Hamnet

**2025 Ranked ** Amidst the stream of tears running down my face all i could utter to the volunteers of the Chicago International Film Festival was “Wow.” Absolutely devastating and incredibly moving piece of art. Chloe Zhao is no stranger to making moving pictures that rip your heart out but offer you the aid of gently placing it back inside. Hamnet may just end up as her magnum opus. I have not had a moving, eye-opening experience like this in theaters since 2016’s Manchester By the Sea. Oddly enough, these two work flawlessly as a double feature about the mountain of grief we must carry along with ourselves, and in which ways we heal. Shot almost like your watching a stage play instead of a film, Chloe’s masterful directing allows for some of the most intentional blocking of the year. You do not feel like an audience member in a movie theater. You feel like an audience member watching these events unfold on the stage, and then, in the height of their grief, you feel like a member of the family, just as absorbed by grief as they are. A true review about what I feel about Jessie Buckley’s performance would be so long nobody would care to read it so I’ll leave it as this: this is one of the best performances of not just the year but the entire decade. Hell, even a couple of decades. Is it exaggeration? Possibly, but Buckley demands every bit of your attention every second she’s on screen and only a few performances have left me with such deep feelings like hers has. That’s not to take away from Paul Mescal though, who is equally as magnificent. His scene ss the ghost during the play re-enactment absolutely shattered me. Could possibly be scene of the year in my book. There’s very litte bad i could say about Hamnet. I guess the iconic monologue from Shakespeare’s masterpiece sort of feels like a “Marvel-ized” fan service moment instead of something a bit more moving, but in my opinion it’s not a big enough flaw for me to consider a lower ranking. Hamnet is as powerful as they come and you will surely not walk out of the theater with dry eyes.