Anniversary

Jan Komasa's Anniversary opens at a 25th wedding anniversary party for Ellen and Paul, played by Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler. Their son Josh brings his new girlfriend Liz (Phoebe Dynevor) to the party, and no one expects it to be the start of the family's unraveling.

Liz is Ellen's former student. Years earlier she left the university after Ellen called her out in class for her radical ideology. Her return puts a personal grudge at the centre of a story about politics and power.

The ensemble also includes Zoey Deutch, Daryl McCormack, Dylan O'Brien, Madeline Brewer and McKenna Grace. One review described it as arguably the most politically relevant film of 2025, and it follows how authoritarianism affects one household.

The film argues that political extremism is not abstract. It enters through private doors: a relationship, a family dinner, an old resentment. It asks how liberal, comfortable families respond when ideology moves into their home. Do they engage, deny it, or accommodate it until it is too late? Ellen's classroom confrontation suggests that how we oppose radicalism, and how we treat the people who hold it, can feed what follows.

The film arrived in late 2025 and was read as a response to the current American political climate. Pajiba called it essentially "Project 2025: The Movie", and compared its future to The Handmaid's Tale. It is directed by Jan Komasa, and the production companies include Lionsgate, Fifth Season and Nick Wechsler Productions.

I found only limited reception data. One prominent review praised the ensemble, calling it possibly the year's strongest, and the film's political relevance. The same review judged it "pretty good" rather than great. Its main criticism was that the dystopia becomes so large that it loses impact and gets lost in the family melodrama.