearing as the plucky teen discovering that boxing is ‘her thing’, with a precious look of disbelief on her face each time her arm is raised to signal another win, but inhabits the character convincingly through every phase of her life. All that said, there’s nothing Sweeney does here that tops Margot Robbie’s turn as the similarly cocksure sportswoman Tonya Harding in 2017’s I, Tonya.

Ben Foster is appropriately sleazy as Jim Martin, Christy’s coach and then husband (25 years her senior), whose tough love approach in the ring descends into outright physical and emotional abuse at home. When our protagonist seeks help from her Christian conservative mother (Merritt Wever), the latter is just happy she isn’t dating women anymore and sides with Jim. She only appears in a handful of scenes, but Wever is a chilling presence. Chad L. Coleman is on hand with some much-needed comic relief, playing the renowned boxing promoter Don King. His Eddie Murphy-esque performance seems to have spilled over from a different film entirely, one that I’d happily watch.

The fights and training montages are perfectly well shot; boxing is one of the most cinematic sports after all, and the oppressiveness of Christy’s home life is conveyed through smart lighting and a foreboding score from Antony Partos. Aesthetically speaking, there’s no moment when the film puts a notable step wrong, but its obsessive safeness is what renders it so lifeless at times. When the marriage takes an even darker turn in the final act, the violence is partially obscured in the name of good taste and the effect muted. It’s shocking stuff of course, but I’d have felt just as much revulsion if I’d read an account of events on Wikipedia instead.

It’s a good thing Christy boasts such a strong cast, who just about overcome a flaccid script and tame visual direction. This textbook inspirational story feels blatantly engineered to attract Academy attention, and yet may still fall short in the age of Everything Everywhere All At Once and Anora. While the story of Christy Martin is well worth telling, a game changer like her deserves something more radical than this.

David Michôd’s Christy (2025) was screened at TIFF on September 5, 2025 and will be released in US theatres on November 7, 2025. In the U.K., the film will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 17.